Meatloaf Experiment Gone... Right?

In a post I just got done writing over on Creative Destruction, I mentioned meatloaf. To be perfectly accurate, it was a meatloaf experiment, and one I was making up as I went along because we didn't have any more onion soup packets in the apartment.

But by God, it worked well.

Here's the recipe, while I still have it stuck in my head.

• 2 lbs. ground beef
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 cup bread (four slices, without crust)
  
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup ketchup
  
• 2 tsp. celery salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp. marjoram
• 1/2 tsp. thyme
• 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
  

1. Peel and chop onion almost to the mincing stage. (For you non-technical chefs out there, that means small-but-not-too-small pieces.)
2. Manually tear bread into pieces the size of your fingerprint.
   
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Setting aside ketchup and brown sugar, mix remaining ingredients well (about 5 minutes of constant kneading action) and form into a loaf in a greased baking pan.
5. Pour ketchup on top of loaf (I mean in lines across the loaf, not one big gloop of tomato-based condiment.) and sprinkle with brown sugar.
6. Put in oven and bake for 50 minutes.
7. Enjoy. But leave some for everyone else.
   

The result? Moist, juicy, and tasty meatloaf, just like my grandma used to make. Only better. And seeing as how my grandma was a gourmet chef... Well, at least I can say I've done well in something. Even though meatloaf is hard to screw up (But believe me, it is very possible to screw meatloaf up.), it is even more difficult to have a "Wow!" moment with one.

And by my count, this one has three "Wow!" moments. Try it, kids. Trust me.