NEVER Bake Your Meatloaf the Old Way Again — Try This Japanese Trick (Juicy Every Time)

NEVER Bake Your Meatloaf the Old Way Again — Try This Japanese Trick (Juicy Every Time) You pack 2 pounds of ground beef into a loaf pan, spread the ketchup on top and bake it for an hour. Then you tip it out. The sides are gray, the bottom sat in a pool of fat the whole time, the glaze slid off in one sheet and the loaf broke in half on the way to the board. If that's your meatloaf, it isn't you - the way most of us were taught uses the wrong pan and skips the one step that holds the juice in. My mother made hambagu, the Japanese hamburger steak, every Sunday night in Sacramento. When she cut one open, the juice ran clear onto the plate. I'm George Nakamura. I'm not a chef. I've made this loaf my parents' way for decades, and it's never once come out dry. In this one, 8 fixes: number 1, the meat - beef and pork, 80/20, kept cold (in Japan it's sold already mixed as aibiki), number 2, panko soaked in milk so the loaf stays tender instead of crumbly, number 3, the onion cooked in butter and cooled all the way before it goes in, number 4, salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, one egg, and the test patty my father always fried before anything went in the oven, number 5, no loaf pan - a free-form loaf on a bed of onion rounds on a foil-lined sheet pan, so the fat runs off and you get a crust on every side, number 6, 160 degrees in the center and a 10-minute rest, number 7, a quick pan sauce from the drippings instead of a sugary glaze, plus how to keep and reheat the leftovers, and number 8, the thing my mother did with her hands before anything else - the reason her loaf never cracked and never dried out. Almost nobody in America does it. Honest warnings in the video: ground beef and pork need to reach 160 degrees inside, so use a thermometer in the thick center, not near an end. The foil will have hot fat on it - lift the pan level and keep it away from your arm. Cool leftovers within 2 hours; they keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge or about 3 months frozen. Did your family bake meatloaf in a pan, or free-form on a sheet? And what went in it that nobody else's did? Tell me in the comments, and tell me where you grew up. I read every one. #Meatloaf #JuicyMeatloaf #MeatloafRecipe #JapaneseTrick #Hambagu #JapaneseCooking #ComfortFood #SundayDinner #HomeCooking #KitchenTips #EasyDinner #GeorgeNakamura