Mary’s Meatloaf and Beverly’s Mac and Cheese

This week on Funeral Potatoes & Wool Mittens podcast, my friend Christianne Beringer shares her family recipes for two quintessential comfort foods—her mom’s meatloaf and her grandma’s macaroni and cheese. 

Or, listen here or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Welcome to supper on a school night.

Whether you like meatloaf or not, if you have ties to the Midwest, emotions of nostalgia will drench over you like ketchup just thinking about it.

Join us for a conversation about Midwest comfort food, the story behind Christianne’s family’s meatloaf recipe, how to make her Grandma Beverly’s mac & cheese without a written recipe, who she got her love of cooking from, her version of funeral potatoes, how many books she read in 2022 and who her favorite author is at the moment. 

Bonus, Christianne shares something on the podcast about Velveeta cheese that I did not know.

Two of my favorite side dishes to eat with meatloaf are homemade mashed potatoes and a vegetable. But now I’m thinking…how good would Mary’s meatloaf be paired with Beverly’s mac and cheese?!?!

What is Meatloaf?

I grew up eating my mom’s meatloaf which was a plain mixture of ground beef, ketchup, hardly any onion, milk, eggs, saltine cracker crumbs, salt and pepper all topped with a simple layer of ketchup—a common way of making it. 

But Mary Bjerke’s (Christianne’s mom) recipe uses breadcrumbs instead of crackers, has more onion, and adds sage. Plus, instead of ordinary ketchup slathered on top, she makes a sweet and savory glaze made with ketchup, brown sugar, nutmeg and dry mustard which she adds for the last 30 minutes of baking and it becomes sticky and caramelized and glorious. 

Yes, I said glorious in reference to meatloaf. 

Some recipes use a mixture of ground beef and pork or veal. Either way, all of them combine meat, some type of binder using eggs and a liquid like broth, ketchup or milk, mixed with cracker crumbs, bread, stuffing mix or bread crumbs, seasonings, and oftentimes a veggie like onion or green pepper.

I’ve also seen people mix in onion soup mix such as Lipton.

Mary’s meatloaf recipe is from a community cookbook from Volga, South Dakota. Katherine Algood is the original recipe submitter.

Although we may have a love-hate relationship with it, there’s no denying that the one-pan dish which hit American kitchens heavily in the 1950s is here to stay.  

For a fun history lesson and a recipe for Beef-and-Bacon Meatloaf, read this article from Bon Appétit.

Can We Call It Something Else?

Before recording the episode with Christianne, my daughter and I had a talk about meatloaf.

She wanted to know what’s in it and said the name makes it seem sketchy. Like, why are we making a loaf of meat? What is hidden in there that you don’t want us to see so you smother it with ketchup? 

Well, it’s not much different than meatballs.

So after making Mary’s meatloaf recipe and frying slices in a frying pan to make them crispy, I decided to rename it Fried Hamburger Slices with Caramelized Brown Sugar Sauce. Now that shouldn’t scare the kids.

Making Meatloaf is Easy

There’s not much to know about making meatloaf except whatever recipe you are using, you’ll get the best texture if you combine the meat mixture with your hands. 

Mary’s sauce is a mixture of ketchup, brown sugar, nutmeg and dry mustard.

When it bakes, the sweet sauce becomes bubbly and caramelized.

Also, because you’ll likely have a partial box of Velveeta cheese if you make Beverly’s homemade macaroni and cheese, my family’s taco dip recipe will help you use it up.

What’s your family’s version of classic meatloaf? Or, better yet, do you still make it?

Be sure to tune-in to Christianne’s episode on Funeral Potatoes & Wool Mittens. She also reveals two of her favorite restaurants in the Brookings and Bruce South Dakota area.

Sweet wishes,