Smokin Meatloaf!

[billybek]

Holy smokes (pardon the pun)....

I did a double batch of meatloaf on the Big Green Egg today based off a recipe that came to me from Thermoworks via email last week.

I looked at what was required grabbed a few things to make it happen. Some small grille baskets that I modified to work under the dome. The ground beef and pork and some mild Italian sausage meat blended together and cooked/smoked indirect on the BGE.
OMFG! It was soooo good. Will do a repeat on this one!

I had carved off a meal sized serving and had taken it over to my mom and dad's for their dinner. When I arrived, my dad was already sitting at the dinner table waiting for something to happen. Nice to see my parents eat! They were packing that away!

If you are interested I can post the approximate recipe. I always kind of wing it and regret not writing everything down when I hit a home run!

Sorry no pics...

[theFONZ]

Yes post the recipe. I have been neglecting my big green egg, and I have a ton of moose in the freezers.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Post away!

[fanaudical]

Neat idea - I've never tried meatloaf on the grill. Recipe, please.

[billybek]

2 lbs of lean ground beef
1 lb of lean ground pork
1 lb of Johnsonville mild Italian sausage meat
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/2 white onion finely chopped
Almost a whole bag of Ruffles plain low salt chips broken down into really small pieces.(kind of fun)
Way less salt than what was recommended. I used 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt instead of two tablespoons. edit re-read the original recipe and it called for 2 teaspoons.
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Teaspoon garlic powder
Tablespoon or less of Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon of Worcester sauce

Formed this into two loaves and put into the grille baskets.

Big Green Egg at 225 deg F and use Hickory chips for smoke.

I stacked the baskets on top of each other so it was kind of self basting.

After about two? hours at low temp checked internal temperature (about 140) and started to baste with the glaze.

Glaze recipe
1 can of low sodium Tomato soup
Teaspoon of garlic powder
Apple juice 400 ml.
What ever BBQ sauce is on hand (Sweet Baby Ray's in this case)
Two shots of Canadian whiskey....
(this made way too much and should have only used half of the soup and balance the rest of the portions)
Once the internal temp on the loaves was up to 140-145 degrees I started basting.
I ramped the temperature up to 300 and eventually took the loaves out of the basket and removed the platesetter an cooked direct continuing to baste and flip top and bottom to the flame every 10 or so minutes. (cooking direct at this point)
While it was a bit of labour to put this together, the material costs were insignificant and the results were outstanding!
Think I got everything but will add if I forgot....

[billybek]

One thing I forgot...
I stacked the baskets on top of each other so the whole setup was self basting during the main part of the cook.
Swapped top to bottom after each hour of cook time.

[billybek]

Had a drip pan under the baskets on the platesetter or diffuser.
Cooked until my Thermapen was reading 160 deg F +/-.
Wrapped loosely in foil and allowed to rest for about 10 minutes.
Carved it like roast.
The smoke ring was a nice pink/red around the entire loaf. Cooking it in the baskets instead of a pan allowed smoke to circulate around the whole loaf.
Looking forward to trying it cold for lunch!

I think this is one of the recipes that you have to watch the salt content in all the ingredients. You could end up with something that might be a little too salty.

[jhynesrockmtn]

Reminds me of my Dad. He would cook almost anything on his Weber BBQ. Meatloaf was one of his favs!

[billybek]

Second try on this recipe today.
Pretty much the same as last time it turned out so well.
Minor changes:
Extra lean ground beef from the butchery department at work and I had used Lay's instead of Ruffles low sodium chips. The latter wasn't available when I was shopping.
Only been on for about 15 minutes now and I am using my new Christmas toy, the Thermoworks Smoke thermometer system and can see my grill temperature and the meat temperature from inside the house.

[stealthn]

Cool, got another recipe for when I fire mine up

[billybek]

Here is one of the loaves.
Started earlier this time and left it low and slow (about 225 F at the grill) for a longer period of time and until the internal temperature was 150 F.
Removed from baskets (they measure 9 x 5 x 3 L/W/D and the recipe produces exactly the right amount to fill both baskets).
Removed the platesetter and cooked direct at about 350 F at the dome turning every 10 to 15 minutes.
Also changed the glaze a bit and used a gluten free BBQ sauce (Uncle Dougies), apple juice and rye whiskey.
This recipe, depending on the sausage meat, could be considered gluten free.
Was super yummy again and pretty easy to make and a low cost meal that will feed us a few nights once packaged and vacuum wrapped and frozen.

[Danimal16]

I miss my Mom's meatloaf. Served up with a helping of Dad and all my Brothers and Sisters.
(She also made a wonderful Scalloped Potatoes).

[stealthn]

Bill, how cold can it be out for you to maintain temperature in your smoker?

[billybek]

The BGE does pretty well on long cooks down to -10 C.
I will do steaks on it down to -15 C. Below those temps I just don't want to cook outside!
I just picked up a Broil King Keg off Kijiji because it was too cheap to pass up. It may be better in cold weather but so far it seems more difficult to maintain low and slow temperatures.
I probably just need to become more familiar with it.

[stealthn]

Ok just seasoning my smoker now, picked up a good remote 4 probe thermometer that I can use with my phone. Just putting together my BBQ sauce for tomorrow. Will smoke a brisket with mesquite and a KC style BBQ sauce. So excited

[stealthn]

Finally smoked my first thing, brisket. It’s an art I tell you, 8 hours with a late stall

Turned out delicious but a little dry on the flat, but re-heated the next day was awesome. Doing ribs this weekend -beef

This could become addicting

[legion]

[billybek]

Cool. Did some brisket points a while back and made “burnt ends” with them.
We had a little get together at the house that day and the burnt ends rapidly disappeared.
It is a bit of an addiction Since getting back from down east I have made 10 racks of backs 3 kilos of beef short ribs and bought a pile of beef Cut for rouladen that was on sale and made jerky from it. Used a kit and it worked out really well.
Keep searching kijiji/Craig’s for a big ass stick burner like Tabs but no luck so far.,,,