The Lost Art of Meatloaf

Why is it getting impossible to find this classic comfort food?

- RICK BRAGG

I HAVE HELD my tongue as long as I could, but I just can’t stand it anymore.

How is it that, in this region of the country that’s so utterly crammed with great chefs that there’s barely enough space for them to move around in their fashionable clogs, there’s not one decent plate of meatloaf to be had?

Maybe, at one point, they remembered how. Perhaps, somewhere deep in their minds, buried under all that apathy, there’s a recipe that doesn’t bitterly disappoint. But it might be a lost art. The great meatloaf maestros have died out—like all of those guys who used to be able to find water by walking around with a forked stick.

I think modern-day cooks believe the term “meatloaf” means it’s supposed to be a literal loaf of meat—just beef doused in a thin layer of ketchup. They bake it so hard it’ll bend a fork, and then it tastes about like particleboard.