What is the Best Binder for Meatloaf? (2024)

FAQs

What is the Best Binder for Meatloaf? ›

There are a few rules about traditional meatloaf recipes: You need binders to hold the loaf together. Eggs are an obvious choice (I like 1 egg per pound of meat). Bread crumbs, rolled oats, or a panade help too. When it's time to bake it, you can bake it in the pan or out of the pan.

To keep your meatloaf from falling apart while slicing, you need the proper binder ingredients. For 1 pound of ground beef add 1/2 cup of whole milk, 1 large egg and 1 cup of breadcrumbs.

The answer lies in the binding ingredient. Binding ingredients are the items that, quite literally, pull your dish together. In meatloaf, this is most commonly the eggs and breadcrumbs.

Mix 2 tablespoons of arrowroot powder with 3 tablespoons of water to replace each egg and achieve a well-bound and tender texture in your meatloaf.

Yellow or dijon mustard – You will often see this listed as the binding agent, especially for smoked brisket, pulled pork, and pork ribs This is my preferred binding agent and I even use it on ribeyes and beef ribs. It's a perfect combination with any of our spice and rub ranges.

Onions, garlic and celery do pose one problem though: they don't cook down easily. Little bits of crunchy onion or celery or potent, hot garlic will spoil the comforting aspect of eating meatloaf.

Milk and other dairy products, like heavy cream and buttermilk, contain both water and fat, adding two types of moisture to our meatloaf. There's a long-held theory that milk can tenderize ground meat, and this is the reason often cited for cooking ground meat in milk to make a Bolognese-style ragù.

Fat Is Your Friend

This is the reason most cooks choose ground chuck since it has this ideal proportion of fat to meat. During cooking, the fat will liquefy, making the meatloaf moist.

The Basic Meatloaf Formula

All recipes for meatloaf start with the same basic formula: 2 pounds of ground meat and a “panade” made of bread or crackers soaked in milk. Along with a few eggs, this panade helps to hold the ground meat together and adds some essential moisture to the mix.

Is it better to bake meatloaf on a sheet pan or loaf pan? ›

If you want to make the best meatloaf possible, a sheet pan is a much better medium.

Sure, egg yolks add some rich flavor to a meatloaf, but the real reason we need eggs is for structure—to help bind the meatloaf together. This is especially important since we're making a free-form meatloaf, or one that you shape by hand, versus using a loaf pan.

Adding more to your mixture is always easier than taking some out. Another common reason meatloaf is mushy is too much filler, like breadcrumbs, bread, and oatmeal. Too much filler will stop it from baking correctly and becoming a fully formed meatloaf.

Use breadcrumbs.

They call simply hold more juices in that the meat can, including the egg binder. This makes the meatloaf beautifully tender while sturdy enough to form and slice.

Rolled Oats

Oats are the perfect substitutes for breadcrumbs in meatballs or meatloaf. While they aren't ideal for a crispy coating, they add the right amount of texture to bind meat, eggs and flavorings together into a delicious Italian-inspired feast.

Parchment paper is a great option to line your pan the next time you cook meatloaf. It prevents the meat from sticking to the pan resulting in a meatloaf that is evenly cooked all the way through and looks ready to eat.