Tuesday - December 5, 2023

Back in the summer, Son #2 gave us his old electric smoker grill.  Until this past Sunday, we'd only used it once to cook a brisket, or maybe it was a pork butt, can't remember.  Anyway, a friend who owns a local BBQ joint kept posting pictures of a smoked meatloaf they sell at the restaurant, and I finally succumbed to the urge to try it, myself.  I mixed up 3 pounds of 80/20 ground beef, a couple of eggs, some spices, and 6 slices of store-bought keto bread, put it in a disposable pan, and smoked it at 275 degrees (might have been a little hot for the amount of time we left it on the grill).  At the same time, we put a whole chicken in the smoker.  It was a small one, and I cut it open with scissors, dusted it with spices, and splayed it in a pan.  

We left them on the smoker for 2.5 hours, then checked the chicken with a thermometer.  When it hit 165 degrees in the chicken breast, we took everything off the grill.  I'd meant to put some topping on the meatloaf (ketchup + jalapeno pepper jelly), so I did that in the oven while I shredded the chicken for chicken salad.

It was all really good.  The meatloaf was a little dry in comparison with my normal meatloaf.  It was over-cooked, PLUS I did not treat the bread the same way I usually treat it.  I usually hold the bread slices under running water to saturate them, then I squeeze out most of the water and squish the bread into the meat.  (Sometimes, there's a recognizable piece of crust in my meatloaf, but I do not care.)  This time, I ran the dry bread slices through the food processor and turned them into crumbs, which I squished into the meat.  No added water. 

When we took the pans off the grill, I noticed that the meatloaf pan did not contain the amount of juice/grease I was expecting.  My wet bread meatloaves usually leak out a ton of juice/grease.  I always pour it off before adding the topping and baking it a little more.  What came out of the smoked meatloaf looked like 100% fat, no water.  

And the meatloaf was dry.  Was it because we cooked it too long or too hot, or because there was less water in the meat?  

Going to painting class today for the first time in I-don't-know-when.