Beef, Pork, and Bacon Meatloaf

Inspiration: I’ve been trying to perfect a really great lower carb/no sugar meatloaf for over a year now. One of the things that I love about cooking is that there is so much room for experimentation, so if you don’t quite like something the first time around (or the second or third times), there’s always another meal somewhere down the road in which you can work on perfecting your recipe (leftovers and DVD replication party?). After trying out many different recipes and doing quite a bit of fine-tuning, we’ve finally come up with a meatloaf that we really love and can call a standard recipe.

What We Loved: There are so many great components to this recipe. The outside of the meatloaf is crusted in a smoky sweet tomato glaze that is just fantastic; there’s a lot of complexity of flavor and richness within the meatloaf due to the use of three different meats; the recipe is packed with colorful and nutritious vegetables, which is always an awesome thing; and the inside of the meatloaf is nice and moist, which in my opinion is one of the basic necessities to a great meatloaf. I truly love every single thing about this dish.

Tips: Extra tomato sauce for dipping would definitely not be a bad thing. It’s amazingly delicious. Next time, I might mix up a double batch. Also, I highly recommend serving this with buttered and salted sweet potatoes. I absolutely adore the combo and might list this dinner exactly as it is as one of my very favorite winter meals.

Beef, Pork, and Bacon Meatloaf
Source: Adapted from Raspberry & Coconut

Butter
1 medium onion, very finely diced
1/2 red bell pepper, very finely diced
2 carrots, peeled and grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt and black pepper
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
4 slices bacon, very finely diced
1 extra large egg, beaten
1/8 cup coconut flour
3 oz tomato paste
1 tablespoon water
Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon sriracha

1. Melt a pat of butter in a saute pan. Add the onions, bell pepper, and carrot. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until softened. Add the garlic, and cook for 30 seconds more.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add the onion mixture, beef, pork, bacon, egg, and coconut flour.

3. In a separate small bowl, mix together the tomato paste, water, salt, pepper, cumin, nutmeg, paprika, Worcestershire, and sriracha.

4. Add half of the tomato mixture to the beef mixture.

5. Using your hands, mix the beef mixture until well-combined. Place the mixture into a bread loaf pan, forming it with your hands into a loaf. Spread the rest of the tomato mixture on top of the meatloaf.

6. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. Increase the temperature to 400 degrees F, and bake for 35 minutes more.

7. Remove the meatloaf from the pan, placing it on a cutting board. Let sit for 10-15 minutes before slicing.

17 thoughts on “Beef, Pork, and Bacon Meatloaf”

That sounds wonderful. I keep reading recipes that are low carb with coconut flour. I think I need to pick some up. I also add finely ground (in spice grinder) Lapsang Souchong Tea (smoked) and it adds a nice smokey flavor to meatloaf.

Carrie

February 21, 2012 at 12:40 PM

Thanks, Connie! I love using either coconut flour or almond meal as a low carb flour substitute. I’ve found that they both work really well. Your addition of the finely ground tea is really intriguing – I never would have thought to do something like that!

I cannot possibly express my deep and joyful glee in seeing this recipe. I am also having to clean up the keyboard to as I am drooling. (I’m also near the time I get to break my 24 hour fast!!) I love meatloaf and haven’t even tried to make it for a while. Yippeee! I will be making this, maybe tonight>>>>> Thanks again for your wonderful ideas.

Carrie

February 21, 2012 at 2:48 PM

I’m so glad to hear it! Just writing up this post made me want to make this again, too. It’s one of my very favorite comfort meals!

Hi Carrie! I love recreating meatloaf and switching up the plain old with spanish, irish or even chinese flair (to name a few). I did some research a couple Months ago trying to find a way to NOT use breadcrumbs, and I used a technique I read about, which was to use unflavored gelatine powder. It worked and the meatloaf (1LB of meat) was still tender! You only need 1/2 to 1 Teaspoon. It blew me away that it held the meatloaf together Perfectly. I first tried it on meatballs using 1/2 Teaspoon for a 1lb of Meat, and that worked out well too. It’s amazing what you can find online!

Carrie

February 22, 2012 at 9:57 AM

I love the sound of Spanish, Irish, or Chinese-style meatloaf! Experimenting in the kitchen like that is one of my favorite things about cooking! Very interesting with the gelatine….I’ve never heard of such a thing!

I have always pureed 1 onion and added it raw to the meat mixture as well as 1-2 finely grated carrots, raw also. Then I have found that I don’t need any bread crumbs, flour or eggs to bind it together. Also a trick I’ve learned is to use a sheet pan with sides cover with parchment paper. Cooks evenly and doesn’t sit in any grease. And most important do not time it…use a meat thermometer so you’ll never over-cook it & dry it out. It comes out super moist & yummy.

Carrie

February 22, 2012 at 1:25 PM

Thanks for all of the tips, Kim – they all sound like great ideas. I’ll try some of them out next time! And good call on the meat thermometer….that really is the best way to do it!