Hello friends, and welcome back to my nearly incoherent rambling about food. Today, I’ll be poking a bit of fun at a coworker who said, and I’m paraphrasing, “I don’t really understand meatloaf.” He continued to vaguely explain that he didn’t really understand the point of meatloaf, and said he was more or less bothered by the combinations that can be involved in meatloaf.

I have a lot of love and respect for meatloaf. Meatloaf is great because you can do so much with it, and it fits inside a bread pan!

Meatloaf even had an episode of Phineas and Ferb devoted to it, with a beautiful song by the fictional group “Tiny Cowboy,” The members of Tiny Cowboy are actually voiced by Peter Noone and Davy Jones of the iconic British pop group, the Monkees, who had their own TV show and had a successful music career from 1966 to 1971. So as you can tell, Meatloaf is a big deal.

So what exactly is meatloaf, and what do we want to know about it?

The origins of meatloaf is surprisingly illusive, and it is debatable just what makes meatloaf meatloaf, and what variation is too far away from the common conception of meatloaf to the point of becoming something different entirely.

We first see something resembling a meatloaf as far back as the Fifth Century in Greece, which comprised finely diced meat scraps, fruits, nuts, and seasoning. It was somewhere between a meatloaf and a meaty fruit cake.

Culinary historians Frank Bruni and Jennifer Steinhauer describe the evolution of meatloaf as “a sort of culinary scrap heap, a refuge for leftovers, in the spirit of many casseroles and of shepherd’s pie.”

Meatloaf has always been a working class dish, and in no way does that make meatloaf bad or a dish to be ashamed of. Meatloaf is an admirable last stop for leftovers or ingredient levels that are too small to do anything else with. Meatloaf also goes well with just about any kind of potato dish or vegetable pairing you can think of.

Over a millenia, meatloaf has changed, and certainly has locked in bases (that doesn’t include fruit and nuts anymore). Meatloaf now seems as American as hot dogs and burgers, and can be found on almost as many tables, though you usually don’t have a meatloaf at a summer picnic or right before breaking out the fireworks. Maybe we should, though.

When meatloaf actually made it to the U.S. is uncertain, but culinary historian Andrew Smith tells us that the first found recorded recipe dates back to the 1870s in New England.

1870s meatloaf was just as hardy a dish as the meatloaf we know now is, and that’s the entire point of it.

Meatloaf was never meant to be made with high-end cuts of meat. Meatloaf has always been made with the scraps that weren’t real cuts, but deserved better than being tossed out. Other ingredients for meatloaf including onion, garlic, egg, and milk-soaked bread (bread that was on the older side and could threaten to mold any day).

Here’s the real kicker about New England meatloaf… it was a popular breakfast staple, Smith tells us. Meatloaf could have been made with pork, veal, or beef scrap, and paired with breadcrumbs, and egg. I can see how a slice of meatloaf could go well with a breakfast spread and a cup of coffee.

Moving to the 1890s, when the meat packing industry was seriously taking off in the U.S. (do not read Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” before eating), meatloaf hit a new level of popularity, and started to get fancy for a while. We even start to see cultural variations.

A French-touched meatloaf was made with ham and veal scraps, breadcrumbs, grated nutmeg, mace (very similar to nutmeg), cayenne pepper, and a bit of lemon rind. The ol’ razzle-dazzle happened when it was covered with an egg wash and breadcrumbs for appearance, and to probably help keep it from drying out too much.

Moving forward to the Great Depression, meatloaf really got back into it’s lane as a staple dish to those on a tight budget. The Great Depression saw meatloaf going back into its original role of being an edible scrap bin.

During the 1940s, meatloaf was repackaged and called “Vitality Loaf,” because America had copped a thing for calling everything Victory This and Victory That, the basic home garden becoming known as Victory Gardens for a while, particularly comes to mind. Victory Gardens were an initiative to encourage Americans to grow as much produce at home as possible so food from commercial farmers could go towards the war effort. 1940s America was all about making small sacrifices at home super chic, including turning the meatloaf scrap pile into Vitality Loaf, that was made with beef, pork, and liver. Meatloaf helped win the war.

After WWII, meatloaf was so ubiquitous, so commonplace, that it wasn’t going anywhere, and was all over cookbooks like Betty Crocker in the 1950s, and has been americana since.

So before we wrap this up, meatloaf has been known as a boring, blan, last-ditch meal. What can you do to make it memorable, and something you want to eat?

Use a ton of spices. Make it exciting. Don’t let it be just base salt and pepper. Use onion, garlic, maybe some nicely diced carrot for some good texture, color, and added nutritional value. Saute the vegetables you put it in. Add peppers to it for bite and flavor. Cook the ground beef with soy sauce or liquid aminos, or season it closer to taco meat. Melt some cheddar or use grated parmesan.

Bacon wrap that sucker if you want to!

There’s so many things you can do to meatloaf. After the traditional base, it’s such a blank canvas for you to paint with. Your meatloaf will be as exciting or as boring as you choose it to be. And the next time you talk about meatloaf, put some respect on it, now that we know it’s story and its potential.

EDITOR’S NOTE This is Chris Jaehnig’s Welcome to Speaking With My Stomach, a food column where we’ll be talking about food in all different kinds of ways; the history of foods and ingredients, how to cook them and celebrating the love language that is universal.