8/15/2018 – This second effort at a Mexican flavored meatloaf included our first try at Chaurice; the Creole version of Chorizo. With 3.5 lbs of ground meat, this was a very large loaf of meat. We needed to use the frozen meats to empty the freezers before we move to the farm in 4 weeks. Also wanted leftovers to take with us to the farm next week. The Chaurice to beef was only 40% of the previous Chorizo to beef so this turned out a bit bland.
Ingredients
1 large yellow onion coarsely chopped
8 large cloves of garlic chopped small
1 large green fresh mild Hatch pepper coarsely chopped. [Our previous cook used 2 small bell peppers and this one should have used the second Hatch pepper we had. Tasted this pepper raw to determine if it was hot and it tasted very much like bell pepper.]
2.5 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb. our Chaurice
Several liberal shakings of Hot & Spicy Bread Crumbs by Hill Country Fare
4 eggs
2 T Cumin
1.5 t cayenne [Did not include this as the Chaurice has a lot of peppers as compared to Chorizo. BUT, see notes below about the lower ratio of seasoned sausage to beef in this cook.]
Milk to fix the consistency
1 can of Rotel Original for the topping
The Process
- Sauteed the onions, peppers and garlic in bacon grease. The aroma from the sauteing garlic was too much for Mary. They were very potent.
- Mixed the raw meat with the bread crumbs, eggs, and cumin. Added milk to keep it from being too dry and crumbly.
- Added the sauteed veggies and mixed in.
- Dumped into a glass casserole and poured on the drained Rotel as a topping.
- Cooked in the oven at 375 for maybe an hour until the IT was 170. Had set the ChefWorks to alarm at 160 but it did not go off. So, it cooked 65 minutes to go from an initial IT of 69 (warmed up by the mixing and hot sauteed veggies) to the final IT of 170.
- When it came out of the oven Mary removed the hot grease and oil with the turkey baster. Filled half the Rotel can.
Results
The loaf rested under Aluminum foil for 3 hours before we ate dinner. It was good with a slight hotness from the Chaurice but was not flavorful. The cumin was not noticeable.
Comparing this cook to the first Mexican Meatloaf what jumps out is that in that cook–that we liked–the beef to our Chorizo was 1:1. Whereas here the more spicy Chaurice to beef was only 1:2.5 or 0.4:1. The hotter chaurice was not hot enough to make up for being 60% less volume.
Also, note our chorizo has a wider range of species that would have been nice in this cook.
