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Bill Blass's Meatloaf
The mention of Bill Blass's meatloaf in my last newsletter elicited a few emails inquiring if I might have the recipe. I sure do.
I'm not sure when Bill Blass, the fashion designer, first revealed his meatloaf recipe. But during the late 1970s and into the 1980s, at least in my circle of New York friends, you couldn't escape it at dinner parties. Meatloaf for a dinner party? Why not? Bill Blass served it.
Certainly the socialites who flocked to Mortimer's, the Upper East Side watering hole, didn't think it was déclassé. It was on the menu for years. Blass was a regular customer, and a pal of Glenn Birnbaum, who owned the restaurant, lived above it, and ran it with a very snobbish eye. On almost any given day, you could walk by Mortimer's and at the round table in the large front window would be Brooke Astor, Pat Buckley, Nan Kempner and the like having their light lunch. Birnbaum treated the food media even more graciously than this social circle. He couldn't wait for us to arrive because we actually complimented him on the food instead of asking how fattening it was.
There are different versions of Blass' culinary masterpiece floating around in cyberspace and in books. This one, however, is directly from the man himself. At the end of his memoir, "Bare Blass," which was finished just weeks before his death in 2002 and published soon after, he said that, after all, this recipe may be the way people most remember him. Unlikely.
Bill Blass' Meatloaf
Serves 6
1 egg
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
2 pounds ground sirloin
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound ground veal
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of dried thyme (I actually use ½ teaspoon)
Pinch of dried marjoram (I use ½ teaspoon of this, too)
1 12-ounce bottle Heinz Chili Sauce
5 strips uncooked bacon
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, beat egg, stir in Worcestershire sauce and reserve.
In a large pan over low heat, melt butter and sauté celery and onions, stirring occasionally, until onions become translucent.
In a large bowl, combine onion-celery mixture with sirloin, pork, veal, parsley, bread crumbs, beaten egg mixture, salt and pepper, thyme, and marjoram.
On a baking sheet, form mixture into an oval loaf shape. Top with chili sauce and bacon strips.
Bake 75 minutes.
Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes before serving.
Note: Some versions of the recipe also include 1/3 cup sour cream in the meat mix.
