Today is the birthday of Marvin Lee Aday.
If the name doesn’t sound familiar, it is for good reason.
He was a professional rocker and singer. We knew him better as Meatloaf.
Personally, I didn’t have much use for his music. It never appealed to me. Only the big hit, “Paradise By The Dashboard Lights,” was the only song of his I liked. Only because we played it on the van rides to our softball games when I played at Butler University.
At any rate, he was born on September 27, 1947, in Dallas, Texas.
He died already, too. At the age of 74. That was on January 20, 2022. It was complications from COVID-19 that got him.
Meatloaf. His father gave him the name almost as soon as they returned from the hospital. He was a big kid from the day he was born and said that one day his father saw him wrapped up in a blanket and pronounced that he looked like a meatloaf. The name stuck.
But I’m not really writing about him.
I’m writing about meatloaf, which I love. It is one of those foods that people either seem to love or hate.
It is pretty close to a cheeseburger, so it really rates high up there for me.
Meatloaf is kind of one of those foods that are staples of Americana. I think it holds the same rank with things like hot dogs, hamburgers, and apple pie. However, meatloaf didn’t just pop into existence. This good dish has a vast history.
Meatloaf first came about as an affordable meal. But not really for dinner. Instead, it was for breakfast. That’s right – back in the late 19th century, meatloaf was considered a breakfast food. Move over bacon.
It comes from the Colonial times when German immigrants made ‘scrapple’ from cornmeal and ground pork. The ‘scrap’ theme, in fact, has featured heavily in the history of meatloaf. I bet my people were some of the first meatloaf makers, up there in Auglaize County, Ohio.
The very first recorded recipe for the modern iteration of the dish comes from 1870s New England, and it specifically instructed to finely chop up “whatever cold meat you have.” Food historian Andrew Smith says that the people of the time and era often killed cows before the harsh winter came, so their cheap cuts were probably the chief ingredient in the era’s meatloaf. Other ingredients were other staples, like egg, bread soaked in milk, onion, and salt and pepper to spice things up.
It stuck around on kitchen tables everywhere.
By the time the 1950s rolled around, the dish was already so iconic that hamburger-themed cookbooks were brimming with strange recipes, and just about every diner had meatloaf on the menu.
We should get back to that, I think.
McDonald’s or Wendy’s should have a meatloaf sandwich. With lots of mayonnaise. On white bread.
I’d be in.
So. Ode to meatloaf.
And if you are not a fan. Ode to something you love.
“””””””””””””””””””
“My doctor told me I had to stop throwing intimate dinners for four unless there are three other people.”
-Orson Welles
“””””””””””””””””””
“Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.”
-Doug Larson
“””””””””””””””””””
“Never eat more than you can lift.”
-Miss Piggy
“””””””””””””””””””
The meat of it all.
