Polish meatloaf with hidden eggs: juicy, from a loaf tin, hot or cold
A loaf of minced pork and beef with a milk-soaked roll, softened onion, marjoram and mustard, with hard-boiled eggs hidden in the centre. Baked in a loaf tin for an hour at 180 degrees, with a golden breadcrumb crust on top. Hot with potatoes and gravy, cold in slices for sandwiches. One loaf, two dinners.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Eggs and roll 15 min
- Mixing and shaping 15 min
- Baking 60 min
- Resting 15 min
Step by step
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Boil the eggs, soak the roll
Hard-boil four eggs: 9 minutes from the boil, then into cold water and peel. Crumble the roll and soak in the milk for 10 minutes, until fully soft. Heat the oven to 180 °C.
Ingredients: 1000 g minced pork and beef · 1 pcs stale white roll · 150 ml milk · 1 pcs onion · 20 g butter · 6 pcs eggs · 2 cloves garlic · 1 tbsp medium-hot mustard · 1 tbsp dried marjoram · 2 tsp salt · 1 tsp black pepper · 4 tbsp breadcrumbs · 1 tbsp oil
TipThe roll in milk isn't filler, it is a sponge: it holds the juices in the meat while it bakes. Without it the loaf comes out dry and dense.
Hard-boiled eggs, roll in milk
Soften the onion
Dice the onion finely and soften in the butter 6 minutes, until golden. Cool. Raw onion in a meatloaf can stay sharp and noticeably crunchy; fried, it gives sweetness and moisture.
Fine, in butter, until golden
Mix the meat
Squeeze the roll out of the milk. In a large bowl combine the meat, roll, onion, 2 raw eggs, crushed garlic, mustard, marjoram crushed between your palms, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs. Knead by hand 3 minutes, until uniform and sticky. Fry a teaspoon of the mixture in a pan and taste: now is the time to add salt.
TipThe test patty is a minute that saves the whole loaf — don't taste the raw mixture with its raw eggs. The fried spoonful should taste slightly too strong, especially if the loaf will be eaten cold: cold meat tastes less salty.
Kneaded by hand, tasted from the pan
Shape with the eggs inside
Line the loaf tin with baking paper. Press in half the mixture and make a groove down the middle with your finger. Lay the 4 hard-boiled eggs in it end to end, cover with the rest of the mixture and press down so no air pockets remain. Level the top.
A groove, four eggs, mixture on top
Crumb and bake
Brush the top with oil and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs. Bake 60 minutes at 180 °C on the middle shelf, until the top is browned and a skewer pushed into the centre releases clear juice. A thermometer in the thickest part: 72 °C.
Oil, breadcrumbs, an hour at 180 °C
Rest a quarter of an hour
Take out of the oven and leave in the tin 15 minutes. The loaf firms up and the juice stays in the meat; cut at once, it falls apart and loses a lot of juice. Put the potatoes on about 25 minutes before the end of baking and toss them with dill once cooked.
Ingredients: 1000 g potatoes · ½ bunch dill · 2 tbsp sour cream, 18%
A quarter hour in the tin before slicing
Slice and serve
Lift out by the paper onto a board and cut into 2 cm slices: a round of egg in each. Hot with potatoes and the pan juices stirred with 1–2 tablespoons of sour cream. Cold, straight from the fridge, it slices even more neatly for sandwiches; keeps 3–4 days in the fridge.
Two centimetres, an egg in every slice
Before you start
Wrapped in bacon
Line the base and sides of the tin with smoked bacon rashers so they overhang, and fold them over the top. Bacon brings smoke, fat and a crisp crust.
With mushrooms or prunes
Instead of eggs, 200 g button mushrooms fried with onion, or a row of pitted prunes. Prunes with pork are a classic.
The top cracked
Too little moisture or too hot an oven. More roll in milk, 170 °C instead of 180, and a dish of water on the bottom shelf.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
