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Meatloaf — cartoon recipe illustration
Dinner

Meatloaf

Serves 8 Prep 15 min Cook 1 hr 15 min Total 1 hr 30 min

Meatloaf is a dinner staple we keep on Scoops & Dishes because it rewards a clear metric method: grams and millilitres, Australian cups (250 ml), and steps you can follow without scrolling past a novel. As written it serves 8. Budget about 15 min to prep and 1 hr 15 min to cook or bake, roughly 1 hr 30 min all up, across 14 ingredients and 5 method steps. Key building blocks: panko breadcrumbs, onion and beef mince. If you need a substitute, change one thing at a time and expect the texture notes below to matter more than the timer. After cooking, serve straight from the pan with a simple salad or mash. Feeds a small table as written; bump quantities if you are feeding a crew. If humidity or a fan oven changes browning, trust visual cues over the last minute of the clock. Everything on this page is metric-first for Australia. If you are converting from cups on an old card, weigh flour, sugar, and butter whenever the ingredient line shows grams.

Ingredients

Method

  1. Heat oven to 180°C. Oil a loaf tin. Mix glaze; set aside.
  2. Put breadcrumbs in a large bowl; grate onion over and mix until wet.
  3. Add remaining meatloaf ingredients; mix well with hands. Form into a loaf; smooth cracks. Transfer to tin.
  4. Brush with half the glaze. Bake 45 minutes. Brush with more glaze; bake 30 minutes more.
  5. Rest 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with mash and veg.

Tip: Grated onion + panko keeps it tender. A few edge crumbs when slicing means it’s soft, not packed hard.

Notes

  • Serving ideas without fluff: serve straight from the pan with a simple salad or mash. Keep accompaniments simple so the dish stays the hero — a green salad, steamed veg, rice, mash, or crusty bread depending on the style. Metric measures stay consistent across Scoops & Dishes, so once you trust the cups and scales here, the rest of the site cooks the same way.
  • From our tested tip, expanded: Grated onion + panko keeps it tender. A few edge crumbs when slicing means it’s soft, not packed hard. Treat that as the non-negotiable. If something still feels off — too wet, too pale, too tight — adjust one variable at a time (heat, liquid, or bake time) rather than changing three things at once.
  • Dinner service: brown meat in batches so it sears instead of stewing. Deglaze the pan if there are sticky bits — that is free flavour for the sauce. Rest roasted or pan-fried proteins a few minutes before slicing. Hold sides hot while the main finishes so everything hits the table together.
  • Putting it together for Meatloaf: work clean, taste as you go, and do not rush browning or reduction steps if they appear in the method. If you are cooking for mixed diets, plate sauces and toppings separately where practical. Keep this page bookmarked if it becomes a household regular — we update wording when cooks report a confusing step. Metric consistency across Scoops & Dishes means once you trust the cups and scales here, breakfast through dessert behaves the same way.