Do you buy ground beef or have your meat gound up fresh? I love to have ours ground up fresh. It's the only way I buy it. I usually use sirloin tip or london broil, and have used a couple of other cuts before too. I just watch for it to go on sale. Sirloin tip was on sale this time and I decided to make meatloaf again. I wanted something different for this one, so I thought why not stuff it with smoked gouda cheese! This was really good. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Smoked Gouda Stuffed Meatloaf
2 tablespoons butter
2 onions, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
½ cup of ketchup (I used just a tad less than ½ cup)
¾ cup of breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon of thyme
2 eggs
2 pounds of ground beef
1/3 pound of smoked gouda, cut into sticks (like cheese sticks only smaller)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a sauté pan over medium heat, melt butter and then add the diced onion. Sauté until translucent. Add the minced garlic, allowing it to cook for a minute or two. Set aside, sprinkle the tsp of thyme over the mixture and let cool.
Crack the two eggs into a small bowl and lightly beat them. In a large bowl, add the beaten eggs, ground beef, breadcrumbs, onion mixture, and ketchup. Mix the meatloaf mixture with your hands until everything is mixed well.
Now you’re ready to form your meatloaf and place it in a pan. I chose to use a sheet pan and free form my loaf. I like this way the best. Take a little over half of the mixture and pat it out in the pan to make the bottom of your loaf. In the middle of the loaf, add the smoked gouda cheese sticks. Take the rest of the meat mixture and cover the cheese sticks forming a loaf, making sure to completely cover the cheese. Bake for an hour and a half.
I tasted this and decided not to put ketchup on it as it was really good. However, I am sure it would be tasty with ketchup as well. If you choose to do so, top the meatloaf with ketchup and allow it to bake for 10-15 more minutes.
Handy Tip #1: I advise you to check any meats you cook with a meat thermometer just to be extra safe. Fully cooked according to this website that I found online here is 160 degrees.
Handy Tip #2: Use parchment paper on your sheet pan for easy clean up.
Handy Tip #3: Feel free to add more salt to this recipe as I didn’t really add any extra salt. You could also use a bit more cheese if you’d like. I found mine at the Kroger deli. I just had them slice two large hunks of cheese. It ended up being 1/3 of a pound. I trimmed the rind off and cut them into cheese sticks. Worked great!
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