Little Meatloaf Men

I’m surprised that Bart is so enthusiastic about the Little Meatloaf Men, given the following previous exchange:

Bart: Oh, yuck. Meatloaf. My most hated of all loafs.
Homer: That was an end piece! That’s it! Being abusive to your family is one thing, but I will not stand idly by and watch you feed a hungry dog!

Feed-a-Hungry-Dog-Screenshot

Perhaps this is one of those “blunders” that people are always getting fired for. Officially Marge gets the recipe for Little Meatloaf Men from “Reading Digest” which I’m fairly certain is meant to be Readers Digest. Unless Google has lied to me. And why would a search engine lie to a person?

I had hoped to find a recipe for meatloaf men, or at the very least just meatloaf, on the real Reader’s Digest website. Sadly, all I could find was Barbecued Meatloaf With Caramelized Onions, which sounds just awful and Life Preserver Meat Loaves, which I did make because I had some leftover meatloaf ingredients.

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs ground beef
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 onion
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp mustard
  • 1 tsp ketchup
  • Steak spice
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Directions

In a large bowl mix together ground beef with onions, cracked egg and spices. Add breadcrumbs until desired consistency is reached. Use a cookie cutter to make meatloaf men and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Hope you noticed the meatloaf life preserver! Sadly, I did two things wrong with this recipe. First, I forgot to add the little smiling face. Mostly because I didn’t have anything to make the eyes and lips with, but does it really add anything to the flavor? This thing is horrifying enough to look at as it is:

Second I did not make these on a Thursday, although I know Thursday is meatloaf night! Overall, these were quite tasty but making them into men was kind of a pain. I personally think you’re better off just making the loaf and smothering it with ketchup.

Cromulence: 8 We The Purples out of 10

Little Meatloaf Men Recipe From: Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington (The Simpsons Season 3 – Episode 1)


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Hugh Jass

Meatloaf is my favorite meal and I always use meatloaf mix (beef, pork, veal). The Simpsons do seem like a straight beef family despite Homer loving his pork. Marge is also shown to microwave her meatloaf in the start of the “Blowfish, Bluefish” episode in season 2, which probably tastes the same, but I would always bake it given the option. If I do make these one day, I will be sure to juggle it with my hands while it’s piping hot, bite its head off and then throw it back on the serving tray like Bart.

teightytwo

Meatloaf seems like a very American thing to me. I’ve never really heard of anybody in the UK/Australasia making meatloaf. From the ingredients I gather it’s basically a rectangular meatball??

Another mundane question: how does Canadian cuisine compare to the US? Australia and NZ pretty much have the same cuisine, which in turn is in the same boat as the UK. Is Canada more similar to the UK (as part of the commonwealth) or the US?

Eatslikeaduck

Yup, meatloaf is literally a loaf made of meat (plus fillers depending on your budget).
I would say Canadian food is a fun mix of American cuisine (things like southern bbq and tex mex are popular) but there is also a big Asian influence in larger cities. Most people are more likely to eat Pho over Sheppard’s Pie. There is also an influence of Quebec foods like poutine which is fries covered in cheese curds and gravy – sooooo good!

jacsmalls

In the still, the smiles look green. Would that be relish? A piece of chive?
I wonder if anyone along the way in the animation process ever had a foodstuff in mind, or they just made it green because there’s a lot of green in that shot.

Eatslikeaduck

Excellent question and ideas! I’m going to guess they went with the green and red because they stand out against the brown? I do like the suggestion of chive for the mouth, so I will use that when I make these again.