Gluten -free meatloaf

[gfweb]

I'm cooking for a deluded friend who's decided gluten is evil.

I want to make a meatloaf and all the GF recipes look sketchy...eg "meatloaf mix" + 1.5 cups cooked rice. Seems like that would be a brick.

Anyone have a tested recipe for panade-free ML?

Seems to me that the rice should be at least chopped fine in order to break-up the meat structure better.

Edited August 17, 2018 by gfweb (log)

[Auspicious]

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

I'm cooking for a deluded friend who's decided gluten is evil.

 

It seems to me you have two approaches.

 

The gluten-free path should recognize that the reason bread crumbs work in meatloaf is because of particle size. I've tried rice before (I ran out of bread) and it just didn't work well for me. That was with 85/15 ground beef - 70/30 might work better. Kikkoman among others do make gluten-free bread crumbs (apparently available at Target). That should work structurally. Taste? Not so sure. GF foods seem to share a startlingly taste pallet with packing material.

 

The second approach depends on your intestinal fortitude and the nature of your relationship with your friend. "Look dude, bring me a doctor's note that this is real and not some self-diagnosed fantasy and I'll find a way to meet your needs. In the meantime eat or go hungry." Tough love.

 

Good luck.

[Dave the Cook]

I haven't personally tested the option, but the recipe in CI's The Best Recipe suggests bread crumbs, crushed saltines (my choice), or oatmeal. 

 

Oats are a little bit controversial as a gluten-free food, but the Celiac Disease Foundation says they're okay in reasonable amounts, as long as you're careful about processing-related cross-contamination.

[Anna N]

8 minutes ago, Dave the Cook said:

I haven't personally tested the option, but the recipe in CI's The Best Recipe suggests bread crumbs, crushed saltines (my choice), or oatmeal. 

 

Oats are a little bit controversial as a gluten-free food, but the Celiac Disease Foundation says they're okay in reasonable amounts, as long as you're careful about processing-related cross-contamination.

And it is not difficult to find gluten-free oats. 

[Martin Fisher]

12 minutes ago, Anna N said:

And it is not difficult to find gluten-free oats.

 

Right!

My maternal grandmother was of Scottish descent.

She and my mother put oatmeal in meatloaf, meatballs, and the like—and lots of other stuff!!!

 

Edited August 17, 2018 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Anna N]

30 minutes ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

 

Right!

My maternal grandmother was of Scottish descent.

She and my mother put oatmeal in meatloaf, meatballs, and the like—and lots of other stuff!!!

 

 

 Indeed. There is nothing particularly unusual about oats in meatloaf as far as I can recall.

Edited August 17, 2018 by Anna N (log)

[Lisa Shock]

My mom, an adequate cook, not a great cook, always made meatloaf with old fashioned oats and it held together just fine. HERE's the recipe I think she used, straight from the box of oats. She'd occasionally make one with onion soup mix in it, too.

[kayb]

I have a child with celiac disease. I've subbed both oatmeal and crushed rice cereal (Rice Chex or Rice Krispies) to make the panade. Both work, as do Cheerios. Essentially the same proportions you'd use bread.

[gfweb]

Thanks, all. Great fixes.

 

I just made some test meatballs with cooked rice and mashed potato flakes.

 

The rice meatball was pretty dense and surface grains were rock hard. They also looked like maggots. 

 

The potato test meatball was pretty good. Good enough, but still not quite as good as bread. 

Edited August 18, 2018 by gfweb (log)

[suzilightning]

I have used oven toasted oats that I wiz up in a food pro for my meatballs and have used them in meatloaf in the past(ignore my recent meatloaf disaster).  I just saw someone at a farmers market demo using baked sweet potatoes or pumpkin with grated onions in their meatballs and it really worked.  I may do that as Johnnybird does love him some sweet potatoes.

[Lisa Shock]

21 hours ago, gfweb said:

 

I just made some test meatballs with cooked rice and mashed potato flakes.

 

The rice meatball was pretty dense and surface grains were rock hard. They also looked like maggots.

 

 

Well, that brought memories of the 1960s flooding back! For a while there, small meatballs in a chafing dish were a popular cocktail party food. The 'porcupine meatball' seemed like a good idea in theory but never really worked out well in real-world applications.

[lindag]

21 hours ago, gfweb said:

 

 

 They also looked like maggots. 

 

 

 

Where's that urp emoji?

[Lisa Shock]

🤢🤮

[Mjx]

On 8/18/2018 at 2:26 AM, gfweb said:

Thanks, all. Great fixes.

 

I just made some test meatballs with cooked rice and mashed potato flakes.

 

The rice meatball was pretty dense and surface grains were rock hard. They also looked like maggots. 

 

The potato test meatball was pretty good. Good enough, but still not quite as good as bread. 

 

 

I've used millet flakes (toasted, sometimes) to replace bread crumbs in a variety of things, and they work well in a panade; I use them when I make frikadeller. I know there are problems associated with heavy millet consumption, but as something used now and then it carries zero risks (unless, of course, you're allergic to millet).

[chromedome]

On 8/19/2018 at 7:56 AM, Mjx said:

 

I've used millet flakes (toasted, sometimes) to replace bread crumbs in a variety of things, and they work well in a panade; I use them when I make frikadeller. I know there are problems associated with heavy millet consumption, but as something used now and then it carries zero risks (unless, of course, you're allergic to millet).

Realistically, for the (still debated) goitrogenic characteristics of millet to be a factor, you'd have to be eating it as your daily staple. Think pre-famine Ireland and potatoes, by way of context.

 

Quote

“Basically the goitrogens are challenges to the thyroid. But in the absence of iodine deficiency, substantial or prolonged ingestion of dietary goitrogens and lastly the absence of an underlying thyroid disorder, the risk in this country of having problems in this area are very, very low, almost minuscule. Again, that’s because the vast majority of people have adequate iodine levels to counteract the effect of goitrogens.”

That's from an interview from Dr. Jeffrey Garber, endocrinologist and lead author of the clinical practice guidelines for hypothyroidism. The quote is not from the guidelines (I know someone would go looking for it) but from an online interview focused primarily on the scare headlines from a few years ago about kale consumption. The same principle is at play, though.

[Aileen]

Coming in late, but no one mentioned the substitution my gluten-free mom makes: crushed tortilla chips. She occasionally uses Nacho Cheese Doritos, as she doesn't mind chemicals and they make a tasty loaf. Tortilla chips work surprisingly well, actually.