Often times, I'll eat in a restaurant and I'll enjoy a certain dish so much I'll want to duplicate the recipe at home. While often times my recipes will come out good, they are never quite as good as the restaurant version.
For those who like meatloaf, many have said the meatloaf served at Cracker Barrel is one of the best meatloaves ever. Those who have worked at Cracker Barrel say that the secret is in the bread crumbs. At the restaurant, they use their buttermilk biscuits in place of breadcrumbs. This will absolutely make a difference in the taste of the meatloaf.
What you might consider doing is making a batch of buttermilk biscuits and then using those in your meatloaf. It will help authenticate the taste of the restaurant recipe.
This recipe is enough for three loaves. It is perfect for small parties or even family potluck dinners.
10 pounds ground beef
30 ounces onion, chopped into 1/4-inch squares
1 pound diced green bell peppers
10 eggs
5 tablespoons salt
1 1/2 tablespoons pepper
1 1/2 quarts diced canned tomatoes
2 1/4 cups buttermilk biscuit crumbs or breadcrumbs.
This is one of those throw it all in a bowl and mix it up recipes. The restaurant uses a convection oven. Most home do not have a convection oven. I suggest cooking at about 350 degrees for about sixty minutes. After removing from the oven, invert each loaf to a cooling rack and spread a half cup of ketchup over each loaf. Cut and serve.
I did go to several sites to see if I could find a recipe for the biscuits. I found a few sites where people claiming to be Cracker Barrel employees listed the recipe. They all had the exact same recipe:
2 cups White Lily self-rising flour
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup buttermilk
It's just the three ingredients. Blend the flour and shortening together. Then add in the buttermilk. Mix for one minute, roll out and cut. Bake for eight minutes at 450 degrees. Once you take them out of the oven, brush with melted butter.
I have personally not used White Lily flour, so I wanted to find a recipe using products I've used before and I found what is being called a copycat recipe of the Cracker Barrel buttermilk biscuits:
2 ½ cups Bisquick
2 /3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon melted butter
Mix the Bisquick, buttermilk and sugar together. Add the butter and mix until dough forms. Dust a board with flour and knead twenty times. Roll about ½ inch thick and cut into biscuits. Bake eight to ten minutes at 450 degrees. What was interesting was this recipe was very clear to not brush melted butter onto the biscuits after cooking.
Either way, the key seems to be in using crumbled buttermilk biscuits instead of bread crumbs when making the copy cat meatloaf recipe.
