When the meat is in the freezer, the question of what to cook from it does not arise: most often the choice falls on cutlets or meatballs. Navy pasta is sometimes a priority. But there is a great alternative to these meat dishes, which will help diversify the home menu - meat bread. Baked in the oven, it goes well with any side dish and is perfect for a hearty lunch or a delicious dinner with the family. Cooking it is not more difficult than cutlets, probably even easier. And the products that are required for such a dish can be found in any store.
What is this dish?
In essence, it is a large patty, baked in the oven in the form of a loaf of bread - a “brick”. The dish is not difficult to prepare, but it will take a lot of time, about a couple of hours, starting with the preparation of the products and ending with serving. It is prepared from minced meat, usually from beef or pork. But you can take any other meat. The finished dish is cut into slices and as such is served on the table. It goes well with buckwheat, rice, pasta and mashed potatoes.
Prepared according to the recipes described in the article with a photo, meat bread also acts very well as an appetizer. Cut into thin slices, it can be laid on bread to create sandwiches for the festive table. In addition to all the ingredients that will be listed below, in the raw mix you can add potatoes, carrots, cereals and various vegetables that the family loves. From this "bread" will become even tastier and more satisfying.
What ingredients will be required to prepare a meat dish?
Additionally, you can use a wide variety of products and any stuffing, as mentioned above, even a combination of several types, for example, pork and beef. But now a specific recipe will be considered, according to which the meat is very tasty. It includes the following ingredients:
- fat free pork tenderloin - 550 g;
- beef heart - 350 g;
- bell pepper - 160 g;
- fresh or frozen champignons - 400 g;
- onions - 1 large or 2 medium heads;
- chicken egg - 2 pieces;
- garlic - 5-6 cloves;
- salt and ground paprika - 1 teaspoon each;
- ground pepper mixture - 1 pinch each (for meat bread, you can use the finished mixture in the mill, for example, “4 peppers” from Kotanyi);
- potato starch - 1 tablespoon with a slide;
- ketchup or tomato paste - 2 tablespoons;
- breadcrumbs - 2-3 tablespoons;
- vegetable oil - 1-2 teaspoons;
- ground nutmeg - ½ teaspoon.
Additionally, aluminum foil and a baking dish are required. Instead of breadcrumbs, crushed rye or wheat bread is allowed. You can add more various spicy and sweet seasonings, such as Provencal herbs, caraway seeds, rosemary, mustard. If desired, chopped dill and parsley are added. Similarly to adding products, you can exclude mushrooms or peppers if they are not.
The step-by-step preparation of meat bread in the oven (recipe with photo)
The dish is prepared in several stages. When all the products have been prepared, you can begin to create a meat masterpiece. The process begins with the cleaning and grinding of the ingredients. More on how this is done is hereinafter.
Stage One: Product Preparation
Onions and garlic need to be peeled. Remove seeds from pepper. Cut vegetables so that they fit in a blender, and chop, turning them into mashed potatoes. Stuffing is best done on your own, because the purchased one is often too liquid, and for this dish you need a dense mass. Rinse the meat and cut into pieces. Then wash the champignons, cut each mushroom into 4 parts. Transfer to a dry frying pan, turn on a large fire and wait until all liquid has evaporated from them.
Stage Two: Combining Minced Meat with Other Meat Bread Ingredients
Prepared meat with mushrooms must be passed through a meat grinder. Add all prepared spices to this mass, mix. Then eggs, tomato paste, starch and breadcrumbs are introduced into the minced meat. The basis for the future dish mixes well again so that the ingredients are evenly distributed.
Stage Three: The Formation of “Buns”
For cooking, you will need a baking dish. It can be any: glass, ceramic, metal or even silicone. The main thing is that it should have an appropriate form. After all, it depends on this factor whether the dish will look like meat bread (see the photo above).
The mold must be greased with oil and put into it the prepared mass. You need to try to ram the stuffing as well as possible so that it turns out to be dense enough. Grease the "little ball" with tomato paste. Top must be covered with meat foil.
Stage Four: Baking
Before sending the form with minced meat to the oven, the oven must be heated to high temperature. Better if it will be 200-220 degrees. Oven meat is cooked for about an hour and a half. At lower temperatures, this time will increase.
50 minutes after the start of meat preparation, it is necessary to remove the mold, remove the foil and drain the liquid that has formed there. Then close again and put in the oven. Bake for about 40 minutes until the dishes are fully cooked.
Step Five: Complete Cooking
When the meat is ready, remove it from the oven and leave it on the table for 20 minutes, so that the dish cools slightly. Then cut it into portions. If desired, you can decorate minced meat bread with various products, for example, olives, cheese, herbs, mayonnaise.
Other meat cooking options
There are several more recipes, but there are no fundamental differences from the preparation method described above. For example, there is a very simple option, which includes pepper. Such products are necessary for him:
- 600 g of minced meat;
- 1 egg
- 120 ml of milk;
- 1 bell pepper;
- ½ teaspoon of paprika and salt;
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil;
- a pinch of allspice.
In this version of the preparation of meat bread, most attention is paid to bell pepper. It must be washed, greased with vegetable oil, put in a skillet and baked in the oven for about 15 minutes at 180-200 degrees. Then cool the vegetable, peel it and cut it in half. Remove seeds and core, then cut into cubes.
Put the prepared meat in a wide bowl, add the egg, milk and pepper, and then beat with a mixer or blender. Then add salt and spices, mix. Transfer the mass to a greased form. Also, a brick can be formed from the resulting mixture, pack it in foil and bake in this form. The oven must be heated to 200 degrees. The meat is baked for half an hour, then it is required to open the edges of the foil and cook for another 20 minutes.
Another meat bread recipe combines 3 types of meat. To prepare a dish, you need to prepare:
- 450 g of beef and 230 g of pork and veal minced meat;
- 6 strips of bacon;
- 2 eggs;
- 25 g of butter and finely chopped parsley;
- 1 finely chopped onion;
- 2 cloves of minced garlic;
- 50 g breadcrumbs (breadcrumbs), chili or ketchup sauce and finely chopped celery;
- 30 g of chopped dried basil;
- half a teaspoon of thyme, salt and ground pepper;
- 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce.
Heat butter in a skillet over low heat, put onion, garlic and celery. Cook, stirring constantly, until vegetables are soft. It will take about 8 minutes. Put the products in a bowl, add the minced meat, eggs, herbs and spices, in general, all the other ingredients, except for bacon. Mix the mass well. Place the minced meat in a baking dish. Special dishes for baking bread are ideal. Tamp the meat, put strips of bacon on top and send the dish to the oven. As in previous recipes, it should be well warmed up to 200-220 degrees. The dish is cooked for about an hour and a half. The top is recommended to be periodically greased so that it does not burn. When the "bread" is ready, remove from the oven, drain the fat and let stand at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Cut the meat into portions and serve.
From this video recipe you can learn how to make chicken bread - especially for those who prefer only poultry meat.