Jazz Cooking and Meat Loafing

December 5th, 2008

In my wife’s family there is a legendary meat loaf recipe that is loved by all.

I tell the story of this meat loaf all the time and to those who have heard it, I apologize for putting you through it once again.

The meat loaf that Grandma Murphy made was wonderful. All who ate it loved it and when her daughter made it, which is where I encountered it, it was delicious as well. A good meat loaf is comforting and is what real home cooking’s all about. There was one problem however. Grandma Murphy’s daughter is my wife’s mother. That is to say, she is my mother-in-law.

Now before you let your mind run wild and start on down some misguided path about my relationship with my mother-in-law let me set the record straight. I have always gotten along very well with her and in fact think of her as my second mother. She has been a positive voice in my corner for years and I love her dearly. So much for all of those stupid stereotypes.

I have enjoyed her cooking for years and have never eaten anything she has prepared that was less then very good. But every time she made the meat loaf she used to comment upon hearing the compliments from the family that while it was very good, it was not as good as Grandma Murphy used to make.

Now I never ate Grandma Murphy’s meat loaf. I have eaten the recipe prepared by others but I never ate it when it was prepared by Grandma Murphy herself, so I cannot say for sure that my mother-in-law’s meat loaf was really up to her mother’s standards or not. I can assure you though, that it was excellent. I always thought it was great and I always told her so.

When my wife and I got married she inherited the meat loaf recipe that was made by Grandma Murphy and used by her mother and it became part of our cooking repertoire. Of course when my wife made it, she always said that although it was very good, it was not really quite as good as her mother’s, which of course was not quite as good as Grandma Murphy’s. I think you can see the problem here.

Grandma made it great. Her daughter made it very well but not quite as good as her mother and my wife was making it very good as well but just not quite up to the standards of her mother’s effort which fell short of Grandma Murphy’s.

At this point I started referring to the recipe as the deteriorating meat loaf. I predicted that by the time my children made it, we would probably not be able to choke it down.

This is of course absurd. Our memories of food we have eaten in the past are fragile. Our respect for those who went before us and set standards that we long to live up to can be just as fragile.

I believe in standards and I respect ideals but I like to think I am a realist as well as a student of history and therefore I am a skeptic. Perhaps I am everything. Perhaps I am nothing. Perhaps I am hungry and want to make some meat loaf.

I made up my mind that I was going to completely skip over all of the history and instructions that my family left me and just go my own way. I would make a meat loaf that was mine. I would re-invent the wheel if necessary but I would stand or fall on my own. I pulled out some of my many cookbooks and I strolled through some of the thousands of meat loaf recipes available on the internet and put my mind in a meat loaf mode.

Imagine if you can my brain as an uncooked meat loaf.

The similarities are a little bit frightening.

I also recalled the many meat loaves I had seen my mother construct as well as the meat loaves of my mother-in-law and my wife. There are a few basics that one should have in all meat loaves and let’s begin with them.

We need some ground beef. OK.

We need something to bind this meat together, perhaps some bread crumbs and an egg or two. This all sounds right.

What about flavorings? Obviously salt and pepper will be needed and perhaps some oregano and parsley as well.

When I am cooking and not sticking particularly close to a recipe I like to think of myself as a “jazz” cook. If I ever write a cookbook someday I will call it Jazz Cooking.

I developed a taste for jazz music as part of my midlife crisis. When I was about 35 or 40 I started watching a lot of baseball and listening to jazz music. Some guys buy convertibles and chase younger women, but I went down a different road. Sports cars and younger women sounded like a great idea at the time, but there was one problem.

My wife said no.

She just made it very clear that these were not acceptable hobbies. What can I say? When she says no, I have learned not to argue. Besides, I really love my wife and I wouldn’t want to lose her for anything. Oh well, I guess I’ll turn on the Cubs game and listen to a little Miles Davis.

One of the things that I really love about jazz is the improvisation. In jazz music a chord pattern is written and perhaps a simple melody to go with it and then at different intervals or sometimes together, the individual musicians just make up stuff to go along with it. It is improvisation and it can be either really good or in some cases very bad. You have got to listen to different things and find what you like. The Grateful Dead played with basically the same notion. They helped bring the improvisational adventures of jazz to the rock music world. Sometimes the results were heavenly and sometimes not quite so much. At least it was better than a repetition of the same old thing every time. Music like this takes chances and that’s how great things are accomplished.

When I am doing “jazz cooking” I am not measuring the ingredients. I am using a little of this and a little of that. I react to what the dish looks and smells like as I go and I make adjustments based on those results. Sometimes I have big failures. Sometimes it all works out alright and sometimes I make something that I’m quite proud of.

When I make meat loaf I know that I will want 2 or 3 pounds of ground beef and two or three Italian sausages. I have to have some onions, salt and pepper and I also like a can of drained diced tomatoes. I always have bread crumbs on hand and a couple eggs. I also use a few spices but there are not really any secret ingredients. One thing I like to use that is probably not always used by everyone is crimini mushrooms. I buy about a handful of fresh ones and chop them up very fine so that you cannot really identify them in the loaf. It’s not to hide them. I just think they add a nice flavor and are not intrusive when they are chopped so fine. If it was really a secret ingredient I guess I wouldn’t be sharing it now, but then again, it’s not like the whole world is reading this.

I have a few of these items scribbled on a piece of paper I usually take out when I make my meat loaf but I think I could probably put it together without the notes.

I guess I would like to think that maybe someday my children or grandchildren will come across these scribbled notes and set about making their own meatloaf. Of course, it won’t be as good as what Dad used to make but what can you expect?

Part of my outlook on life involves making mistakes. My friends and family have heard me say over and over again that if you “show me someone who isn’t making any mistakes, I will show you someone who isn’t doing anything at all”. Life is about education and the way that we humans learn the best is by making mistakes and then making adjustments. Every day is a lesson and the good news for us simple humans is that if we do not learn the lesson of the day, we will undoubtedly get a chance to go through the lesson again. Some of us spend our whole life going over the same lesson day after day and not figuring it out. I know there are some lessons that I seem to be having trouble learning. Life keeps giving me the lesson and I guess it will continue until I learn what I am supposed to and can move one.

Take some chances. If your meat loaf turns out crappy, just throw it away and make it differently the next time.

And keep listening to new music. You will undoubtedly find a lot of sounds that you do not enjoy, but eventually you will find something new and wonderful and your life will be just a little bit richer.

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