dsi1 wrote:

> On Saturday, January 13, 2018 at 6:31:28 PM UTC-10, Julie Bove wrote:
> >
> > There's no link. And most meatloaf does have egg and carbs. If the
> > egg isn't the binder, why is it there?
>
> I like the concept that you may or may have not put forth. Making a
> meatloaf with a ton of vegetables and holding it all together with
> ground meat. I never use any eggs in my meatloaf but I do use soaked
> bread crumbs which tends to soften the loaf and keep it from
> crumbling. OTOH, if I use an extraordinarily high veggie to meat
> ratio, I might want to use an egg or two. I believe that I would like
> a meatloaf so fashioned.

Actually, in Japan I did that fairly often. Ground beef was very
expensive and as it got more so, they'd trott out the 70% 'lean' (I kid
you not!). Even that was 3-4$ a lb more than stateside. Someone once
said they caught it at 65% but I'm not sure if they were serious.

When it gets like that, folks start experimenting with less expensive
fillers. He's some of the things I've used (not all in the same batch):

Carrots
Bok Choy (chopped fine)
Mustard greens (chopped fine)
Potatoes
Eddo (small taro, not poi type)
Tofu
Green beans (chopped fine, pre-steamed)
Cabbage (chopped fine)
Cauliflower (I didnt care for that one but tried it on a recommendation)
winter squash types
Obviously bread crumbs, crackers, rice and such
Raw oats from the Quaker box

Charlotte saw a sheet of nori out from making riceball packages and
filled one with some of the mix then wrapped it like a cigar and we
steamed that for an interesting difference. It didnt taste much like
'meat loaf' but it was fun to try something different and worked well
enough to hold it together.

I'd say my rule of thumb was not more than 1/4 'other stuff'. Eggs
were considered 'optional' due to cost (between 25-40yen each,
depending on season, they don't lay as much in winter so cost more).

Oh, a yen is pretty close to a penny for most simple calculations. It
was normally a little less most of the time I was there so that would
have been from 23cents to 37cents or so per fresh 'semi range free'
egg. We don't really have a catagory to match what they do there.