Alva's Meatloaf
I never knew Alva Rollins. But her memory continues to be a blessing for our family. Alva is the reason we have cake for a breakfast treat after a special occasion. And Alva’s meatloaf is the first recipe my kids asked me to send them when they set out on their own.
Alva was the live-in housekeeper for my grandparents when my mom and her sister were young, and she would always let the girls have chocolate cake for breakfast on Saturday mornings after the family’s weekly Shabbat dinner. Though we don’t have cake every week like that, still it’s an expected treat that my kids look forward to whenever we have cake. Once, when my son, Wilson, chose a movie and sleepover for his birthday – I think he was probably 9 years old – he and his friends were too tired to do the whole cake thing after the movie. So I said matter-of-factly, “Well then we’ll just have cake for breakfast.” I still remember how Wilson’s friends looked at me, like I was the best mom ever!
Alva’s is a story that probably played out in many homes of that era. Alva’s eldest sister, Lucy, and her husband, Tom, had a farm in North Haven, near where my mother grew up. Occasionally my grandmother would go out to the farm and bring her daughters, but they weren’t allowed to play in the house that still at that time had a dirt floor, which was quite an eye-opener for my mom.
Lucy and Tom, my mom recalls, raised at least a dozen foster children on their farm. Lucy took in washing and ironing for nearby housewives so she could send money south to her numerous siblings and bring them up north one by one. Lucy came to know my grandmother, Nena, and Nena adored Lucy. So when Lucy’s youngest sister, Alva, arrived from the south, Lucy asked my grandmother if she would hire her as a live-in housekeeper. Alva arrived when my mother was but a toddler, and she became my mother’s treasured confidante. If my mother ever thought she had done something wrong, she would confess to Alva first for her wisdom and advice.
Although the situation echoes with such difficult realities of our nation’s history, it’s important to find ways to hold women like Alva in our collective memory.
We love Alva’s meatloaf! My mother so clearly remembers sitting on a tall chair in the kitchen, watching Alva make a well in the middle of the ground meat, and mixing in the beaten egg, bread crumbs, and mustard by hand. There are two significant things to note. First, it is a cooked in a baking dish, in a freeform shape, rather than in a loaf pan, which is how most recipes I see are done. Second, it bakes in a bath of Campbell’s tomato soup. This is one of the few recipes where I use prepared ingredients like this as well as the seasoned bread crumbs. I guess it had been years since my mom had eaten Alva’s meatloaf, and once when visiting we decided to make it, and my mother just couldn’t stop spooning extra sauce onto her baked potato, onto her potato skin, straight onto her plate!
Alva’s Meatloaf
This recipe is given with amounts per 1 pound of ground meat. When my kids were young I would often triple it to serve for more than one dinner and some lunches, too!
1 pound ground meat (all beef, about 85% lean or higher, or a meatloaf mix)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2-3 Tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs (I like the kind that includes some Parmesan)
½ - 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 can Campbell’s condensed tomato soup
½ soup can water
½ - 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ - 1 teaspoon Tabasco or other hot sauce (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl combine the meat, beaten egg, bread crumbs, and mustard and mix gently but well. (I confess to using my stand mixer with the paddle attachment because usually my hands get too cold mixing the meat!)
Shape the meat into a freeform loaf shape and place in a glass baking dish (8-by-8 or 9-by-9 for a 1 pound loaf, increasing in size if you make a bigger loaf).
Pour tomato soup into a medium bowl. Rinse out the soup can with about ½ a can’s worth of water and add to the soup. Add Worcestershire and Tabasco (if using) and whisk to combine. Pour over the meatloaf, allowing the sauce to run off into the baking dish.
Cover the baking dish and bake for 1½-2 hours. It will be cooked through in less time, but I like it give the tomato soup a chance to soak well into the meatloaf.
This recipe is best served with something to soak up the sauce – rice, mashed potatoes, noodles, etc. If you have any leftover after dinner, allow to cool, cover with foil, and keep in the refrigerator. There will be a layer of fat solidified in the morning, which I just take off and discard. This recipe reheats well in the microwave, and you can even freeze portions for another time. I also like to make thin slices after it cools for meatloaf sandwiches.