Each morning I would stop at the hospital’s commisary before my shift and load up on pork products and Diet Mountain Dew. Alice would always be at the register and I would sniff the air and appreciate the smell of frying bacon.

“Alice, you should tell the chef we need a meatloaf that is made of pork.”

She suggested that I created it.

And I did.

As you can imagine, this is a meatloaf made of pork. As with any loaf, it is fairly easy to make and rather inexpensive.

Ingredients:

• 1 – 1.5 lbs. pork. Don’t buy ground unless you do not have a food processor or grinder. If you do, I suggest round or butt, something with little fat content.
• 1 lb. of bacon. If your deli offers slab bacon, get that and have them cut slices at least 1/4″ thick.
• 1 or 2 eggs
• 2 T butter
• Fresh rosemary, at least three sprigs
• Garlic, at least four cloves
• Dijon mustard (2T for recipe, more to spread atop)
• Rye or pumpernickel bread for 1 -2 cups fresh bread crumbs
• 1 medium onion
• Salt and pepper

Serves 4-6

Preheat oven to 375°F

Method:

Chop the bacon into lardons (pieces about 1/4-1/2″ wide) and place into a skillet on medium heat. Render the fat but do not cook them all the way down to crispy. Drain the fat,  but save it for later. Drain the lardons on paper towels.

With a food processor, finely chop the bread into crumbs. If the bread is especially fresh, you will have a coarser crumb. This, too, is fine. The nice thing about this recipe is the wiggle-room it provides. Depending upon the size of the crumbs, place one to two cups in a large bowl.

Mince the garlic and onion until finely chopped. Be careful and use pulse. You do not want it to turn to liquid. In the skillet, melt the butter over medium heat and sautée the garlic and onion until clear, about five minutes. In my experience if you do not cook them down first, it tastes raw in the finished product.

If the pork is not ground, use the food processor or grinder to make it so. Again, be careful with the food processor, as you may turn your pork into pâté.

In the bowl, combine the pork, onion, garlic, mustard, salt and pepper, and bacon with the crumbs. Clean three or four sprigs of rosemary and chop medium-fine and to the mixture. Crack in one egg. Now this is the part where eyeballing is key: if the mixture seems dry, add some of the bacon renderings and another egg. This recipe yields about two pounds of porkloaf, so a mixture of feel and sight come into play. This is true of most peasant foods where there really isn’t a recipe. The nice thing is that you may do what you please.

When you’ve mixed this thoroughly, place in a loaf pan and bake, covered, at 375° for about 35 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and spread an even layer of mustard atop the loaf and continue baking, uncovered, for another 15-20 minutes. When the internal temperature is around 145°F, remove it from the oven and let stand for another 10-15 minutes. The porkloaf will continue cooking and should be around 155°F when ready to serve.

Pork is fairly flavorless and needs to be seasoned heavily. Don’t be afraid to overdo the rosemary and garlic, it can handle it. Use Kosher salt if you have it, it is less salty; and use fresh-ground pepper if possible.

Porkloaf can be served alone or with a tomato sauce of your choice. I often make a garlic, tomato, cream sauce, but I suggest doing what moves you.

The dish became popular amongst my friends, most likely because of the name, and I serve it at an annual porkloaf party I throw every summer.