For The Best Meatloaf Topping, Think Beyond Ketchup
Meatloaf isn't just a classic American dish — other than maybe burgers, it's arguably the single most emblematic American dish. What's not to love? It's easy to make; just pop it in the oven and let it go. A giant honk of ground meat (beef most commonly, but you can use any ground meat), eggs, bread crumbs, and seasonings covered in some sort of glaze sure sounds American. And if you're dealing with a classic meatloaf, that glaze is probably ketchup.
Why, though? Why limit yourself just to ketchup as an option? There are all sorts of things you can use as a meatloaf glaze that can give it a much richer depth of flavor than plain old ketchup. Ketchup feels like a very 1950s option before home cooks realized you could do actual interesting things with sauces. And, oh boy, there are a lot of options out there.
Some options are more complicated than others
If you don't want to get out of your comfort zone, you can still use ketchup — just use it in conjunction with other condiments. A ketchup and mustard mix works great, as does ketchup and mayo. The most obvious choice here is barbecue sauce. Whether it's homemade or you're using something like Sweet Baby Ray's, the tang and sweetness of barbecue sauce makes perfect sense; most barbecue sauces use ketchup as a base anyway; they just make things more lively from there. But when you're really ready to branch out, that's when things get interesting.
Tomato works as a key flavoring — if it didn't, ketchup wouldn't be so standard a topping. But why rely on processed, overly sweet ketchup when you could make a tomato-based sauce that leans more savory and with more depth of flavor? For a more delicate umami flavor, you can do something like a mushroom gravy or a reduced cream of mushroom soup; mushrooms always pair well with beef, and meatloaf is no exception. You could even use something as simple as a light soaking of Worcestershire sauce.
There's one ingredient that's a running thread through a lot of these
There's a key ingredient running through a lot of these sauces and glazes that's important to make special note of: brown sugar. Brown sugar is a crucial component of most barbecue sauces — those that don't use it directly will use molasses, which is the key component in the production of brown sugar. And if you want to add a sweet element to any of these sauces, you're not going to want to use white sugar; you're going to want the brown stuff, which has a much richer, deeper flavor. You can even fold it into a ketchup-based sauce (possibly with some sort of acid-like vinegar or lemon juice for balance) to take a simple base and turn it into something more memorable.
Whichever topping you go with, don't be afraid to experiment. There's a whole world of culinary options, and there's no reason to limit yourself to something as plain as a bottle of Heinz.