Nana's Cookbooks -- Mrs. R. Forster's Meatloaf

The day before my mom arrived to live with us, I discovered three of her mum's cookbooks in zip lock bags wedged between cookbooks on my kitchen shelf. I completely forgot I had them.

When a sister and I emptied our childhood home five years ago, they were one of the few things I brought home to Kauai. The cookbooks are from the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, Evangeline Chapter, Halifax Nova Scotia. Those are the words on the yellowed cover.

Hundreds of tiny paragraphs describe everything from Fairy Fluff to Meatloaf. For my mother's first meal, I made a meatloaf contributed to the cookbook by a "Mrs. R. Forster." Yes, the vegetarian household took a radical turn, and yum, it was delicious, and no, Wes did not partake.




Here's the recipe exactly as Mrs. R. Forster wrote it. I clarify some points at the end of the recipe instructions.

1/2 pound sausage meat
2 lbs. round steak ground
1 egg lightly beaten
1 can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cups soft breadcrumbs
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 salt, pepper
2 tblsp. poultry seasoning
Turn into a greased loaf pan, and bake in a pan of warm water in a hot oven for 1 hour.

I used organic ground beef from Costco and the ground pork from Cost-U-Less. I didn't have canned tomato soup. I used half a can of tomato paste. My mom says a "hot" oven is 375 degrees. I reduced cooking time to 48 minutes because I prefer meat undercooked a bit. This is a rock solid recipe that made really good sandwiches for the following week.

Enjoy! We did.