How To Drain Grease From Meatloaf

Meatloaf is a wonderful dish to serve anytime of the year.

However, there is a commmon problem with meatloaf: a lot of grease. We know that many people don’t like having too much fat in their dish, so it’s a must to drain the grease when making meatloaf. However, there aren’t many in-depth tutorials on cutting the fat.

In this post, we will learn how to drain the grease completely from meatloaf.

How To Drain Grease From Meatloaf Step by Step

Preparation

When draining grease from meatloaf, you need to prepare a thick crystal jar (about 8 ounces), a deep saucepan, a big tablespoon, and a stove. In terms of ingredients, we need mushy meatloaf (of course!), onion, pepper, and salt (based in your favor).

Now that you have already had all the necessary ingredients let’s get straight to the cooking process.

Instructions

There are four steps in general, and each step demands extra carefulness to not overcook or undercook the grease. Among the four stages, the last one – removing fat from the jar is the most challenging but also rewarding step.

Step 1: Boil The Soggy Meatloaf

First, let me clarify the principle of our approach. We will use the jar, heat, and airflow to “vacuum” the fat out of the meatloaf and discard the fat extracted through a specific technique at the end of the process. That’s how we will drain the meatloaf grease completely.

Now we will do the first stage: boiling the meatloaf. On a stove, put the deep saucepan, turn on the heat into the highest mode and place the meatloaf on it. Wait for the meatloaf to heat up.

When the meatloaf nearly comes to a boil, you will see the fat (grease) slowly melt down, creating the liquid fats flowing in the pan. Then, add onion and pepper into the separate glass canning jar as we will start using it consequently.

Step 2: Push The Jar With Onion-pepper Mixture Into The Skillet

Once the pan starts boiling and the fat shows signs of reaching the peak heating temperature like bubbles appearing, push the jar with the onion-pepper mixture into the skillet.

Remember to pour all the onion and pepper out of the jar because we will use them as toppings for meatloaf later. When the jar turns empty, push it again until the open end of the jar reaches the surface of the saucepan. The requirement for the success of this method is the “mouth” of the jar must touch the pan’s bottom.

If you follow the guidance correctly, the jar will be in an upside-down position when it’s in place.

Step 3: Leave The Pan Boiling For 10 Minutes

After pushing the jar to stay upside-down on the boiling saucepan, what should you do next? There is only one thing to do: waiting. This is when the fat will slowly melt down and be sucked into the jar.

To be specific, when you suddenly push the jar into the pan, all air inside the jar slowly turns hotter and hotter. The pressure inside the jar will create a force to let the cooler air out under the jar’s rim.

Consequently, the outside’s cool air will allow the hotter air inside the can to condense. The “convection” process is slowly coming. The stream from outside to inside is created.

Given that fact, the convection procedure will take its nearest (to the rim) outside “substance” inside the jar. And you know which thing is nearest to the rim then? The grease. Therefore, the grease will be slowly sucked into the glass canning jar.

Typically, the process of forming convection and sucking the fat from outside to inside is about 10 minutes. Sometimes, if the fat is few and the heat is high, it can take less than completely drain all the grease.

In other cases, if the meatball is fully packed in fat, then you have to wait for a longer time.

Step 4: Remove The Fat-filled Jar

Finally, the most important step. As we mentioned (many times) above, you have to be extra careful when doing this stage.

After waiting for about 10 minutes or seeing the fat is no longer sucked inside the jar, that’s the time to remove the jar from the skillet since all grease has been drained.

Using a spoon, or a couple of chopsticks, pick out the meatloaf and place it on a new dish. Take out the onion and pepper and put into that dish, either. You can enjoy the meatloaf with an onion-pepper mixture now.

Suppose you don’t want to eat the dish then, it’s acceptable to put the meatloaf back in the refrigerator. However, please remember that if you put the food to the refrigeration status, then the fat remaining inside it can solidify, and what you have in the next use is the greasy meatloaf.

What should you do with the jar full of grease and the skillet then? After moving the meatloaf and toppings, let the jar stand out at room temperature for a few hours more to let the fat congeal.

Next, invert the saucepan while holding the jar. All fat in the jar will flow downside to the bottom. It’s easy to discard the fat then: pour all fat in the jar to the waste bin.

The process of draining the grease is not completed. From the four steps given, the last one demands carefulness and patience the most. But we have to confirm that all stages are equally important.

Tips For Draining Grease From Meatloaf

• Use onion and pepper to season the meatloaf and extract the grease from the meat since onion complements the pork well and reduces the fatty taste.
• Put the glass canning jar into the skillet when the food is nearly boiled, not from the beginning because the pot can be broken or overheated.
• The best way to serve meatloaf is right after draining grease. It would be best if you did not put it back in the fridge since the grease will solidify again.
• When the fat is slowly sucked into the jar, you must not move the pot, the skillet, or the stove. Even just a slight movement can make the ongoing solidifying grease flow back to the pan.
• The ideal time to drain grease is before going to bed. After leaving the fat sucked into the jar, let everything sit out through the nights (6 to 8 hours) so that the fat can have enough time to harden.

Wrapping It Up

Through this post, we have learned how to drain grease from meatloaf. The process is not too long but demands extra carefulness in the last step. Please pay attention to that.

There are many other approaches to grease draining, and the below guidance is just our experience.

We hope that this article provides you with helpful insights into your cooking. Good luck!