Jeff's Grandma's Amazing Irish Meatloaf

The other day my friend posted a status update on Facebook that he was making his grandma's meatloaf. I love meatloaf, so I asked for the recipe and he kindly gave it to me.

I made it the other night for Rick's family. Since they're Irish, I thought they may like it. What makes a meatloaf Irish? I'm guessing because there are not tomatoes at all. Whatever, my sister-in-law declared it "the best meatloaf I've ever had." I have to admit, it was darn good eating.


Jeff's Grandma's Irish Meatloaf (with Venison instead of beef)

First...here are the instructions as Jeff gave them to me. As you can see, I had to do a little research to find out the right proportions, which I figured out by looking up recipes on Cook's.com

From Jeff: The secret is...........fresh ground ham steak, 2 eggs and bread crumbs..Oh and a red pepper all run through the Kitchen aid grinder. 1 large onion as well. Add 1 1/2 lbs of freshly ground beef or venison, elk. I buy Organic beef a whole cow really every year thats what I use. But it's real lean so Venison should be good! bake for 1.5 hrs in a dutch oven with-out the lid. Pour off the fat if any and cover for an hour. remove to set and make flour gravy in the browned drippings.
Mmmm good!

My interpretation:
1 1/2 lbs ground venison
1/2 lb fresh ground pork
2 eggs
3 cups fine bread crumbs
1 red pepper
1 large onion

Run eggs, bread crumbs, red pepper, and onion through a food processor. Mix in ground meat (use a kitchen aid if you have it, if not, your hands will work just fine.

Bake for 1.5 hours at 350 in a dutch oven with-out the lid (I actually used a bread pan because I don't have a dutch oven).
Pour off the fat if any and cover for an hour (there was no fat to pour off when I used the venison).