Steamed Meat Roll From 1930 - Old Cookbook Show 

Yesterday during our cookie video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uqNGzvNJzBs.html I spoke about a charity I’m supporting this summer with a 2,086nm fundraiser flight: support.hopeair.ca/give-hope-wings/glens-hangar The outpouring of support has been overwhelming, and in a few short hours this community donated over $5,000 to Hope Air. We are truly humbled and grateful for your support, your kind words, and your donations - we as a community can change lives.

This is something I remember my Grandmother making when I was a kid. We'd have it as sandwiches on her home made bread with Keen's hot mustard she made from the powder. Hard to say which was the best part, the meat, the bread or the mustard. Thanks for bringing back that memory from 50 years ago.

I bake meatloaf in wide-mouth half-pint and pint canning jars. As a single, older adult, this makes the meatloaf easy to freeze for storage; and fairly rapid thaw in the refrigerator. Easy to make a fast meal with some vegetables; slice for meatloaf sandwiches; or chop up to add for easy spaghetti sauce.

I love your emphasis on historical context. It is important in more than the studies in the kitchen. Again, thank you. Pleasse, keep on teaching us so well.

Thanks for the ham / pork explanation. The very old family Tourtier recipe call for 6 hams…needless to say, I never made it. Now it makes much more sense.

Good morning! Glen have you given any thought to compiling your own favorite recipes into a cookbook? Maybe the proceeds from which could go to your favorite charity? You never know maybe a 100 years from now someone on RU-vid will be making food from your cookbook!🙂

This recipe is very close to a traditional one from Bologna (Italy) called Rifreddo, which basically is a steamed meatloaf like this flavoured with mortadella and sometimes prosciutto, cheese and nutmeg. Very nice in a sandwich with mayo!

Definitely reminds me of a leftover meatloaf sandwich. One of life's greatest simple pleasures. I am sure the miners would have added brown sauce and pickled onions and had a fine lunch. I watched this episode because I was sure it wouldn't make me hungry and now I'm craving a cold meatloaf sandwich so bad! Nice bread, lots of mayo, thick slices of meatloaf and a layer of ketchup. Always best with a glass of milk. I don't even like milk but it is so good with this sandwich. Sigh.

👍 nice concept.

I thought for certain that roll was going to be crumbly and grainy but, when you sliced into it I was shocked because it looked more like a salami. Oh my goodness, the sky's the limit on the interesting spicing you could play with!

I live in Scotland and my Gran used to make a thing she called Hotch-Potch which was essentially this, just the steak mince though but with a chopped up carrot, an onion and instead of breadcrumbs... Ground up Kellogs cornflakes. It was steamed in a pudding basin or a cloot (cloth) like a clootie dumpling. Her version was served hot though. My Gran lived to 92, was born in 1918/1919 I think. I assume she got the recipe from her Mother. It really divided our family though as my Dad grew up eating it and my poor Mother hated it any time she made it when we'd go with my Dad to visit. 😂

I appreciate that you thought this recipe was crazy in the beginning, but did the video anyway. That's where good learning happens. Thanks guys!

On the topic of culinary terms changing over time, at one point in time mangoes meant 🫑 (green bell pepper) not the fruit. You see that sometimes in old recipe books. It takes some getting used to.

Very interesting. I think with a few more spices it would be great. I’ve never seen anything like it. This is one of the reasons I love watching your videos. Learning new things all the time.

Finally, an origin story for "Steamed Hams"

My mother used to make this in then 70s when our family and my uncle's would go together each year and get a steer and half a pig from the local butcher shop (wow, remember those?) She made dozens of these with the scraps, but she added chopped up onion and other leftover vegetables to it. Once they were cooked and out of the jars, she'd wrap them in freezer paper then put them in gallon bags and freeze them. Evening meals were often these cut into slices which she quickly browned in a skillet. They were our family version of hamburger patties. She stopped making them when my uncle moved away and we couldn't justify the cost of the cow and pig. Then all of the butcher shops closed in the mid-1980s.

Haha Jules laugh after her first bite cracked me up! I’d like to try this though!

I'm excited about the prospects of this steamed meat roll process. Considering what additives et al are in the processed meat we purchase from grocery stores, this Depression Era process results in pure meat with no chemicals, none of those multisyllabic nightmares that live in "lunch meats" and sausages today. I don't eat much meat, but there are times when I think my body is begging for some cow or pig or cow liver. The Steamed Meat Roll with endless herb and spice alternatives intrigues me. Thanks, Glen and Jules for timely inspiration. And I love the history!

50 years ago in Australia, my parents had a delicatessen where we made a version of this to sell. We called it an Aberdeen sausage, and it was cooked in a calico cloth. We chilled and sliced it for sale. We evolved it over time to have more seasoning, minced vegetables, and instead of just ham, We used up the small end pieces of various small goods. For the bread crumbs, we used minced bread, which had been damped with water and then drained. We also moved away from cloth cooking to aluminium foil and baking. It was a very popular product. Thank you for featuring it.

in my Region, Jars were commonly used for sausages made commissioned instead of for sale

Hi Glen. In your Australian cookbook by Miss Schafer, you will find a recipe called Aberdeen Sausage. It is very similar to this one. I grew up on it and still make it. We always made it in a pudding basin. When turned out it is lightly sprinkled to with breadcrumbs (modern type ones) to help give it a bit of a crust. We would have it warm with mash and veggies when first made then over next few day, cold in sandwiches with sliced tomato on buttered fresh bread. Real comfort food. ❤

I'm Scottish. My Mum used to make steamed Meat Roll with Beef mince Pork mince and a wee bit of minced Bacon and Ruskoline. Seasoned with Salt, Pepper, Worcestershire Sauce and Tomato Ketchup!

Oh, man. I bet that would perfectly with a suis vide unit. I may well try this.

Made this yesterday. For spicing I added salt and poudre fort to give it some additional flavour. We had it for dinner today, and I completely understand the reaction to the texture. Even though I was somewhat expecting it it was a surprise. Thanks for the fun time packing meat into jars and simmering it for hours. If you have any other unusual historical cooking techniques to share we're on board!

I can totally see this as a cold "hamburger" on a bun at a picnic

See, this is one of the things I love about this community! We come together for good and for food! I learn so much, and also really appreciate the comments about family memories and traditions from Glen's content. Just a wonder thing!

I want to do this because my family loves there great grandmas meatloaf sandwich. Leftover meatload seared on both cut sides and tosed on a bun or grilled on bread

I think we’re talking food for agricultural workers rather than coal-miners here (though coal-mining continued in Yorkshire until 2015). Here’s why: Looks like the recipes were compiled by a Miss Franklin of Keighley, West Yorkshire. Riddlesden (for whose school the cookbook was a fund-raiser) would then have been a village on the outskirts, though it’s now more a suburb. Like a lot of communities, Riddlesden was centred around East Riddlesden Hall, the local ‘big house’ (manor), and was mostly rural, with tenant farmers tending land that was in the possession of the Lord of the Manor. If you’re familiar with the venerable British radio soap ‘The Archers’, or 'Downton Abbey', you’ll know the kind of community. The school mentioned in the cookbook is still standing, though these days it only caters for the younger age groups. One further piece of information that might be of interest: according to its Wikipedia article, Riddlesden was the breeding-place of a famous cow called ‘The Airedale Heifer’, kept on the East Riddlesden Hall estate until its slaughter in 1830. Incidentally, both my grandads were coal-miners here in Derbyshire in the 1930s. Their 'snap' (packed food for break time) would more typically have been bread and dripping with salt, or bread and jam. My maternal grandad used to take extra bread and jam with him, as my mum loved to eat it when the underground heat had melted the butter and jam into the bread.

the mock apple pie we made in the 60s used ritz crackers

My cat would be on the prowl for that recipe as well. Need a shot of Chicken licking the fat and gelatin off the end of the roll.

This type of cooked meat product for use on Danish style rye bread is sort of here in Denmark. Usually it'll be called 'meatball sausage' (non-literal translation). And have onions.

If you say 'Chicken', you must show Chicken! 😻

I did a search for steamed meatloaf recipes, wondering if meatloaf would work in the steam tray for my little aroma 4 cup rice multi-cooker thing and found your channel. ❤ Really pretty neat I stumbled into you making a luncheon loaf, which my family never ate unless it was pan fried first, so this has me curious! Thank you for sharing

what an awesome base for experimenting... make your own "jarred summer sausage"

Interesting. It looks like an English pork pie filling!

Home made relish or stewed tomatoes would be great on this meat!

Always enjoy the old cookbook show, somedays you find real winners, and then there are other days... :)

This steaming is the same method my Grandmother used to make carrot pudding for Christmas. I did this a few times. It worked, but I 'm very grateful to my Mother for figuring out how to microwave the carrot pudding and end up with the same flavor and texture.

I learned to cook out of cookbooks from pre-1945, some of which were community cookbooks. I understand the issue of language changing and terms changing. I took a cooking class in college just to learn how to work with modern recipes and terms because I honestly was just getting getting frustrated with having to look up terms and ingredients in modern cookbooks to make sure I understood what I was doing correctly. Modern recipes also often seem fussy to me, as I was used to older style recipes where either you were expected to know the basic methods and to choose the correct method based on the ingredients or the details for the method were at the start of a section followed by the recipes. I think you are right, Glen, that this would make a good sandwich filling if spiced correctly. I could see this being a good field meal on the farm, too, as a filling for a hand pie style item (a slice of this in a pastry crust, for example).

A very common way of treating traditional moose here in Newfoundland.

I think Miss Franklin comes from the town of Keighley (pronounced Keethly) in Yorkshire. Coal mines were a big deal in Yorkshire till the 1990s. I could be wrong - I live in Lancashire over't th'ills!

Good morning!

You shouldn’t have to clarify that this is cooked, not preserved but as an instructor of food preservation, I still have people who swear that time can be substituted for pressure induced temperature. Thank you.

spam was definitely my first thought. Well my first thought would be cold meatloaf sandwiches for sure

You actually could spice this up some and process it in a canner for preservation. It would be handy to have on the shelf for a quick meal or wholesome sandwich filling. Years ago when we first moved to West Virginia, my husband would hunt with several other men from the neighborhood. I got a recipe from one of the wives for Venison Bologna, which was ground venison, beef kidney fat (the fat surrounding the kidney area, not the kidney itself), garlic and other spices. Stuffed as tightly as possible into a muslin sleeve about 4" in diameter and a foot long. We would tie off the ends and bake in a pan covered with foil, but I'll bet it would work in a steamer, too. It was great sliced on a bun with mustard and onion.

Growing up on a Missouri farm during the '70s, the processing plant where we took our beef and pork for processing called uncured/unsmoked bacon "fresh side," and while it was still called ham, a ham that was uncured/unsmoked was called a "green ham." I'm not sure if those terms are still in use or not, though, since I've gotten away from the farm.

I watch you so I don’t have to figure these things out. Once you tell me I just note it I’m my cookbooks 😁. Thanks for doing the leg work!

Interpretation of ham - I help at a food bank and we receive picnic hams - uncured. We have to explain to todays clients that these are not cured and they need to be fully cooked. We also have to be sure they understand how long they should cook them etc. Ham has become a deli meat or one you can slice and eat.

What a fascinating show! I am so glad the YT algorithm recommended you. OF COURSE I subscribed. Momma didn't raise any stupid kids, and I am an only child. Interesting topic, and really good production values (disclosure: I am a show producer & director; I know when a show is well-made, and yours is). Good job!

Quite an interesting recipe. I wonder how long it can be preserved in the fridge. If it can be preserved for a week or so it's a good meal prep candidate

-Oh my! This is exactly how I make my 'meat loaf' except I do pressure can it. Wide mouth jars, for 75 minutes, per USDA guidelines. I have a large wooden spoon, which I poke down the center, to reduce meat density. I add beef broth to center of jar, not quite to top of meatloaf. Season as you wish. Sometimes Mexican flavored, sometimes Italian, sometimes just S/P/G. Be sure to leave the 1" headspace. It slices beautifully for sandwiches or whatever. Meat roll seems so much more appropriate so henceforth, that is what I will call mine!

We need to get Glen together with Dylan Hollis for a crossover show.

When Glen dumped it out on the counter, my first thought was Dog Food. Cook it in a crock pot. ought to make great sandwiches.

Glen as an old(63) man who loves to cook you are a bright light in my life. Some simple some a little more complex. I grew up with GGM and a GM who instilled a love for food made with love and made to bring joy and sustenance to those at the table. Thanks for what you do.

My mom's family in South Carolina still roasts a leg of pork and calls it a green ham.

“Not as crazy as I first thought it would be”!

@8:12 Glenn looking at the meat roll like Richard Dreyfuss looking at a Devils Tower made of mashed potatoes. 😀

I used to make similar ground beef and ground pork meatloaf in my electric pressure cooker. I didn't use any eggs but several different spices, including a hot curry spice mix I found in the local supermarket, garlic salt, black pepper, and maybe some breadcrumbs, but I am not sure. The electric pressure cooker was an Instant Pot. I just formed a massive roll of the meats and put it in the Instant Pot, and pushed the buttons. I think my cooker was large enough for two meat rolls. I haven't done this for a couple of years because I can no longer get the pressure cooker out by myself.

Hi Glen and friends Thanks for this recipe. I agree about needed spices. We don’t eat pork but would use turkey ham instead.

When you add veal this would be my moms “ ham” loaf plus 1 TBS milk. We use home smoked ham now. Glad you stated all the disclaimers about the mason jars. If glass in flat on boiling pot, jar might crack. Put on White bread, add ketchup & it’s yum.

Keighley ( pronounced Keithley) was a mill town. North West of Leeds and Bradford.

My mother-in-law made this regularly, and so did I, in Scotland. We had a ceramic meat roll jar, and pleated greaseproof on top and tied with string, then into a pressure cooker for 20 min. We used a smoked bacon...tasty. I'm a Canadian, I make meat loaf too, in the oven. Different textures!

Glen, you are a talented artist of history and culinary arts! Luv how you go for these recipes and rock them🙏😎👍👍

Mmm steamed hams. You steam a good ham.

I will admit, I had some mild concerns that the jars would pop during cooking. Glad they didn't, though. 9:34 - Julie mentioned "SPAM," and I was just thinking, man, you've basically done home-made SPAM with this recipe. I kind of wonder how this stuff would hold up to a re-heat via frying or something. Or maybe as... what do they call it, "musubi?" From Hawai'i? Like you guys said, it seems like the recipe is wide-open as a platform for seasonings and variations.

When the meat roll slid out of the jar and you just stared at it, I thought I was watching Richard Dreyfuss figuring out the Devil's Tower thing in Close Encounters of the Third Kind!

just an FYI glen her name is just Miss Franklin as Keighley is the name of the town she lives in, this is evident because the riddlesden mentioned on the front page is a suburb of keighley and its pronounced 'keith-ly' by locals (its not far from where i live) :)

As someone who lives in Northern England, I can confirm that coal mines definitely weren't closed in the 1930's. Sadly closed due to the Conservative government and Thatcher much later. The last "Deep Coal Mine" actually only closed in 2015! But mining was still a HUGE industry in the 1930's, and mining foods were naturally prevalent during that time too! I come from a long line of miners, my town began mining in the 13th century. I can also confirm our love of a tinned corned beef sandwich has not gone away, especially with salted butter, mustard mayonnaise and rocket (Arugula) salad...

I now want cold meatloaf sandwiches with mustard...(yellow, honey or brown) for dinner!!

Interesting. I like ground pork, bacon, and pork roll, but I do not like ham. Anyway, I want to try making this some day.

So it's the North American cousin of embotido?

Oh Glen, oh Glen. The recipe from Mrs. Thornborough in Riddlesden is clearly a version of steak and kidney pie? I'd have loved to see you and Jules react to that. (I don't mind canned corned beef at all, but 'make your own SPAM/processed meat' seems like a lot of waiting and overnight chilling unless you've got a rock-em-sock-em personal spice blend.) Keep on being amazing, though!

But the important question, what did Chicken think of it?

I was watching a cooking video that called for mutton. I commented that I cannot easily get mutton where I shop, but that I loved it as a child. Eventually people corrected me by explaining that mutton meant goat. Edit: I did not expect much out of this at all. Now, I feel as though I have to make it. I'm not sure if I would spice it more, or just make a nice sandwich with mustard.

I agree the best way to combine ingredients for a meatloaf is your hands but I have physical issues that make it difficult. I found that my stand mixer with the paddle attachment works great, just have to be careful to not over mix. I don't think I'll ever make this particular recipe but the history lesson and process was very interesting.

I 'fry' spam in an oiled skillet to make a sandwich. This meat roll may also be good prepared that way.

I'd be curious to try this in a dish like budae jjigae (a Korean stew flavored with kimchi and gochujang) instead of spam.

Wow! i'm making this. Will add seasonings that would be used in making bologna.

Glen standing back and admiring his meat role brought back scenes of Richard Dreyfus admiring his sculptures of The Devil's Tower in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Next- boiling a hundred pounds of potatoes with a crazed look and lots of muttering. Julie just shaking her head and looking at the camera. Need coffee.

Hi Glen, see if you can find a recipe for English beef suet pudding which can be done in a pudding cloth or basin. Real “stick to your ribs” comfort food. Often kidney is added, but my Nana usually didn’t.

Now to the most important question: did Chicken get a taste?

In northern Minnesota, we use Ritz crackers instead of bread crumbs, add fine cut onions and 1 teaspoon of ketchup or 57 sauce,, for sandwiches... yummy..

I do the same thing with my rings cuz I don't have a rack for my steamer...in fact I use the really old ones I don't use to can with...Iwould add so many other spices and flavors in there... was wondering if you can do any recipes with like canned beef or pork...from like commodities

Did Glen just make steamed hams?

Thank you for the background info on ingredients like ham. What was the reason for cooking meatloaf in jars if they weren't planning on preserving them?

Did you add the eggs? I don’t remember them. I’ll have to watch it again.

I love community cookbooks! My future sister in law asked for guests to bring their favorite recipes to compile into a family cookbook. I contributed two of my favorite crockpot creations.

I didn't expect Julie to laugh.

Steamed hams reference made here

I really want to see the onion and meat roll just below it in the cook book. Is that one a log of meatloaf in pie crust?

Certainly in my parents / grandparents era (New England working class), and when I was growing up, cold meatloaf sandwiches were very much a thing.

In the Northeast, we seem to call it Uncured Ham.

My German father in law used to make something similar to this but it had onions, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, dill, and garlic in it. It was fabulous, and great on crackers and dark German rye bread! Germans eat it with a good vinegar splashed over it to cut the fat, but I bet a nice pickle would do just as deliciously.... 🍎

I have to wonder if you COULD preserve that by cooking it in a pressure canner. Then you'd basically have homemade spam, wouldn't you?

I love the educational aspect of these videos. I imagine it would appear more appetising if it was steamed in a loaf pan, like a terrine, just to avoid the visualisation of it plopping out of the jar like a can of pet food.

Glen, I’ve heard you lecture, about changes in products over the years. Very informative and important. In my opinion, equally important is the difference in ingredients used between countries. A great example is never use a Hungarian Onion in a North American recipe !

You call meatloaf "steamed meatroll"? Yes, it's a regional dialect! Uh-huh. What region? Uhhhh, upstate New York. Really? Well, I'm from Utica, and I've never heard anybody use the phrase "steamed meat roll". Oh, not in Utica. No. It's an Albany expression.

My instinct would be to take a slice of this and fry it in its own fat to get a bit more flavour on it.

I love old cookbooks and to try some recipes. I believe I love them as much as Glen. Unfortunatly, I can't afford many. I am lucky because i was able to learn from my grand-mother many of the late 1800's recipes. She was born in 1910 and would cook recipes she learned from her grand-mother and many aunts. We all cook many of the recipes to this day. So lucky to have the chance to learn more, thanks the this wonderful channel. Thank you Glen for all the hard work and to Julie for her comments and ideas❤❤❤

What about trying the reciepe under that. It is labled onion and meatroll and has kidney in it ? Might be interesting.