Grape Jelly Meatloaf

One of the more useless wedding presents popular in the 1970s was fondue sets, and Carol and I received one. It consisted of a wire circular rack with a central pot for meatballs, surrounded by several smaller pots for holding various dipping sauces. A small tray was underneath for holding warming candles that would keep the food hot, while everyone would use long, skinny fondue forks to skewer a meatball and dip it in the dipping pot of their choice. There were five or six dipping pots for various sauces, most cheese based. The fondue set came with its own cookbook, so we had recipes for what to put in the dipping pots.

One sauce was very different from the rest in that it was mostly grape jelly. The cookbook called for mixing three tablespoons of it with one tablespoon of ordinary yellow mustard. The mustard would change the texture of the jelly into a sauce while remaining sweet. That simple concoction was put into one of the dipping pots.

For us, that turned out to be the most popular pot to dip meatballs in. It was surprisingly delicious, especially for me and my sweet tooth.

But digging out and using the fondue set was a hassle. So many pieces, some easily misplaced, not to mention the cleanup afterward, made the whole ordeal more trouble than it was worth. But we still wanted to use that grape jelly sauce, somehow. But how?

Then Carol got the bright idea of incorporating it into a regular meatloaf recipe. Perfect! All she needed was a fairly bland recipe, one that didn't have anything unique about it that would be in competition with the grape jelly sauce. Such a recipe wasn't hard to find. It would basically be the same as the cookbook called for to make the meatballs.

All the usual ingredients were there, such as two pounds of ground round, some bread crumbs, maybe some minced onions if we had any on hand, a couple of eggs, and a little salt. Just your basic, everyday, run-of-the-mill meatloaf, except for one thing.

In a separate small bowl Carol made the grape jelly sauce. After mixing all the above ingredients together she then mixed in half of the sauce, and then baked that at 350* for about 40 minutes or so. Then she pulled it out, spread the rest of the sauce on top of the meatloaf, and then baked it for another half hour or so.

The result was spectacular. Crunchy yet gooey, sweet and meaty, I could eat the whole thing! Making it once a month or so would be perfect! We never used the fondue set again, but we sure benefited from it!

Every now and then at work we would have a potluck, and a couple of times I brought Carol's grape jelly meatloaf. I loved it so much I wanted to share it with all my friends. But I made the mistake of telling them what it was, so rarely would anyone even try it.

I was so disappointed. I should have kept its identity to myself, and then coyly refuse to divulge the recipe if anyone asked. But I didn't. Oh, well. It was their loss.

I may not have the nerve to try to make Carol's seven layer, four cheese lasagne, but I can make this grape jelly meatloaf, and I do once in a while.