Manley Moose Meatloaf

Moose meat is fantastic! I am thankful that I have such a wonderful provider to call my husband, who is able to hunt for moose (draw willing) and fill our freezer with meat that is; organic, free-range, ethically raised, hormone or medication free and 100% stress free! Moose is leaner than beef as well, which only adds to its wonderful characteristics! Here is what you'll need

- 2lbs Mince Moose Meat

- Handful of Spinach, Finely Chopped

- 3-4 Mushrooms, Roughly Chopped

- 1 Yellow Onion, Finely Chopped

- 4 Cloves of Garlic, Micro-grated

- 3 tbsp Smoke Flavoured BBQ Sauce

- 1 tbsp Worchestershire Sauce

- Generous Amount of Parmesan Cheese

- 2 Eggs

- 1/4 cup Crushed Saltines, Salt-Free

- 10-12 Strips of Bacon (Reduced salt if at all possible)

- Coarse Sea Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Preheat Oven to 375-400 degrees (depends on your oven)

1. Add all the ingredients together in one bowl barring the bacon.

2. Empty contents onto a work board and with wet hands shape into a loaf.

3. In a medium sized pan, add loafed meat.

4. Wrap with bacon, across the shorter side, ensuring that each piece overlaps the last.

5. Bake for 1 hr, ensure that bacon is crisp and meat is cooked.

**This is a rather meaty meatloaf and if you wish to omit the bacon, you can absolutely do that. Adding the bacon is not something I always do, but it's something my husband appreciates! The bacon does add a smokey flavour to the meat, but it also adds moisture without larding. Larding is a process recommended by a lot of moose recipes where frozen, usually pork fat, is inserted into the moose meat to compensate for the lack of fat or moisture. I have cooked a lot of moose and I don't feel that any of it requires larding, that's personal preference...like the bacon. Should you choose to omit the bacon, press the meat mixture into a greased bread/loaf pan and cook for 1 hr, or until meat it cooked thoroughly. To add moisture to the meat, add ketchup, tomato soup or cream of mushroom soup to the top and bake. You may also omit the smoke flavoured BBQ sauce and add any flavour meat sauce you wish, Ketchup works great too as well as a wide variety of smoke-free BBQ sauces or HP sauce. **

Bon Appétit!