Oh my, we've all these fun experiences. I remember making lo mein once, my husband took one sniff and then one look, and out we went.

I don't think I've ever had hamloaf.

My friend had quite a disaster when she was a newlywed. She's made meatloaf before and thought it might be a timesaver to put the meat, eggs, bread crumbs and other ingredients into a blender to make the mixing easier. What a mess. It was like a red meat martini and when she tried to bake it the whole mess simply congealed into an inedible mass.

Now we won't mention my first Thanksgiving turkey which had no stuffing except for the gizzards and such which dumb old me had no idea were lurking inside. The smell gave it away.

We've all been there. Thank God most Chinese places deliver!

Gosh, Tibs, if I went to all that trouble with so many ingredients I'd have to be making gallons of soup to freeze for many many servings! My biggest embarrassment came with my very first dinner party in my first apartment. Everything was going well...we were enjoying the wine, the antipasto platter... I had the mixed green salad chilling and the thick rich sauce simmering. I sneaked away from my guests to put the water on to boil...and discovered I'd forgotten to buy the spaghetti itself! One guest obliged by running to grocery while the rest were vastly entertained by trying to top one another teasing me ...josh

Learning experiences! Sometimes we just have to try something to see what happens.

Although I don't plan to freeze hamloaf, I'll never forget the year the peppers produced double expectations. Back then, big freezers had just become available for the general public and mum was thrilled to own one... which leads to the fact that most folks didn't know much about frozen foods, and trusted the handy little booklet that came with the freezer which stated very firmly which foods could be frozen and how to prepare them. Fresh green peppers (along with celery and onions) were big on the no-no list, and sure enough did turn to a sort of mush upon thawing. I suppose it was desperation at the sight of another 5-gallon bucket of peppers, but mum decided to make another attempt at freezing them. She diced them and spread the pieces on a cookie sheet, and popped them into the freezer. The next day most were packed into freezer containers, but a handful of the pieces were left over. I don't remember what those pieces went into, but that's when she discovered the quick-frozen peppers [which were worthless in a salad] were just fine in a cooked dish. Same method goes for onions, but celery is worthless unless it is precooked. Which comes back to the hamloaf: I wonder if it would have been okay if it had been cooked before freezing?

It most likely would have been if it had been cooked. I think it's the pineapple that did you in - although you had enough ingredients in there for soup...maybe your hamloaf was just trying to be true to itself:-)

You had too many veggies that lost moisture when frozen...you should have cooked the veggies before mixing.
And even if you had not frozen it first it would have been soupy...when adding lots of veggies to a meatloaf, you have to remember to add extra filler, bread crumbs cracker crumbs or oatmeal.
But I'll bet you won't do that again!! LOL!
Linda C

If it hadn't tasted so bad, I would have tried to make a kind of soup. Or feed it to the cats, but I would have to clean it up if it didn't agree with their little tummies. The yams and cabbage weren't in the hamloaf, just around it, like you do with a pot roast. I am wondering if the grocery store had frozen the hamloaf mix? It was an in store special. They are usually pretty good about stating previously frozen items. Oh well, cook and learn.

You had onions, celery and pineapple in there....had nothing to do with previously froxen meat....unless the "ham loaf mix" wasn't all meat.
I am suddenly hungry for ham balls... with that brown sugar mustard vinegar sauce....
Sigh....
Linda C

Fresh pineapple contains a protein dissolving enzyme. Is that what you were thinking too, Sheila? I am also wondering about the ham loaf "mix". One of our local stores offers ham loaf in their meat case, but it's not a meat mix for preparing it, it's the finished product, ready to be baked. I used to buy it for my mother, and freeze it whole. But I did not alter it in any way. Their meat loaf mix, however, was just that. You had to add the other ingredients. It was just the sausage and beef.

What's in hamloaf mix? What IS hamloaf?

Questions, questions ;)

Hamloaf is the same as meat loaf but it is a mix of ground ham, ground pork, and maybe some ground veal. Not sure of the ratio. My grocery store is the meat mixture only. Then you add the bread crumbs, or oatmeal or soda cracker crumbs (saltines), beat eggs, minced onions, an other seasonings. It is very good with mustard brown sugar glaze. It is meatloaf with ground ham. My m-in-law made the best hamloaf balls. Don't know wy the little sixe made them taste so better and different than a large loaf.

Thank you for explaining! I know what you mean about little hamloafballs: I feel the same way about regular meatballs. I think its something to do with there being more 'outside' with a slightly different texture to 'inside'. Better balance of texture if you see what I mean.

Another vote for the pineapple being the dissolving factor. Ever add it to jello and try to leave it for a couple days? You can't. Other fruits and veggies are fine, but the bromelain in the pineapple (esp. fresh pineapple) prevents the jello from setting. Fresh acts differently than canned because the canning process heats the enzyme enough to denature it.

Ever wonder what's in some meat tenderizers that make them break down (tenderize) meats? In the case of Schilling's Meat Tenderizer, it's this very enzyme extracted from pineapples...

But wouldn't freezing slow down the enzyme action?
Linda C

Good point. Yes, freezing would also effect it... but the fresh pineapple wasn't frozen separately and then added to the hamloaf... it was added and then the whole thing was frozen, giving it plenty of time to do its thing before it was impacted by the cold at all. I submit that the freezing is a red herring in this equation... that the clue to the real cause of the soup lies in the words "I didn't use canned crushed pineapple, I chopped some fresh I had left over." (Implying that she'd made this dish with canned pineapple successfully in the past?) I could be wrong, and it wouldn't be the first time, but if I had to wager on it, that's where I'd put my money...

Does anyone have some fresh and canned pineapple lying around and feel like doing a science experiment?

OK, I just got off the phone with my resident science boy who's traveling on business (Robin, wave at him, he's in Nashville) and I asked him if I was smoking crack in my reasoning. His reply was that heat denatures the tertiary structure of any protein while freezing actually preserves it. So I'm going with the pineapple theory and agreeing that it was probably further amplified by the mushification of the celery in the freezer.

Oh, and speaking of kitchen mistakes, I pulled a doozie the other week. I braised a whole chicken with veggies and herbs and had a little melt down as I was putting it on the table. I was PMS-ing, grumpy, rushed, distracted and arguing with Steve and I decided at the last minute to make gravy (which I don't make often). Ordinarily I dissolve my flour/corn starch/whatever before I add it to the warm liquid, but I was rushed and decided to whisk it in on the fly. While I was doing this, the phone rang and I left it for a second and ended up with lumps. I suppose I should have whipped out my immersion blender or strained out the lumps and started over, but in the back of my mind I remembered this salad dressing shaker with agitator my mom gave me... she had said it was useful for gravy making, so I filed that thought away without really processing it. So.... I poured the hot gravy into the shaker, sealed it, and gave it half of a shake before the pressure from the heat blew the lid of in a violent explosion that covered me and my whole kitchen in molten (lumpy!) gravy!

Steve busted a gut laughing at me, pointing out that I should have known with 100% certainty that that could be the only outcome of that choice. I reluctantly agreed, and finally got him to shut up by pointing out that its a also a scientific certainty that husbands who mock their gravy spattered wives diminish in sexual appeal in proportion to the extent they go on and on about it. He got the message.

We skipped the gravy that night. It took me a while to clean my ceiling and cabinets...

Yeah, I think it was the pineapple too. That went thru my mind whem I added it. I checked my Fanny Farmer cookbook today and it did hav pineapple listed in its freezer chart, so I gues it is ok to freeze it on its own, but not in things. Celery never had any effect on the meatloaf freezing.

And Jaz., I did a similar thing with the hot liquid. Recipe said puree the soup. Put it in the old blender and dd not remove the little steam vent thing and whoosh! None on the celing though, and I had no spouse to witness the embaressment.

There is an apron I saw somewhere that had a saying that went something like "Many have eaten my cooking and all have survieved". Maybe I should get one.

I didn't think the freezing would halt the enzymatic activity because although I usually pressure can my garden produce, I have been known to freeze it, and nearly all vegetables should be blanched before freezing for just that reason according to most home economists for the extension. Enzymes cause the food to lose quality even when frozen. Exceptions I can think of are peppers. I never blanche those, but mince them finely, spread them on a cookie sheet so they won't clump together and then freeze.