What To Know Before Using Oatmeal As A Binder For Meatloaf

Breadcrumbs might be the traditional go-to binder for meatloaf makers everywhere, but oatmeal is becoming a popular choice. There are plenty of upsides to using oats in meatloaf, like adding a dose of heart-healthy whole grains to a dish that can be high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Just don't expect them to behave exactly like breadcrumbs. The most important thing to keep in mind is that not all oats are appropriate for making meatloaf, and if you choose the wrong variety the dish can come out dry and grainy.

Quick-cooking or "instant" oats are the ideal binder for making meatloaf for a couple of reasons. This type of oatmeal is pre-cooked, dried, and then rolled and pressed, which not only makes cooking fast and easy, it means they are not as chewy as rolled oats (also called "old fashioned" oats) or steel-cut oats. All of these qualities are important in meatloaf because you need a binder that won't absorb too much moisture, add too much texture, and that will cook properly in the time it takes to bake the dish. Rolled oats can work similarly to instant oats, but they are not as processed and will change the texture of the meatloaf. Steel-cut oats won't cook properly at all and will be hard and grainy.

If you're planning to swap out breadcrumbs for quick-cooking oats in an existing meatloaf recipe, scale up the oats to roughly 1 to 1 ½ times the volume of fine breadcrumbs. For example, if a recipe calls for a ½ cup of fine breadcrumbs, use 1 to 1 ½ cups of instant oats. If you're not so sure about using oats, start with a smaller amount of oats and blend them with some breadcrumbs for your first try. If you only have rolled oats, run them through a food processor for a couple of pulses, which will break up the texture and cut down on any chewiness in the finished loaf.

If you find that the oats dry out your meatloaf, try adding some extra ingredients to boost the moisture of the meat mixture like ketchup and chopped mushrooms. You can also increase the moisture content by adding milk – one of our secret weapon meatloaf tricks. Simply soak the oats in some milk to make a panade before mixing them into the meatloaf, which is a common technique for making meatballs (oats also work great in meatballs, too). As for flavor, don't worry too much about dinner tasting like breakfast. Oats will not significantly affect the flavor of meatloaf any more than breadcrumbs, so you can swap them into any recipe in a pinch.