My favourite meatloaf recipe is by foodwriter James Villas. A rounded confection of pork, veal and beef nothing has ever come close to beating it for flavour. Setting my stall out on the meatloaf front doesn't stop me wanting to read more on the subject though and if you're loaf-mad like me, 'A Meatloaf In Every Oven' is definitely worth acquiring, even if it's to look loftily down on the efforts of Speaker Paul Ryan, (made with venison).

With 49 recipes, this book encapsulates the spirit of " a quintessential American dish that can bind a nation" and the only dish that Bruni feels he has complete confidence in cooking (and I am somewhat stunned by this). Steinhauerwrites about food for The Times and the food blog Food52 and talked Bruni into co-authoring the book and their culinary melding is amusing, and informative.

There's the Bruni family basic meatloaf, meatloaves with chorizo, an odd ahi tuna version and a frito pie meatloaf which I made and will definitely make again. Many of the chef contributions mess with the entire point of the dish: its homeliness is its charm; the idea that in its making, you are connecting with home cooks over time and place is more important to me than reinventing the bloody wheel. But the internal debate one has with oneself over recipes like these is part of what makes this book so stimulating.

The title of this book says it all! Meatloaf is one of my favorite dishes, and the possibilities for different varieties are endless. This book contains mouth watering recipes from celebrity chefs to politicians. The short biographies for each contributor are interesting. I particularly enjoyed that almost each recipe comes with a story introducing it.

In a conversation one day the two authors discovered a passion for meatloaf, and this wonderful book was born. They provide a comprehensive history of meatloaf and it's many varieties, complete with a timeline and different cultures. There is also an essential equipment list of different pans, gadgets, etc, that you may want to invest in for some of the recipes in the book.

The chapters are as follows:
1. Classics
2. Around the World
3. Lamb
4. Click Cluck Gobble Gobble
5. Meatless Loaves
6. Guilty Pleasures
7. Political Postscript
8. Sides

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a different take on the classic dish that is meatloaf. I received this as a free ARC from Grand Central Life & Style on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An enjoyable collection of information, anecdotes, and recipes involving meatloaf. As a cook, I'm pretty tied to my own meatloaf recipe as it's a semi-constant hit in our household; as a reader, it was fun to learn about how others prepare it differently, and it made me really hungry.

Although few really admit that meatloaf is their favorite dish, most likely because it is a carryover from the 60s and doesn’t usually contain super foods (and isn’t grain free, and doesn’t contain trendy ingredients, etc.), it definitely has endured. Almost everyone will agree that meatloaf is quintessential comfort food. Most families have their own special meatloaf recipe. However, sometimes it’s nice to have a change. Frank Bruni and Jennifer Steinhauer have come together to create an excellent cookbook, A Meatloaf in Every Oven: Two Chatty Cooks, One Iconic Dish and Dozens of Recipes - from Mom's to Mario Batali's, containing not only excellent meatloaf recipes, but vignettes and bantering prose that will keep everyone entertained for hours.

Although there are plenty of recipes for traditional flavored meatloaves, such as Senator Susan Collins’s Bipartisan Loaf (which my husband loved), and Annie Miller’s Home-Style Loaf with Cheddar and Parsley, and Painter’s Meatloaf (named because of specks of colored vegetables), there are versions of meatloaves that incorporate trendy ingredients such as Chicken Curry Masala Loaf and Jerk Chicken Loaf. One loaf that was excellent was Homely Homey Blue and Bacon Loaf; leftovers made scrumptious cold meatloaf sandwiches.

There is something in this book for everyone – those who love meatloaf, and those who don’t. There are fancy recipes for food snobs, healthier recipes for those trying to improve their health, and recipes for those who are on the ongoing and constantly changing bandwagon (gluten free, Paleo, etc.). There are loaves made with beef, lamb, chicken, and pork, as well as seafood, and, even meatless loaves for vegetarians. Every loaf I have tried has turned out perfectly. The directions are easy to follow and many recipes call for ingredients that you probably already have on hand.

The one drawback to this cookbook is that there are no pictures. The book does contain some illustrations, but colored pictures of the various meatloaves are definitely missing, and most of us like to know what our finished dish should look like.

If you are a meatloaf aficionado, this is one of the best meatloaf cookbooks out there. It is recommended because all of us have days we need real comfort food; this book will deliver.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

I wondered, would a book about just meatloaf seem more like an appetitizer than an entree? After reading the first page, I could barely stop myself from gulping it in a flurry of page turning, or in my case, swipes of the e-reader. I learned. I felt my culinary horizons expand, I laughed. I hoped to fall in love with cooking meatloaf...after the first pages, I was already in love with the authors. This is a book to savor, to revisit, to talk about with friends. It is more than a collection of recipes for meatloaf; it is a recipe for enjoying life.