Help! Drooling Meatloaf Fire

[maisies1]

So, I was making CL Barbecue Meatlof- my first foray into meatloaf- and about 30 minutes into the hour bake time, it began to "drool" over the sides of my loaf pan and burn onto the floor of my oven. I yanked it out and put it in the fridge, and now I have a problem. The oven's self-clean cycle is tripping my smoke alarm, so I had to shut it off. Can't complete the meatloaf, can't use the oven at all, until it's clean- it's producing tons of smoke even at 350. My house reeks, and I'm afraid I'm going to start a fire if I try to self-clean again, so the oven is useless. Any advice? I thought I was being so efficient, cooking ahead for the week. :mad:

[funniegrrl]

Hmmmmm ... If it were me I would probably slice the meatloaf and pan-fry to finish cooking ...

[Just Mary]

How much food matter is in the oven? Wipe up or scrape up what you can then let it self-clean. I don't believe it can start a fire, as long as there isn't piles of food in there. Open windows and unplug the smoke detectors, if you have to. It can't smoke too long, if there's not a lot of food to burn. Maybe go out to eat while it cleans?

This probably goes without saying but putting your loaf pan on a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet is a good idea.

My favorite meatloaf recipes (and Cooks Illustrated's), you don't use a loaf pan at all, just form your loaf right on a foil-lined jelly roll pan. No boil-overs, and no steamed/boiled meat flavor. :)

[tperes]

Yea, try cleaning up the chunks of stuff in your oven, maybe with a paste made from water and baking soda. The self-cleaning shouldn't catch anything on fire (unless your meatloaf contained flammable ingredients? :D ), and it should turn everything in there to a black charred bunch of ashes. Ditto opening the windows, turn on some fans...etc. Good luck!

[Couperine]

I set my self-cleaning oven on fire when I made sausage-cheese balls and the grease dripped over the edge since I had a brain malfunction and didn't use a lipped pan to cook them, so yes you can set your oven on fire.

I wound up taking out the half-cooked food and tossing it, letting the oven cool down (yes I had massive stink and the smoke alarm issue too), and once the oven was cool I went in with paper towels for the semi-solid stuff, then really light applications of oven cleaner to get the remaining grease off the bottom since there was still way too much to use the oven without smoking.

After the oven cleaner, I washed down the oven with a sponge with dish detergent (more grease cutting), and wiped and rinsed until I felt the soap residue was as gone as I could get it.

The next time I used the oven, there was a little burnt smell from things burning off the oven coil itself, but after that, the oven was fine.

If after your cooking mishap you decide you want to cook more meatloaf, I recommend a meatloaf pan, which has two parts, one with holes that you put the meatloaf in, and the pan underneath it to catch the drippings. I make meatloaf every 2 weeks, and switching to a meatloaf pan made the whole process easier and somewhat healthier to me.

Good luck with the clean-up! :)

Nancy

[tperes]

Originally posted by Couperine
I set my self-cleaning oven on fire when I made sausage-cheese balls and the grease dripped over the edge since I had a brain malfunction and didn't use a lipped pan to cook them, so yes you can set your oven on fire.

Okay, as a five-year vegetarian, I completely forgot about the possibility of meat grease. My apologies! ;)

So, I retract my statement that your self-cleaner shouldn't catch anything on fire...