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["I have a perfectly justifiable weakness for any recipe that comes to me passed on through someone else's family.", "This is not just sentimentality; I hope not even sentimentality, actually, since I have always been contemptuously convinced that sentimentality is the refuge of those without proper emotions.", "Yes, I do infer meaning from the food that has been passed down generations and then entrusted to me, but think about it: the recipes that last, do so for a reason.", "And on top of all that, there is my entrancement with culinary Americana.", "I just hear the word meatloaf and I feel all old world, European irony and corruption seep from me as I will myself into a Thomas Hart Benton painting.", "And then I eat it: the dream is dispelled and all I'm left with is a mouthful of compacted, slab-shaped sawdust and major, major disappointment.", "So now you understand why I am so particularly excited about this recipe.", "It makes meatloaf taste like I always dreamt it should.", "Even though this is indeed Ed's Mother's Meatloaf, the recipe as is printed below is my adaptation of it.", "My father-in-law always used to tell a story about asking his mother for instructions on making pickles.", """How much vinegar do I need?""