What could be better on Halloween than warm, oozing rat guts? a quick and simple meatloaf that kids can grab on the go! Although I’ve included a basic recipe, feel free to substitute your loved ones’ recipe. For a different appearance, use pearl onions in place of the olives. The French fried onion layer will look like scorched fur! The “guts” should flow out and leave quite an impression when you slice it.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Additional Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 1 large meatloaf |
Ingredients
- 3 pounds ground beef
- 2 eggs
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cups milk
- 2 cups dry bread crumbs
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1 (8 ounce) package shredded Cheddar cheese
- ¾ (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce
- 1 cup French-fried onions
- 3 large black olives
- 3 spaghetti noodles, broken into halves
- 2 slices red potato
- 2 cups crushed French-fried onions, or as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Mix ground beef, eggs, onion, milk, bread crumbs, salt, and black pepper in a large bowl until completely combined to make the rat body mixture.
- Mix Cheddar cheese, 3/4 bottle of barbeque sauce, and 1 cup French-fried onions together gently in a separate bowl to make the rat guts.
- Put about half the rat body mixture onto a sheet of waxed paper and form it into the shape of a rat body. Spread a thick layer of the cheese mixture on top of the body leaving 1/2 inch of space along the outer edge.
- Put remaining rat body mixture on top, forming the body and creating a solid seal around the edges so the guts don’t ooze out while baking.
- Place the top part of a broiler pan on the rat and carefully flip it over. Reshape rat body as needed. Place olives onto the rat body for the eyes and nose, potato slices for the ears, and spaghetti for the whiskers. Spread 1/4 bottle barbeque sauce over the body of the rat and sprinkle with crushed French-fried onions. Set the broiler rack atop the broiler pan.
- Bake in preheated oven until the cheese is melted, about 1 hour. Allow ratloaf to cool 5 minutes before slicing to serve.
- The nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of the decorative ingredients.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 948 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 60 g |
| Cholesterol | 150 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 35 g |
| Saturated Fat | 22 g |
| Sodium | 1280 mg |
| Sugars | 11 g |
| Fat | 61 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Followed the directions and was impressed
These turned out great and tasted really good. Thank you for the recipe!
LOVED IT!!!! Great for Halloween! I made just a few changes—made a smaller loaf, cooked on 350, 5 minutes with foil, 45 minutes no foil. Otherwise followed directions. IT WAS SUPER—-The raw picture really is better but added the finished photo instead—-Thanks for the IDEA!!!!
We made this last year for Halloween and it was a big hit! I actually made two rats out of it so it would cook faster, and used breadcrumbs for the “fur.” It was both delicious and deliciously creepy. The pasta whiskers, olive nose, and cocktail onion eyes that we used made it!
People loved the ratloaf for dinner. I did use only 1/2 the milk. The other thing is that it took about 1.5 hours to cook. It makes a ton.
I made the recipe exactly as is. I knew it would take longer to cook. I also have an oven with a “HI” or “LO” broil. I used “HI” to start – but after about 30 minutes the top burnt. I switched to “LO” at the 45 minute mark – and kept cooking an extra 15 minutes. The middle bottom half was not cooked thoroughly. So next time, I would halve the amounts (it’s pretty huge) and cook for same time or 1hr 15 on a “LO” broil. OR keep as is and cook for 45 minutes on ‘LO” and switch to high at the last 20 minutes. It’s also Impossible (for me) to figure out if the cheese was melted without destroying the rat. Maybe the recipe owners have some suggestions?
I made this recipe for friends on Halloween night. I reduced the amount of milk by half. It was fantastic! It has become my husbands favorite meatloaf recipe hands down. The volume of the original recipe caused me to rename my loaf: “possum road-kill” instead of ratloaf.
I made exactly as written and exact measurements. I did use pearl onions for the eyes as the recipe submitter mentioned. The one thing that didn’t work for me was the cheese. I checked it after an hour of bake time and the 5 minute rest and it hadn’t even begun to melt. I put him back in for another 30 minutes which way overcooked the onions on top and the cheese still never melted. This was fun and something the kiddo’s are bound to enjoy but I recommend using a better melting cheese such as American or Mozzarella.