Cheesy Lincoln's Birthday Meat Log

This is mid-century American party cooking at its most theatrical. A meatloaf shaped into a tight cylinder, baked, then piped or spread with mashed potatoes like cake frosting, and finally crowned with broiler-melted cheddar slices. Slice it at the table and you get a striped cross-section of meat, potato, and golden cheese.

The wax paper rolling technique is the recipe’s clever shortcut to a uniform log. Pressing the meat into a rectangle first, then rolling it up jellyroll-style, gives you a tight cylinder no hand-shaping can match.

Instant potatoes save real time without sacrificing this dish. Enriched with butter, onion salt, and egg yolks, they become rich enough to act as the “frosting," and they hold their piped shape better than fresh mashed potatoes would.

Pro Tips

• Pack the meat mixture tightly when rolling, loose logs split during baking
• Use a piping bag or zip-top bag with a corner snipped for decorative potato “frosting”
• Slice the cheddar into strips and lay them in a basket-weave pattern for old-school presentation
• Watch under the broiler closely, cheese goes from bubbling to burnt in seconds
• Rest the meat log 10 minutes before slicing or it’ll fall apart

Variations

• Use real mashed potatoes with cream cheese stirred in for a smoother frosting
• Mix sharp cheddar and Swiss for a more complex melted topping
• Add a layer of sauteed mushrooms between the meat and potatoes for hidden depth