Difference between: meatballs and meatloaf

They’re both ground meat with seasonings and a breadcrumb binding – so what’s the difference between meatballs and meatloaf?

Definitions:

• Meatball: a small ball of ground meat, especially beef, often mixed with breadcrumbs, seasonings, etc., before cooking.
• Meatloaf: a dish of ground meat, often mixed with other ingredients, as breadcrumbs and seasonings, molded in the shape of a loaf and baked.

They’re looking the same so far.

Seasonings and other ingredients are still pretty much the same with the traditional versions of each: breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt and pepper, and maybe garlic or parsley.

There are two differences I can find and they’re extremely minor:

• Meatballs are cooked on the stove; meatloaf is baked in the oven.
• Meatloaf usually has a liquid binding agent like egg or milk.

However! Meatballs can also be cooked in the oven, and some maintain you should add an egg.

Furthermore, FoodTimeline.org – one of my favorite, most trusted sources for this blog – refers to meatballs as a “diminutive form of meatloaf.”

You know what diminutive means? It means small. It’s the same thing, but smaller.

They are not different foods, people.

This may be the first time in Difference Between history that the two food items are in fact, the same.