Why Meatloaf Falls Apart and Crumbles

In cooking, there are few things more disheartening than pulling your dish out of the oven only for it to completely fall apart. Unfortunately, in the case of meatloaf, this isn’t uncommon.

If you’ve ever had a crumbly meatloaf, you’ve probably asked yourself why meatloaf falls apart in the first place. The answer lies in the binding ingredient.

Binding ingredients are the items that, quite literally, pull your dish together. In meatloaf, this is most commonly the eggs and breadcrumbs. Your binding ingredient is only second to the meat itself in your recipe and the reason why meatloaf crumbles. When this happens, it’s because you didn’t use enough.

Next time, try adding in an extra egg and/or some more breadcrumbs. Alternatively, rice, barley, corn flakes, crackers, and dried soup mix can also stand in as binding ingredients as well. Including larger quantities of these items should help solve the problem.