Mama’s Meatloaf

Mama’s Meatloaf by Ronnie Marie Tartt

A Recipe With A Reputation
Secret ingredients: Love and Mama’s Meat Sauce 

Serves 6–8 | Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: ~1 hour

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ground beef (80/20 for juiciness)
  1 cup Mama’s Meat Sauce, plus more for topping
  (Ketchup may be substituted if needed)
• 1 cup breadcrumbs (or crushed toast)
• 1 cup cornflake crumbs
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper
• 1 can of tomatoes 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)

Mama’s Meat Sauce is available on ApplachianGold.com 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. In a large bowl, gently combine ground beef, onion, green pepper, garlic, breadcrumbs, cornflake crumbs, tomatoes, eggs, salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Mix until ingredients are thoroughly distributed.
3. Stir in ¾ cup Mama’s Meat Sauce, reserving the rest for topping.
4. Shape into two loaves and place in loaf pans or on a baking sheet.
5. Spoon additional sauce over the top.
6. Bake for 45–60 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 160°F and the top is caramelized.

Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

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Ronnie Marie Tartt—known to many simply as Mama—was named a 2025 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellowship recipient, recognizing her lifelong commitment to preserving and sharing Appalachian food traditions. Long before awards, though, Mama was doing the work the same place she always has: in her kitchen.

Raised in the coal camp community of Hartwell, West Virginia, in McDowell County, Mama learned early that cooking wasn’t about strict recipes as much as it was about knowing how to work with what you had—and about the one ingredient that never changes: love. Meals were built to sustain, stretch, and satisfy, often relying on garden vegetables, preserved foods, and pantry staples brought together with confidence and care.

One of the most trusted tools in Mama’s kitchen is Mama’s Meat Sauce, a family recipe that dates back to the late 1800s and comes with a reputation. The sauce was first created by Grandma Penny, who used available ingredients to bring flavor and love to inexpensive cuts of meat she cooked for her family. What began as a practical solution quickly became a staple—known, requested, and remembered.

As the Tartt family migrated north from Uniontown, Alabama, to the coalfields of West Virginia in the early 1900s, they carried that sauce with them. It passed from Grandma Penny to the next Mama in line, Ms. Alberta, who used it while cooking in a boarding house, where word spread quickly. Family lore recalls Ms. Alberta keeping two guns in the pockets of her apron—proof that the sauce was inherited alongside a no-nonsense sensibility.

By the late 1960s, Ms. Alberta was teaching Ronnie Marie to make the sauce the way many Black home cooks do: without measurements, guided by memory and instinct. Ronnie Marie later adapted the recipe—carefully measured and tested—to bring it to market without losing its soul.

Today, Mama’s Meat Sauce is produced through Appalachian Gold, a majority Black-owned company dedicated to celebrating Appalachian agricultural and culinary traditions. Made in small batches with produce and spices sourced in West Virginia, the sauce remains low in sodium and carbohydrates and continues to do what it always has: make everyday food better. It shows up in many dishes—meats, chili, salad dressings—but it shines especially in meatloaf.

Mama’s Meatloaf carries that legacy forward. Ground beef stretched with breadcrumbs and cornflake crumbs, onions, tomatoes, and green peppers for flavor, eggs to bind it together, and Mama’s Meat Sauce mixed through the loaf and spooned generously on top. It is the defining ingredient, tying the dish directly to generations of family history.

When Black By God visited Mama’s kitchen, the meatloaf was served with mashed potatoes and green beans canned from her summer garden. 

What follows is a sneak peek from the cookbook Mama is currently developing.