Who has strong opinions about making meatballs? (1 Viewer)

[TheOffalo]

I'll try anything once.

I mean it's basically a dumpling or a bao, but instead of a "wrapper" made of flour, it's made of grains of rice. And it's delicious!

 

[gmunny]

Are any of you guy's last name Schweddy, by chance?

 

[Budha]

I’d love to get a good meatball conversation going. I’ve been tweaking my own meatball recipe for 15 years and I’ll continue to do so. And of course, the recipe is going to affect how well the techniques work (and vice versa) so there are probably a lot of not-wrong answers. But my first question, the one that drives me most crazy is a technique one.

Do people really cook their meatballs in sauce all day? That seems insane to me, unless the sauce is cooking at an insanely low temperature. I’ve never even bothered to try it because I’m convinced the result would be hard, dry meatballs.

My suspicion is that people do that because that’s what their grandmother did. Or that’s what they think their grandmother did. And for some reason, Italian Americans tend to be more obsessed with being Italian and doing things the Italian way (which is usually the Italian American way and likely a far cry from any actual Italian way) that they don’t realize they could do better and wouldn’t want to even try.

Yes, haven’t read all the responses. But I use a beef, pork, and veal mix. Or sometimes I might mix some ground sausage in, but not usually.

I pan sear them to get a crust on the outside and cook them a little more than half way. Then cook them the rest of the way in the sauce. It also flavors the sauce as they cook.

I may also throw a few thin cut pork chops in the sauce as well (Same thing - seared then cooked in the sauce)

 

[Lil Tuna]

Yes, THIS is thread is the type of content we need. I’m here for it.

Fuck, I completely missed that you already posted in this thread.

Troll level - 0

 

[allforcharity]

TLDR

I've heard the secret is crackers

 

[TheOffalo]

TLDR

I've heard the secret is crackers

No crackers are involved in my Chinese meatballs...

 

[chippitydoodah]

Any room in this discussion for Chinese meatballs?

View attachment 1502267
(Not my picture. Found on the intertubes.)

These are Pearl Meatballs. I make them with ground pork, shiitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, white pepper, salt, and egg for binding. They're rolled in uncooked soaked/drained glutineous (sticky) rice and then steamed.

 

[chippitydoodah]

Whoa there fella, slow yer roll... you can't just start off talking about how you cook your meatballs pertaining to them drying out (never been my experience) straight to Sunday Gravy (yes, it deserves the respect of capital letters). We gotta fully flesh out this meatball thing before we jump into Sunday Gravy.

I like a mix of pork/veal/beef, and it's usually a 40/30/30 (eyeballing). I prefer to fry mine first, for caramelization, then drop in the sauce and allow to simmer for a few hours. 2 is usually not quite enough, 3 and some may start to break apart soon.

Don't put too many onions in the sauce

 

[MeridianFC]

Those softball size meatballs some of y’all do are not better than small meatballs (golf ball - sub golf ball). This holds for whether you’re doing meatballs and red sauce, Swedish meatballs, or something getting dumped in a soup.

There I said it.

 

[upNdown]

One little variation that I think helps with the moistness of the balls is to use a panade of ground saltine crackers and a little milk instead of the breadcrumbs.

I read a lot of people going one about the panade. I’ve tried it plenty of times, and to me, the difference is negligible if noticeable at all. I add cream (or half and half) and breadcrumbs to my mixture, but I’ve pretty much given up on making a formal panade.
But I’ve seen enough people mention crackers that I should probably try crackers instead of breadcrumbs.

 

[buffalojim]

Meatballs are like pizza, none of them are bad, just some are better than others.

 

[MeridianFC]

I read a lot of people going one about the panade. I’ve tried it plenty of times, and to me, the difference is negligible if noticeable at all. I add cream (or half and half) and breadcrumbs to my mixture, but I’ve pretty much given up on making a formal panade.
But I’ve seen enough people mention crackers that I should probably try crackers instead of breadcrumbs.

I've become a complete convert to the holy church of panade.

 

[BPTDirector]

Crackers are the ticket. No milk or cream. Keep it simple. No frying or baking. Meat eggs garlic crushed crackers sweet basil a little Romano salt and pepper. It really is that simple. Until I reduced it to a measured recipe for my wife it was always by feel. These meatballs have been called the best by so many of my friends, coworkers and families throughout my life. Mangia!!

 

[KHarp1]

I'm a fairly solid cook, and I prefer pulling the inner part of a good loaf of yesterday's fresh Italian bread and mixing it with cream, or, half and half, but I never knew that was called panade. I like the smoother texture it gives to the meatballs.

And, yes, @chippitydoodah I don't like crudely chopped anything in my meatballs. Anything going in them should be finely, and, evenly chopped.

However, I rarely make my meatballs the same way twice, I'm always slightly tweaking. Sometimes I'll sautee onions and let them cook before adding to the mix, along with fresh, to deepen the flavor. Sometimes I grate my onion, same with the garlic. I want the flavors, but, want the meat to be the main texture.

Like someone said.... there's no "bad" meatballs, some are just better than others.

 

[RocAFella1]

Those softball size meatballs some of y’all do are not better than small meatballs (golf ball - sub golf ball). This holds for whether you’re doing meatballs and red sauce, Swedish meatballs, or something getting dumped in a soup.

There I said it.

 

[Budha]

Meatballs are like pizza, none of them are bad, just some are better than others.

 

[JZPdub]

Five ingredients for my meatballs:
80/20 ground beef, eggs, breadcrumbs, adobo seasoning and parsley.

Roll them out and brown them in a frying pan.

Drop into a simmering pot of sauce (minced garlic, tomato paste, hand crushed San Marzano whole tomatoes), and then simmer on super low for anywhere from 1-4 hours.

Got it off a recipe on the internet, but have made them almost every Sunday for the past 10 years.

The kicker though - garlic bread with Everything Bagel Seasoning. Game changer.