Keeping firm meatballs

[FredinFL]

Wow, didn't know Mario Batali had a DIS account. I have dropped uncooked meatballs into sauce on many occasions and they came out perfectly fine. Always home made and no mush.

What is with all the cranky pants on the dis today?

 

[Imzadi]

Wow, didn't know Mario Batali had a DIS account. I have dropped uncooked meatballs into sauce on many occasions and they came out perfectly fine. Always home made and no mush.

No need to be snide. Your post says a lot about you. Especially considering that OP said hers tongue in cheek.

 

[mjkacmom]

Wow, I live in the land of "Sunday gravy," and have never heard of adding uncooked meatballs to the gravy. Most used to fry, but people are becoming more health conscious, so many now bake instead.

 

[dngnb8]

Sounds odd I know

when heating in sauce secrets to keepin them firm?

Egg + bread crumbs, then pan sear the outside.

Also, I make my meatballs out of veal, beef, pork mixture so they arent tough

 

[monkeyboy]

Wow, I live in the land of "Sunday gravy," and have never heard of adding uncooked meatballs to the gravy. Most used to fry, but people are becoming more health conscious, so many now bake instead.

Meatballs where made and baked and frozen

Go to add to sauce they seems to fall apart

 

[FredinFL]

Sounds to me like your binder isn't strong enough MB, maybe add some egg and breadcrumbs to the meat? What is your recipe? or will you have to kill us if you tell???

 

[monkeyboy]

Sounds to me like your binder isn't strong enough MB, maybe add some egg and breadcrumbs to the meat? What is your recipe? or will you have to kill us if you tell???

pork 1/4
beef 1/2
veal 1/4
egg
breadcrumbs Homemade of course
spices

roll into balls (ok laugh now)

about 1-1/2 the size of golf-ball
bake and serve or freeze in this case

 

[Sandy321]

Ok - I'll just flat out state it. I am not Italian.

I am however obsessed with the Food type channels - and if you've ever watche America's Test Kitchen? Its a great program that takes recipes and does them over and over till they get the best - - - whatever. and today it was meatballs, and guess what - Martha Stewarts show had an Italian restaurant guy on - same recipe... and that guy that had his "mama's meatballs" on a reality show, that's going to be on the Food Network having "Friends over for a dinner party" and anyway - he had the same recipe...

so I tried it - it worked!! (and I did it in secret if dd knew she wouldnt have eaten them!!)

its called - make a "panade"
take one slice of white bread (no crust) torn up small
add 1/4 milk - mix, let milk soak in, mix -

then with your meatball mixture, add this "panade" to it - you will not see any white specs btw -

its amazing in its "firmness" qualities!

For the record all the above mentioned shows did put the meatballs on a tray and put them in a HOT oven to cook, then put them in the "gravy"

America's Test Kitchen made a 3 hour Sunday Gravy that looked amazing (but really they used regular Italian sausages and baby back ribs!! ribs? lol, but it worked!)

 

[FredinFL]

Hmmm...maybe you need to squeeze them together a bit more when you form the balls?

Yeah...I know, I know, that just don't sound right.

 

[Imzadi]

pork 1/4
beef 1/2
veal 1/4
egg
breadcrumbs Homemade of course
spices

roll into balls (ok laugh now)

about 1-1/2 the size of golf-ball
bake and serve or freeze in this case

Maybe you need to add another egg?

When do you add your balls into your sauce? I heat my sauce up fully, then the meatballs and heat them through. This way they aren't sitting in sauce too long and getting soggy. No one wants to have soggy balls.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Hey, I am wondering if you are going for the very, very, lean meat.
Meat that is super lean, red protein, may not 'bind'... Could that be the problem???? Your recipe sounds fine! And, again, some browning beforehand should help.

I don't like to add too much egg to my meatballs/meatloaf, cause then I can really taste the egg.

I want that recipe just mentioned from the Food Network!
If nobody can post a link, I might try to look it up!

 

[Sandy321]

Spaghetti with Sausage Meatballs
Spaghetti and meatballs is a classic dish that everyone seems to love, no matter how mediocre it often tastes. The meatballs can be bland, dry, and mealy textured and the sauce can be supersweet. We wanted to make this dish taste good, and we wanted to make it quickly. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

For bold-flavored meatballs, use Italian sausage instead of meatball mix.
Make a “panade”--a blend of breadcrumbs and buttermilk--to add to the sausage to keep the meatballs tender.
Bake the meatballs to keep their texture tender.
Make a quick sauce with a combination of canned diced and crushed tomatoes for a light, though deep, tomato flavor.

After fumbling around blindly, I have finally discovered the true secret to great meatballs. And no, it's not to make them out of 100% meat. Nor is it to add oatmeal or bread crumbs or eggs. No, the secret is wet bread - in cooking lingo, a panade. The moisture in the panade both moisturizes the meatballs and makes the starch in the bread into a gel-like substance, which apparently coats the proteins in the meat and keeps them from cross-linking. Fat does a similar thing in meat. Yeah, a google search would have told me that, but who goes around googling meatballs? I put 100% meat in a meatball recipe up against a recipe with mashed, milk-soaked bread. The result? The panade-ized meatballs won by a long shot. The baking powder adds lightness and lift, making these truly great.

and the Chef I'm trying to remember is Rocco DiSpirito!

"It's a classical thing to do for charcuterie, to combine eggs, milk and bread," says Gorham, one of the founders of Viande Meats & Sausage. "It's called a panade. It makes a softer, moister meatball and gives a little airiness to the meatball as well."
Gorham suggests cooking meatballs on the stove to give them a caramelized crust, but many chefs prefer baking them in the oven so they end up evenly cooked without requiring constant attention. Sappington's big, stuffed meatballs would be especially difficult to work with on the stove.
"Direct heat just doesn't make sense," Sappington says. "You could roast it or braise it, but putting it in the oven with surround heat is the only way to roll."

again, you just have to try a panade!