21 replies to this topic

[Dignan]

I'm making sunday gravy for mother's day. I usually make the meatballs with a mix of ground beef ground veal and ground pork. However, I'm having. Drydifficulty locating any ground veal at the moment. I'm afraid that just ground pork and ground beef will be too fatty, so I was considering subsituting ground turkey for the ground veal. The only time I've eaten ground turkey that I recall een hard and dry. Any input on the wisdom of going 1 way or the other?

[ChefJordan24]

I'm making sunday gravy for mother's day. I usually make the meatballs with a mix of ground beef ground veal and ground pork. However, I'm having. Drydifficulty locating any ground veal at the moment. I'm afraid that just ground pork and ground beef will be too fatty, so I was considering subsituting ground turkey for the ground veal. The only time I've eaten ground turkey that I recall een hard and dry. Any input on the wisdom of going 1 way or the other?

What about bison? Its lean, if not I do not see why not turkey. I would suggest using a panade in your recipe to keep things moist and light. The most possible reason the turkey was hard and dry was most likely because ground turkey is lean, and it was probably way over cooked. I do think that it would work well with the pork and beef since they will have more fat.

[Dignan]

Hey great minds.... I was just going to follow up with the bison idea. Ground bison is readily available out this way. And agreed on the turkey analysis. I'm pretty sure I've only had it when people have prepared ground turkey burgers for me.

[Norm Matthews]

I have substituted ground turkey with OK results. I didn't use a panade per se, but I did use some dry bread crumbs and tomato paste.

[judiu]

My favorite 'secret weapon' in my meatballs and meatloaf (especially with a VERY tempramental gas oven) has always been minced waterchestnuts. I have used a Mouli-julienne to finely grate the contents of a small can of waterchestnuts and add to the mix with the egg when mixing. Never an overly firm meatball! Be sure to rinse and drain the whole chestnuts, or you can get a tinny taste, and don't try this with a box grater as you are guarenteed to add a good deal of knuckle to your chestnuts!

[Dignan]

Yes, I always use a panade. It makes a huge difference. I've never heard of the water chestnut trick. It seems like it would need a real fine mince.

[slkinsey]

The best meatballs I've ever had in terms of moistness even through repeated reheatings are the lamb meatballs from Beacon (search the forums). The secret ingredient, in my opinion, is the inclusion of quite a bit of strained Greek yogurt. I now include this whenever making any kind of meatball.

[Chris Hennes]

Here's the recipe slkinsey is talking about: Beacon's Lamb Meatballs

[Dignan]

The meatballs have been made, a la Fawlty Towers, with veal substitute of bison. I'll let you know how it turns out. The bison had that kind of irony smell but I don't think my guests will notice that separate from the beef.

[Paul Bacino]

Render the balls o grasshopper!! I use chuck and pork..

I usually bake mine.. @ 400-425 the fat rolls off left with a nice meat ball

BACINO

[ojisan]

Does anyone use pink slime or mechanically separated chicken? Or are they only used in commercially made meatballs?

[Dignan]

I brown the balls in a pan, then finish them in the sauce. It's mostly a CI recipe I read at some point.

The meatballs with the bison came out pretty good. I thought they were a bit tougher than usual but not distinctly so.

[suzilightning]

The Johnnybird will NOT allow me to use veal at home so I usually use a mix of ground sirloin, ground bison and ground pork. I definitely use a panade with panko, milk and two eggs and just a touch of Worcesteshire. I don't brown or bake but a la Trigianna pop them into the gravy and let them poach. They seem to come out soft and fluffy.

[rlibkind]

Believe it or not Cooks Illustrated has a meatloaf recipe using all beef and unflavored gelatin to substitute for the collagen you'd get from veal, I've tried it and it works. No reason this couldn't be adapted to meatballs with success.

[jorach]

You guys bake meatballs? Is there a way to avoid having flat meatballs?

I've resorted to deep frying them. Works pretty well.

[Paul Bacino]

Bake mine most of the time and they are round, just don't get to wet of a mix.

[naguere]

Well Dignan, veal is after all just very young beef.

You could use some fillet of beef (no fat there) and who would know?

[judiu]

Yes, I always use a panade. It makes a huge difference. I've never heard of the water chestnut trick. It seems like it would need a real fine mince.

I think I invented that trick! That's why I use the Mouli; it has several different size disks, so you can get a corser or finer mince, as you like. A box grater will add knuckle to the mix (not a good thing, to my mind ), and a food processor gets the mince TOO fine, more like baby food with some lumps.

[ChrisTaylor]

I just made a batch of the Beacon mixture for tonight. Quickly fried a meatball for QA purposes. Very light. Very good. Keen to see how they'll evolve over the course of a hour in the oven.

[nickrey]

Instead of water chestnuts or yoghurt, which could make the mixture to runny, try adding some chopped up solid tofu. I use it in low-fat sausages to good effect.

Edited by nickrey, 22 May 2012 - 08:31 PM.

[ChrisTaylor]

I didn't find the mixture to be runny at all. You can very easily shape it into meatballs and it holds its shape nicely.

[rod rock]

I usually make meatballs with mozzarella cheese fill. And of course, some tomato sauce.