Meatballs

[TylerK]

I made my first batch of duck confit last week and ate my first leg last night. It was one of the best things I've ever eaten, and now I find myself looking around for other things to cook this way.

I was planning on making a big batch of the "Thai" meatballs that I like so much this weekend, but after the success with the duck confit, I was wondering if the same cooking style could work here. Has anyone tried anything like this before? If I were to give it a go is there anything I should look out for? In particular I'm curious about the salting of the ground meat before hand, and whether or not the long slow cooking would break down the protein in the eggs and result in a meat-mush instead of a meatball.

[gfweb]

Sounds very greasy, confit-ing a meatball.

[TylerK]

I suppose they would be if I were to eat them right out of the fat, but I'm picturing broiling them quickly before serving to get nice and caramelized and serving them with a satay sauce.

[Alcuin]

I guess I'm not sure what the point would be. Since the meat is already ground and tenderizing elements are usually added to meatballs to keep them moist or soften them, it seems like the extra work cooking them low and slow in fat wouldn't add much. You might then have to brown them, which would add another step, and if the protein in them was broken down they might be very fragile which would make this even harder to do. As long as you've got enough fat in the meatballs themselves (for the Thai meatballs, add some coconut cream, for Italian some milk to soak the bread or the addition of some pancetta would do nicely) the result should be rich enough. Maybe my thinking here is limited though.

I have heard that poaching in fat is a great way to cook sausages on the other hand. I've never tried it (again, it seems a bit fussy), but I think it would be better since hog casings would provide the perfect container for ground meat coming up to temp in fat. Maybe try Thai sausages instead of meatballs for the confit attempt?

[TylerK]

I'm not certain if there is a point... just curious what the end result would give. If no one has tried it before I'll probably give it a shot this weekend anyway with a smaller batch. Maybe a side by side comparison with others done the normal way.

The sausage poaching is an excellent idea, but I don't currently have a sausage stuffer. It's high on my wish list though, having recently bought a copy of Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie".

Thanks for the input.

[Alcuin]

If you give it a shot, let us know how it turns out. Who knows? It could be great.

And I'm pretty sure I recall reading about poaching the sausages in fat in Charcuterie.

[thirtyoneknots]

Ms. Wolfert advocates confiting sausages in The Cooking of South West France. I recall either in the book or in eGullet she advocates that it's even an excellent treatment for humble link Italian sausage from the grocery store. Sounds cool, but I can't claim I've ever tried it. Advantage would be that the elongated shape would make sausages easier to pot than whole duck legs, which have to be stacked just so to get them covered right.

[TylerK]

Well, it produced a tender, moist meatball without an fillers required, but the end result wasn't any better than could be produced with a slightly different recipe and different cooking methods. It produced a tasty dinner, but given the time it took, probably not worth trying again.