Meat balls

>>8494823
I like to make a slurry with the milk and bread crumbs, always end up with some nice moist balls that way. I think a blend of pork and beef is better than just one meat. I fry them in a shallow pan of oil

The only meatballs I regularly make are morrocan spiced lamb balls, with cumin, mint, coriander, red onion and dried apricots.

In a similarly spiced tomato sauce, and crammed into pita breads. They're really good.

>>8494823
That's a good base recipe, but the flavors are kind of all over the map...cumin...capers..chili powder..thyme. Plus blue cheese? I dunno. I'd rather make batches of differently flavored balls and sauces, mix it up but kind of stick to a country at a time theme.

I make meatloaves or mini meatloaves more often than meatballs. I'll do a base that is similar maybe 100% beef or 25% pork. I portion my meat mixture into 2 bowls and season them differently. I'll do an asian hoison topped one, that has lots of garlic, cilantro, ginger. I might give it a glug of makoto dressing, and just do the breadcrumbs even. Glaze with some chili paste thickened up with some peanut sauce or hoison. If I am cooking ahead on purpose, I'll portion into 2 serving patties like mounds on a cookie sheet and glaze that way, for maximum crust on top.
My other mixture might be lightened with some swedish meatball flavors, traditional meatloaf with a chili sauce topping, lots of celery, onion and garlic. I too bust up my bread heels, take it easy on the eggs and milk, and minced mushrooms are my favorite additive in meatloaf that just holds the juices better than too much egg and bread.
Sometimes I flavor a meatloaf or meatballs like "gyro" meat flavors. Actually it's my favorite, but I have to include a little lamb but in the US it's hard to get it in a small amount, and I only like 25% of it in the blend.

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>>8494823
I make mine pretty simple. 1/2 ground pork and 1/2 beef, egg, bread soaked in milk, garlic, fresh parsley, salt, black pepper and fresh grated parmegiano reggiano. I'll generally spice my sauce with onion, thyme, pepper flakes, garlic and fresh basil at the end. Also I brown the meatballs remove from pan and make the sauce in that pan scraping up the fond.

I was planning to make meatloaf one day (our word for meatloaf translates into English as "really big meatball") when a bitch I know txted saying that she wanted to hang. She has legit Coeliac Disease, so I changed up my recipe using breadcrumb, swapping them out for cornflour/cornstarch.
Turns out, I like it better that way now and haven't used breadcrumb since.

My recipe is simple:
90% lean beef mince, 1kg
wine caramelised chopped onion cooked in tallow, 1 large
cornflour, 100g
mushroom salt,* 20g

No egg. No other binder.

Combine everything. Form loaf or balls. Cook.
Nice with simple gravy made from what juices and tallow the loaf/balls give off during cooking plus extra, as needed. Sides of spinach and garlic mash and some butter-braised carrot with caraway or butter-fried beetroot and you've got yourself a nice meal.

>>8494844
>>8494875
i'll have to convince my butcher to do a beef pork mix since i'm a lazy shit, but it always comes at a price(e.g. i'd have to buy 3kg and then bag and freeze as soon as I get home, so mixing it myself isn't anymore work :\/ )

but yeah this is just what i've ended up with from making them often, my target taste is the meat balls on bread you get at carnivals and shit, they seem to contain every flavor under the sun but a LOT of it.
>>8494930
i've done them with cornflour also, hated the texture.

>>8494930
>cornflour

I can't see that being the best binder for a meatloaf. Day old bread soaked in milk and wringing out the excess milk will produce a lighter more tender loaf.

>>8494987
See, I got the idea for using cornflour from Lao/Thai meatballs, where they're made with an oily form of red curry paste and cornflour. The added fat from broken coconut cream and curry paste caramelised together then cooled and mixed into the mince keeps them feeling moist in the mouth despite the cornflour. Paradoxically, I assume the cornflour keeps the fat exactly where it is rather than allowing it to seep out everywhere.
So when you tried it with cornflour, did you have any added fat like my recipe does (via caramelised onion) or little to none added (other than egg) as in the OP?

>>8495093
I always found the introduction of additional moisture via milk and egg in conjunction with breadcrumb to yield a paradoxically drier loaf/ball so I long ago decided to omit egg and milk and replace it with caramelised onion because the fat they carry can't evaporate with heat in the oven, giving the whole thing a softer, less dry texture. If I had to guess, I'd suppose that it works in much the same way that steaming or simmering fish or lobster, no matter how gentle, doesn't make it seem as moist as poaching it in oil or butter would.

>>8495184
Interesting, because when I started using day old bread soaked in milk for my meatballs I thought they were more tender than the use of a dry binder. I might try it with 1/2 the amount next time keeping the spices the same and leaving the egg out of the cornstarch batch just to compare.

>>8494823
1 lb of ground lamb
1 lb of ground pork
1 lb of ground beef, 85/15 or 90/10 fat content
Breadcrumbs made from old sourdough
2 eggs
Onion powder, garlic powder, basil, paprika, salt, pepper, celery seed
Powdered Pecorino Romano

Bake or fry in batches before putting in sauce to finish.

1 can anchovies in oil. Goes in cold pot first, let "melt" as opt begins to heat
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 lbs onions, caramelized
3 heaping spoons of roast garlic
Splash of red wine
2 large cans
OR
3 mason jars of crushed roma tomatos
4-5 Bay leaves while simmering, removed before finishing meatballs in the sauce

>>8496054
Sounds good senpai. I like meatballs simple, though, and my sauce complex. I like the bread soaked in milk too for my meatballs but I might try your sauce with my meatballs next time.

>>8494823
1/3 each of veal pork and beef. Anything else is for you poor people.