A favorite show on the
Food Network Channel is Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives"; I
find new places to try, but also recipes to try out in my own kitchen. I like Guy too; he's funny, ridiculous at
times, and knows how to draw you in to enjoy the show. Many of the places he features does Italian
food, so I pay particular attention to those, since Italian is one of my favorite
cuisines. One diner owner prepared
meatballs, using fresh sliced, white bread soaked in milk as the binder for the
meat.
Growing up in Bay Ridge,
Brooklyn; I learned in my family, and other families, to use bread crumbs,
mainly from loaves of Italian bread that had gone stale, ground into fine
crumbs and then added to the meat mixture. In my first marriage, I learned that was the
way his family, who were Italian, also did it, so who was I to question the
norm? Then again, I've become a lot more
adventurous in the kitchen since those days, and was going to try this other
method of bread soaked in milk. Another
reason, where I live now, you cannot find real, authentic Italian bread made
with Semolina flour; it's all made with "enriched white flour" which,
to me, is basically plain, old white bread.
Instead of the dried
Italian seasoned crumbs, I broke up slices of white bread, about 6, and soaked
them in 1 cup of milk instead of the 3/4 cup called for in my recipe. I also increased my Italian seasoning mixture
to 1/4 cup. Adding this to the rest of
the ingredients, I found that you had to work the soaked bread into the meat
more, making sure to break up any large clumps. Baking time was the same, but I
only got 18 meatballs instead of the usual 20; not a big deal though.
After cooking these in
sauce came the taste testing; besides hubby and myself, I asked a couple of
other folks to try them out against my regularly made meatballs, without
telling them which was which. The
conclusion: While the bread soaked in milk meatball had a firmer texture, the
overall taste was the same as my original style meatball. Everyone liked both
types and would willingly eat both without a problem; they were delicious, they
were authentically homemade; not those rubber ones sold in the freezer
department of the grocery. One comment I
especially liked was, “These are the most tender meatballs I have ever eaten!”
so there you go.
Overall conclusion: it
comes down to basically what you grew up on, are comfortable making, and
eating. However, by trying a new idea, I
know now, that if I'm out of dried bread crumbs, I can use the milk soaked
bread, still get a decent result, and not a disaster.
Here’s my Original Meatball Recipe:
Lean ground beef (90% or
more) is best for meatballs, since they are finished off cooking in sauce. If a lesser lean meat is used, the fat would
seep into the sauce, making it oily and unappetizing. The meatballs are first baked in an oven to
remove any excess grease. These
meatballs are the typical New York Italian style, about the size of a tennis
ball, and while great with a pasta dish, they can also be used for meatball
sandwiches (subs, heroes, grinders, or whatever they are called in an area).
Ingredients:
4 lbs. lean ground beef
(90% or more)
2 lbs. ground pork (NOT
ground breakfast sausage!)1 ½ cups Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/8 cup Italian seasoning mix
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 cup diced onion
¾ cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray jelly roll pans with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, mix all
ingredients together thoroughly; making sure all dry ingredients are mixed well
with wet ingredients. Form the meat
mixture into balls, about 2 ¾” (size of a tennis ball); place on jelly roll
pans.
Bake meatballs for 20
minutes; dab on paper towels to remove any grease and immerse into sauce. Allow meatballs to cook in sauce until sauce
is ready; 4-6 hours depending on cooking technique (crock pot or stove top)
being used.
Serve with pasta, or use
meatballs for a sandwich.
Makes about 20 meatballs.
Mary Cokenour
No comments:
Post a Comment