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Moist Kosher Meatballs

By jabbett
Published June, 5 2006 7:58 pm
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Since I went kosher, I haven’t been able to make a great meatball. They’ve often been decent, but end up too soft or too dry or not the right flavor. With a couple pounds of ground beef in the fridge, I decided it was time to get it right. I started with my culinary bible, Cook’s Illustrated’s The New Best Recipe, whose meatball recipe included, unsurprisingly, buttermilk and parmesan. Upon eliminating those ingredients, my challenge was to keep the meatballs moist and replace the salty umami-ness of the cheese. I got a few ideas from the last recipe on the slumbering Kosher Vegan Lasagna blog, and ultimately substituted broth for the buttermilk and added some savory worcestershire sauce.

Moist Kosher Meatballs

Though the meat mixture felt a little loose, these meatballs fried up solidly without being tough, and the flavor was very balanced. Finally, a meatball I can be proud of!

MEATBALLS
Makes fourteen meatballs total, 3-4 servings

• 1/2 cup chicken or beef broth
• 1/2 cup fine fresh bread crumbs
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
• 1 Tbsp. pareve worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

Combine bread crumbs and broth; let soak 10 minutes, stirring once or twice.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat and saute garlic and shallots until soft, 5 minutes.

Combine beef, egg, Italian seasoning, worcestershire sauce, and salt in a large bowl. Add skillet contents and moistened bread crumbs. Mix with fork until smooth.

Add vegetable oil to skillet (approximately 1/4-inch high) and reheat several minutes over medium.

Meanwhile, form 3-tablespoon measures of meat into balls; use a #24 ice cream scoop for convenience.

When oil is hot, add meatballs and fry for ten minutes, turning often to cook all sides.

16 comments so far (Post your own)
1.At 11:46 pm on June 5th, 2006, Elizabeth wrote:

The meatballs I grew up on were moist, and the recipe required no adaptation to be kosher: http://www.quakeroatmeal.com/kitchen/Recipes/recipeoutput.cfm?Category=RCMainDish&recipeID=222

2.At 8:01 am on June 6th, 2006, HB wrote:

http://spiceandspirit.com/

Spice and Spirit cookbook has a good meatball recipe and since its written by Lubavitch Women, no need to adapt recipes for the kosher kitchen.

3.At 12:29 pm on June 6th, 2006, Danny wrote:

Keeping with your anti-dairy-anism, perhaps it should be a tofutti ice-cream scoop.

4.At 12:38 pm on June 6th, 2006, jabbett wrote:

I think I actually have more fleishig “ice cream” scoops than dairy :)

5.At 1:09 pm on June 6th, 2006, HB wrote:

A fleishig “ice cream” scoop, hmmm…. could cause problems. Whenever a “guest” in our kitchen asks which utensil drawer is dairy, we always tell them to look for the ice cream scoop and/or the cheese slicer.

6.At 10:11 am on June 7th, 2006, Rinaleh wrote:

KFC has been blanketing the airwaves with commercials for their Crispy Chicken and Mashed Potato Bowls. As passionate proponent of All-American comfort food, I created a kosher/veggie version. In a greased cassarole dish, I layered Simply Potatoes Mashed Potatoes. Then I added a layer of Green Giant Niblets Corn seasoned with butter and seasoning salt and pepper. Then I used Krusteaz Bake and Fry Coating Mix to batter-fry strips of Morningstar Farms Roasted Herb Chick’n patties (I defrosted the patties before batter frying them). I prepared a package of Hain Chicken Flavored Gravy Mix and poured it over the top, followed by a blend of three kosher cheeses of cheddar, smoked, and mozzarella cheese. There isn’t anything gourmet about it–and it certainly isn’t health food–but as a guilty pleasure, it really hit the mark!

7.At 9:27 pm on June 7th, 2006, Susan wrote:

I recently purchased the Cook’s Illustrated Grilling and Barbecue cookbook (at Costco) and tried their recipe for Turkey Burgers (which can be dry). It called for ricotta cheese. I used MoriNu silken tofu, completely crumbled. Instead of worcestershire sauce, I used miso and french dressing (no good reason except that that’s what I had on hand). The burgers were extra moist and my kids (super picky) keep asking for them again and again.

8.At 11:17 am on June 9th, 2006, Danny wrote:

Fleishig Ice Cream — that sounds awesome! I’ll get a scoop for that

9.At 11:56 am on June 9th, 2006, Jewish Blogmeister wrote:

The recipe sounds interesting although I’m not sure how necessary it is to fry them etc. My meatballs usuall just require bread crumbs, onion soups mix, ground beef, 1 egg. just put everything together and bake them on a cookie sheet. Much healthier I guess and you could always as seasoning too if you want.

10.At 9:43 am on June 12th, 2006, Adina wrote:

I also made these last Shabbat–so easy and very good. To make the meatballs “buttery”, I used a handblender to blend everything together. Very light and tasty. And they warm up well with some red sauce if you want to have them as leftovers during the week.

11.At 10:43 pm on September 3rd, 2006, Jay wrote:

A small amount of unflavored gelatin adds moistness to meatballs and meatloaf.

12.At 7:33 pm on September 4th, 2006, HB wrote:

If you cook the meatballs by simmering them in sauce for ~ 1 hour, they end up very moist. There is a recipe in Spice and Spirit (Lubavitch women’s cookbook). Why would you need to fry or bake them anyway. Cook in the sauce you would serve them in, that way they stay moist and the sauce gets a rich meaty flavor as well.

13.At 9:22 am on September 5th, 2006, jabbett wrote:

Why would you fry them? The same reason you sear meat before braising it — flavor!

14.At 5:01 pm on September 6th, 2006, HB wrote:

I think you get fantastic flavor by letting the meat simmer in the sauce for an hour — don’t see the need for a Maillard reaction for my meatballs. Besides which, whenever I make them, everybody who tries them raves.

15.At 11:44 am on January 8th, 2008, Chef Shaya wrote:

I was so interested in reading this post. I actually discovered this website when googling “kosher rennet.” In any case, being a Kosher chef, I never use any dairy in my meatballs. I do however find that it’s of utmost importance to use the right kind of ground meat. Although I use a 1:1 mixture of ground chuck and lean veal, it’s important to use a cut of meat that has the right amount of marbling. I don’t add any “fillers” to my meatballs like breadcrumbs and such, but to keep in some moisture I do add chopped onion (sometimes I sauté them first) and for seasoning there’s always salt and pepper, and ketchup does make an occasional appearance. For the umami-ness I add some lite soy sauce (although it’s important to balance the salt properly when adding this).

As for the controversy around frying them first or not - I personally like the extra step because I love the “brown flavors” you get from frying them up first, but in all honesty it doesn’t really change much in terms of consistency.

16.At 7:15 pm on February 4th, 2008, LHT wrote:

Moist meatball secret: Thanks to my Moroccan friends ;) add a raw, ground potato (peeled!) to your ground beef. With chopped onions, garlic, cinnamon & cumin and S & P, your tomato sauce will thank you! (I’ve always baked the meatballs, made pasta & sauce, then layered and reheated in the oven.)

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