Comments on: Moist Kosher Meatballs

By: Michele

Michele — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:49:56 +0000

I tried your meatball recipe tonight and it was great. Thanks so much for sharing.

By: LHT

LHT — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:15:55 +0000

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.)

By: Chef Shaya

Chef Shaya — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:44:19 +0000

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.

By: HB

HB — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 21:01:35 +0000

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.

By: jabbett

jabbett — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 13:22:56 +0000

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

By: HB

HB — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:33:15 +0000

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.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 02:43:53 +0000

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

By: Adina

Adina — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:43:09 +0000

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.

By: Jewish Blogmeister

Jewish Blogmeister — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 16:56:32 +0000

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.

By: Danny

Danny — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 16:17:39 +0000

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