/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.16397610]

Can you make meatballs just by rolling minced meat into a ball without adding anything? I have low fat minced beef.

[Anonymous No.16397616]

>>16397610
You can, but they’ll be bad and fall apart.

[Anonymous No.16397620]

>>16397610
fat wouldn't hold it together unless you congealed the fat leaving it in the fridge or freezer and then searing it heavily on all sides maybe. i don't know if that'd work, but yeah, no fat won't let that happen. you could sear the meat first and then add the excess fat to make balls. sounds like that'd be a more ancient method, ergo traditionale? idk dude.

[Anonymous No.16397622]

>>16397616
Will adding one egg or breadcrumbs fix that?

[Anonymous No.16397629]

>>16397610
depends what youre making. real swedish meatballs, chinese meatballs or the italian trash?

[Anonymous No.16397635]

I've got a moroccan meatball recipe where you only add grated onion, cilantro, parsley and spices into the ground beef. You sear well and throw into tomatoey sauce. No eggs or crumbs needed.

[Anonymous No.16397636]

>>16397622
Yeah, binders always help

[Anonymous No.16397662]

>>16397635
It isnt low fat meat isnt it?
>>16397629
How can plain meat meatballs be from any country?

So cracking open minced beef package throwing in one egg, spice mix and maybe pecorino cheese for flavour is enough?

[Anonymous No.16397670]

>>16397662
>It isnt low fat meat isnt it?
It doesn't say. I assume it's the regular stuff.

[Anonymous No.16397673]

>>16397610
Throw in some soda.

[Anonymous No.16397741]

>>16397670
Atleast in my country regular stuff is 17% fat, what i have now is 7% Good looking meatballs

[Anonymous No.16397800]

>>16397741
I'll translate the recipe because I'm bored. Maybe try it sometime, but they're better during winter.
>for meatballs
1kg ground beef
1/2 package of parsley
1/3 package of cilantro
1 medium onion
salt, pepper, tablespoon of cumin, 1/2 tablespoon of paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne, 2.5 tablespoons of Ras el hanout (important)
chop stuff up, mix into ground beef and make medium-small meatballs. Do not add any binders. caramelize meatballs on all sides

>sauce
5 ripe tomatoes
2 diced onions
4 cloves of garlic
3 small packages of tomato paste
1.5 tablespoon sugar, 1.5 tablespoon Ras El Hanout, 1.5 tablespoon cumin, 1 tablespoon cayenne, 1 tablespoon paprika mixed into 1/3 cup of oil
1/2 package of parsley chopped

caramelize onions, then garlic, then add the tomatoes and after the soften up add tomato paste and sugar.
Add all the spices to the sauce, add the meatballs, and add water until it covers the meatballs.
Make it boil, lower heat, cook for 30 mins

It comes out spicy savory and nice to eat with rice. Do not overmix the meatballs or they'll be too dense/hard.

[Anonymous No.16398247]

>>16397610
that sounds like hamburger balls or some shit, meatballs are pretty easy to make man. at least add some bread crumbs and an egg and salt and pepper

[Anonymous No.16398263]

>>16397616
Why would they fall apart? I've never had even lean burgers fall apart. Breadcrumbs are added to make them softer and that's probably when you might need egg as a binder. You can do meatballs with just meat but they'll come out a little denser.

[Anonymous No.16398664]

>>16397800
How large are the parsley and cilantro packages?

[Anonymous No.16398726]

>>16397622
Yes, I make meatballs for nabe that are just pork, onion, and egg with a little ginger, sake, and soysauce for flavor. One would think that the excessive moisture from the sake and soysauce would cause them to fall apart even more easily, but the egg allows them to steam in the pot and retain their form without falling apart.

>1 lb 80/20 ground pork
>1 large egg
>1 tsp sake
>1/2 tsp ground ginger
>1/2 tsp soysauce
Finely mince the onion, and then using a cheese cloth gently squeeze out the excess juices. Mix the ingrediants together and then refrigerate until chilled. With a bowl of cold water to dip your hands into roll the mixture into rouchly 1 inch balls and add them to your pot which should be at a low boil. Cook for 5-10 minutes. The meatballs should float and cover all the surface are of the pot, steaming them, and providing a light and fluffy texture. Prepared this way they are best eaten right after being cooked. If you wish to make a large nabe and eat it over several days for the sake of convience I recommend eschewing the sake and soysauce, and adding a cup of panko. You should also aim to cook the meat balls in batches so that there is space enough between them that they stew instead of steam. Return the meatballs to the pot once you are done cooking and plan to refrigerate them. This makes a more dense meatball that holds together over a longer period. As the meatballs sit in the pot while in the refrigerator they will absorb the flavors of your broth without additional seasoning.

Depending on what other ingrediants you are adding to your pot you would either add them prior or post meatballs. For root veggies such as potatoes, daikon, or carrots you would add them prior. For leafy greens or mushrooms you would add them post.

[Anonymous No.16398738]

>>16397610
is the sopranos guy a chef now or sumthin?

[Anonymous No.16398744]

>>16398726
>excessive moisture from the sake and soysauce
Meat is already like 75% water, another 1.5 tsp isn't much. Sounds like a pretty tasty recipe though.

[Anonymous No.16398795]

>>16398664
A small package of tomato paste is 100 grams.
Parsley/cilantro package is about a good handful if you grabbed all the contents by the stems with your hand.
I'm trying to look it up, because I don't have any herbs around currently and online stores don't show the weight of a package. Just eyeball it.
It's an interesting recipe, because most people don't believe that you can make meatballs without any binders.

[Anonymous No.16398813]

>>16398738
Gravy's good tonight.

[Anonymous No.16398817]

>>16398744
For the broth I recommend a happo dashi. It is versatile as fuck and has a wonderful balance of flavors. It is a 10:1:1:1 ratio of dashi, sake, soysauce, and mirin.

If you like the flavor of happo dashi it is also great for ankake stuff like Japanese HANBAGA. Just whisk some potato starch with cold water and mix the slurry into hot happo dashi before bringing it to a boil. Stir until it thickens and then remove from the heat. I recommend 1 tbsp of potato starch in 2 tbsp cold water for each cup of happo dashi. Cornstarch is acceptable, I just find that potato starch works better as a thickener

[Anonymous No.16398856]

>>16398795
>>16397800
Oh and lastly. I wrote cayenne, but in the recipe it says spicy paprika(which is a spice mix of paprika and cayenne), so the stuff I wrote is extra spicy.

[Anonymous No.16398881]

>>16398795
Yes looks good i will eyeball the spices thanks a lot

[Anonymous No.16398893]

>>16398726
I make tsukune (yakitori meatballs) similarly, but with ground chicken instead of pork, a couple minced scallions, and mirin. Also no ground ginger. They taste fucking kino after they've been charcoal grilled. Make a teriyaki glaze and brush it on while they grill as well.

[Anonymous No.16398901]

>>16398881
Just eyeball the herbs. A handful = 1 package. The amounts I wrote for spices are okay. Ras El Hanout is critically important for the flavor.
In general, if you like authentic north african shakshuka, you will like this too.

[Anonymous No.16398923]

>>16398901
I like shakshuka, but how do I know if my homemade sloppa tastes like the authentic North African stuff?

[Anonymous No.16398939]

[Anonymous No.16398966]

>>16398923
Does it have loadsa cumin, Ras el Hanut or Hawaij? If so it's authentic as fuck.
But if you better not put onion in your shakshuka sloppa.

[Anonymous No.16398969]

>>16398939
>We’re soldiers. Soldiers don’t go to hell.

[Anonymous No.16398972]

>>16398966
Ignore that if.
Onion doesn't go in shakshuka. You want onion, use more garlic instead. dagt8

[Anonymous No.16398974]

>>16398939

[Anonymous No.16399009]

>>16398893
I use chicken meatballs in my nabe too. For chankonabe I use both chicken and pork meatballs along with whatever protiens I happen to have around, such as fish or mushrooms.
>1 lbs ground chicken
>1 tsp salt
>1 cup thinly chopped negi (for the most part any green onion will do, I just happen to cultivate negi in my garden)
>2 tsp ground ginger
>1/2 tsp hon mirin
Owing to the stickiness of chicken fat, chicken meatballs hold together much better when stewed/steamed, so there isn't really a need for egg or anything like that. However that same stickiness means you really do need cold water when you are rolling them.

Also I can not stress enough that you use hon mirin as opposed to aji mirin when making these meatballs. You can get away with using aji mirin in a happo dashi broth, as the sake and soysauce mask the taste. However this recipe is simple enough that the strongest flavor of ginger will not cover for the fake taste of aji mirin. That said when you do use hon mirin these turn out amazing. Just delicate chicken and onion flavor, hints of gingery spicy, and the subtle sweetness of the mirin make them an excellent addition to a number of nabe styles and, as you mentioned, they also they do amazingly as a yakitori.

Field too long part two incoming

[Anonymous No.16399014]

>>16399009
My personal preference is to glaze them with unagi sauce. Properly grilled it forms a sweet and salty glaze on first taste and as your reach the center of the meatball the flavor mellows out and the onion and chicken come through. For my ungai sauce I prefer to use honey as opposed to sugar, as it adds a certain richness that you won't find with refined sugar or brown sugar.
>1/4 cup mirin
>1 1/2 tbsp sake
>3 tbsp honey
>1/4 soy sauce
That will make you enough that you can keep it in the refrigerator for months as long as you take care to transfer the amount you plan on using to a separate container prior to glazing so as to prevent cross contamination. Just remember to not go too heavy on the sauce with chicken. Unlike eel, chicken doesn't have a very strong taste and so too much sauce can overpower it. A light brushing on one side, and then another once you flip should be more than adequate.

[Anonymous No.16399021]

>>16398966
So its Marinara with local spices?