Looking for good meatball recipe
 

Anyone have a delicious meatball recipe that has great taste. I don't really care if they have to marinate in sauce for some time. My family had been given meatballs and sauce during the holiday season and I would love to repeat the taste. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Meatball & Sauce Dip
 

This is the recipe I was given.

MEATBALL & SAUCE DIP

3-4 lbs. Ground Chuck
1 Pkg. French Chili Mix (2 Pks. for saucier meatballs)
2 Large Sweet Onions
2-3 Lbs. Mild Sausage (Jimmy Dean, etc.)
2 Eggs, Well Beaten
1 Cup Regular or Italian Bread Crumbs (a Either is good)
Salt & Pepper to Taste

Mix all the above together. Roll into 1" balls. Cook in skillet on top of stove until you see the liquid coming out the balls clear. Once you see a clear liquid coming out of the balls, they are done. Individually take out the meatballs & put into a bowl. Do not pour the leftover juice in the bowl with the meatballs. Throw it out. Put a cover over the top of the bowl to keep the meatballs from drying out & set aside.

SAUCE:
Mix-
1 Bottle of Hunt's Chili Sauce
1 Large Jar Apple Jelly

Mix these 2 together, heat, and pour on top of the meatballs. YUM!


You can eat them as appetizers or put as many as you want on a bun and add coleslaw, mayo, mustard, etc., or whatever you want to add. I like to cut my meatballs in half when making a sandwich.

ENJOY!

I have had similar meatballs but the sauce was using grape jelly. sweet tangy?

we make great meatballs but use regular sauce on them? no jelly just pure Italian stuff. is that what your looking for or more of like the above recipe??

Thank you Tartan, vjc and Elisabrat for the feed back and info on the request for meatballs. I think the "Italian stuff" would probably work for us. Actually, I am not a meat eater but my daughter, granddaughter and husband will appreciate any meatball I make. Wish me luck! I will also go to Rachel Ray's web site.

Look for a recipe that includes milk. That seems to be the key to good Italian meatballs. My BIL owned a restaurant in NYC for over30 years. His chef's recipe includes breadcrumbs, egg, milk, a good beef (not chuck) a bit of onion, parsley and a dash of oregano. Work the mixture with your hands. They should be slightly moist. Make large meat balls. Place on a baking sheet (spray first). Bake for about 30 minutes in a 350 oven. Place in sauce to finish cooking.

This was how Grandma and Mom (and me) made them except the meatballs are braised in the pot you plan on making the spaghetti gravy in (with a little oil at the bottom). Leave the oil and the drippings after removing the meatballs, let it cool, then make the gravy in the same pot. After all the gravy ingredients have come to the first boil the meatballs can go back into the pot.

We also added a bit of either parmesean, romano or fontana cheese to the meatballs.

This is a recipe from an elderly neighbor, she came to the states in 1959 from Italy.

1lb. ground chuck
1/2lb. ground pork
1/4 cup parsley
1 cup bread crumbs
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup Romano cheese
4 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp pepper
Bake on greased cookie sheet for 25 minutes in 400 degree oven.

yeah I bake them krsy like you but use parmesan and also a splash of milk but instead of bread crumbs use torn up white bread soaked in milk first then torn up smaller and added to the meat. baking first gives a nice crust and then add them to pot with sauce for 20 minutes or so to let the sauce flavor them nicely. I make mine bigger than some so only two or three needed on your sauce or in my case .. one!

I mix half lean hamburger with the other half Italian sausage. Make into balls and cook in a pan. Top with your favorite spaghetti sauce. Yum!

sandy

Whatever recipe you go with, I use an ice cream scoop to make my meatballs. About 1 1/2" scoop. Just right size. I use 80/20 ground beef (1 lb.) and Jimmy Dean sausage (1 lb.) add any other seasonings. I never add milk. I usually bake in oven at 350 for about 40 minutes then ad sauce. I just use my favorite pizza/pasta sauce. So many recipes on the board but just wanted to add a few quick tips.

Sounds good...is that fresh parsley or dried?

I prefer the fresh parsley but dried worked the few times I've made them using it.

Ditto on the grape jelly instead of apple post. Chili sauce mixed with grape jelly sounds nothing but awful.....until you taste it once. I am using a sauce of equal parts peach preserves and Dijon mustard on chicken and pork right now, and I bet it would be good on meatballs too. Saw it on some show on Food Network. It tastes nothing like either ingredient, by the way.

krsy that is as close to italian as you can get. usually i use a mix of beef, veal and pork. and i only use 1 egg. but recipe sounds fine.

We had trouble finding the veal on a regular basis so the recipe was changed slightly.

Check out the Pioneer Womans web site at Foodnetwork.com I made these last week and they are do delicious. I will make them again and again, as long as DH eats them! Wonderful.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/ree-drummond/index.html

By all means, add some grated Parmesan cheese to the meatballs! It makes a world of different in the taste.

KRSY - do you use DRIED bread crumbs you buy at the store, or FRESH bread crumbs? THX

Dried bread crumbs from the store, and we used seasoned, which I prefer, or the unseasoned which gave a more meat/cheese flavor to the finished meatball.

Add nutmeg (1 tsp) & some ground fennel seed (2 tsps) to the "elderly neighbor ... from Italy" recipe to make it like my Italian grandmother did

The key to my Mom's good meatballs is the grinding of the meat. She made some at Thanksgiving without grinding finely, and they were nothing like normal. She bought her meat at a butcher shop, asked for 1 lb ground beef, 1/4 lb veal (optional), and 1/2 lb pork, ground finely twice.

To this meatloaf mixture she added:
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 c milk
1/2 c grated onion
1/2 c bread crumbs (italian seasoned ones are ok)
salt and pepper to taste.

I haven't tried grinding just beef finely twice. I usually add a little more to the mixture, like ketchup and garlic. For Swedish meatballs, the nutmeg and other spices may be added.

Place meatballs on cookie pan. Bake 375 F 20-30 min or until browned. freeze until needed. Use with spaghetti sauce or canned gravy (or other sauce of choice). Heat meatballs in sauce 1/2 hour on simmer (finishes the cooking).

I don't know whether you mean cocktail type sauce for meatballs or a marinara type sauce for meatballs with pasta or perhaps Swedish meatballs, but this holiday season I used this recipe for a simple, quick sauce, and heated it in the small crock pot with frozen pre-cooked "Homestyle" meatballs (which I cooked in the microwave according the package to speed things up). They all quickly disappeared:

Four ingredient cocktail sauce for meatball or little weiners

1 (8 ounce) can jellied cranberry sauce

3/4 cup chili sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

These were offered as snack food along with a veggie tray, cheese and crackers, grapes, Christmas cookies, fudge, etc. while the family was gathered waiting for some of us to arrive and for the main meal to be served. I was afraid they'd ruin their appetites, but you can't over-estimate these appetites!

When I make my own meatballs, a trick I learned from a newspaper recipe one time that I find very handy is to pat out the meat mixture to about a 1 1/2" thickness into a rectangle, and then use a large knife to cut a grid. This helps you to make even sized meatballs quickly, and nobody minds if you just leave them square.

I used the typical recipe and put a mozzarella pearl in the center,, theses recipes do sound good .. Yummy

I used the typical recipe and put a mozzarella pearl in the center,, theses recipes do sound good .. Yummy

I always provide meatballs and sauce for our many potlucks, etc. Because I also teach and take care of my aging parents, etc., I've learned how to do them fast and easy without sacrificing flavor. My measurements aren't exact, but from all the other foregoing recipies, you can get close, I'm sure. By the way, the reason I always provide the meatballs is that folks ask for them, so be assured they're pretty good.

1-2 pounds 80/20 ground beef
1 tube Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage
2 tsp Fennel seeds
2-3 tsp garlic powder
2-3 tsp dried minced onion
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
salt, pepper
1+ cup of Progresso seasoned bread crumbs
2 eggs

Mix above by hand. If too sticky when forming 1 to 1-1/2" balls, add a little more breadcrumbs. Arrange balls on a cookie sheet with a little bit of space between. Bake uncovered in 350-degree oven until slightly browned. When cooled, store in zip bags and freeze. Or place in marinara sauce or the sweet/sour mix of 1 can jellied cranberry sauce mixed with one jar/bottle of chili sauce (Heinz or some such).

If you're taking to potluck, just place the meatballs in a crockpot, add whichever sauce you choose and serve thoroughly warmed. Important note: Take at least twice as much as your initial inclination tells you. Likely, they'll still be all gone before the event's over.

Enjoy!

You're more than welcome to try our recipe:

1 bag of meatballs from Walmart, or 1/2 bag from Costco
9oz BBQ sauce, whatever you prefer
9oz Grape jelly

Place it all in your slow cooker (4qt will hold it all), turn on low and let sit all day. You can do it in about 4 hours, but the longer they marinate, the better they taste.