Meatballs are almost always at least decent

Time: 50 minutes

Difficulty: 1/5

Ingredient Availability: 4/5

First thing’s first, I didn’t make the entire recipe (which is for sliders). My dad recommended that I review this recipe and specifically the meatballs part. So, I did just that. Meatballs aren’t a food that’s particularly difficult to make, but it’s not easy to make them special. I’ve kinda come to view most meatball recipes as mini meatloaves essentially, and I do prefer them in the smaller form. I’m going into this recipe with no particular expectations, just something competent. I also doubled this recipe.

Key Ingredients and Omissions:

The only ingredient that I couldn’t find for the meatballs was fresh buffalo mozzarella. Not really sure why so many recipes that seem oriented toward average cooks ask for such niche ingredients. I just decided to skip the cheese topping.

1. I substituted the grated parmesan cheese with grana padano.

Tools:

• I recommend searing in a dutch oven to reduce the mess from splatter

Cooking Review:

Soaking Panko, mixing ingredients, and forming balls: (25 minutes)

While the Panko was soaking in the milk, I prepared all the other ingredients to be mixed into the meat (chopping parsley and garlic, grating cheese). Once everything was ready to go, I kneaded everything together and began forming them. I ended up with 13 meatballs. There’s not much else to this recipe (outside of the meatballs).

Searing and Cooking: 25 Minutes (13-12 minutes/batch)

After heating a pan and adding olive oil, I put in about half of the meatballs into the dutch oven, cooking for 3-4 minutes per side (turning 3 times for even browning). The Original recipe finished the meatballs in a tomato sauce after a short sear. In my case, most of the meatballs were cooked though in the dutch oven, but I did finish some in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for a few minutes.

Analysis:

Nothing surprised me here. These meatballs are pretty solid. There’s not much to complain about. The flavor is more porky than beefy, and the meatballs are overall well seasoned. I liked how well the meatballs held together, not falling apart easily, which can be a problem for some recipes. The texture is pretty homogenous, and on the better side for most meatballs I’ve had thanks to being seared on all sides. I also noticed that they have a slightly sweet flavor, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Overall, this recipe is solid. Nothing is stand out or over the top. I’m giving these meatballs a 7/10. They’re easy to make and give you exactly what you expect.