Project Meatball - Part 1

One of my fondest memories of growing up is my great-grandmother's meatballs. She came over from Italy in her 20s, and brought with her centuries of culinary traditions and techniques that still exist in my family today. Unfortunately, no one ever quite learned how to replicate her meatballs before she passed away. We've all tried, repeatedly, to get the right combination of soft texture and warm, savory flavor, and while each attempt has been delicious, none have that certain quality that we've been striving for. 

So I decided that every time we have pasta at Sunday dinner, which is at least once a month, I'm going to make 2 different batches of meatballs each time. This way, I will try every possible combination:

• Meat - pork, beef, and/or veal. I think nearly all meatballs are mostly beef, and some involve some portion of pork or veal. I know my grandmother had a mix of beef and at least one other meat, but no one can remember what kind.
• Bread - some recipes call for bread and others use breadcrumbs, but she always used bread.
• Liquids - milk or water, usually for soaking the bread. 
• Eggs - all recipes call for eggs of some kind, but some use LOTS of eggs, others use only 1, and still others use only yolks.
• Cheese- some, but not all, call for Parmesan in the meatball mixture too.  
• Seasonings - some combination of garlic, parsley, (basil?), salt and/or pepper

There are a myriad of combinations to test out here, so this experiment could take awhile. But I am determined to get it right. I'm going to post my thoughts about each kind of meatball I make, but probably won't post any pictures, as each attempt will basically look the same. Hopefully this will be the start of a trial that will lead to the reincarnation of my great-grandmother's meatballs.

Last night was Part 1, my first attempt. I decided I needed a base to go off of, and from there alter each of the ingredients each time I make meatballs. For a good, base recipe, I always turn to America's Test Kitchen. They test each recipe hundreds of times using every variation to reach the perfect dish, sort of like what I'm doing now (America's Test Kitchen, please hire me to test recipes for you!). 

Here is their recipe:

• Meat - 3/4 lb. ground beef, 85% lean, and 1/4 lb. ground pork
• Bread - 2 slices white bread, crusts removed, broken into small pieces
• Liquids - buttermilk - I would have never thought to use that
• Eggs - just 1 yolk
• Cheese- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• Seasonings - 1/4 cup parsley, 1 clove garlic, 3/4 tsp. salt, 1/8 tsp. pepper

I found the use of buttermilk to be really interesting, so I decided that would be the center of this first experiment. I made one batch following their recipe exactly, and another only substituting buttermilk for whole milk. 

The flavor of the two batches were identical, which is expected, because the milk isn't really there for flavor. They were both good, very savory and certainly flavorful. I thought I wouldn't like that much parsley, but it worked, and wasn't too overwhelming. It was definitely too salty, however, and too much garlic for me (I really think that going overboard on garlic can ruin a dish). I'm unsure on the cheese at this point. I ended up baking them (more on that later), and while they held up fairly well in the oven, they were sitting in little pools of grease, which I imagine consisted of much of the cheese that just melted out. Maybe a higher temperature would fix that? So next time, less garlic, less salt, and maybe less cheese.

Now for the texture - I was shocked at the difference in texture from the substitution of just one ingredient. The meatballs with the bread soaked in buttermilk were significantly softer, and the ones with milk were actually rather tough. I find this fascinating, as I know that my great-grandmother used milk and not buttermilk. But someone suggested that perhaps milk was more like buttermilk back when she was cooking-- thicker and a bit more acidic. Who knows, but it really worked. While I might switch up the other ingredients in future iterations of the experiment, the buttermilk is here to stay. At first I tried frying them, but the buttermilk ones were way too soft, and basically collapsed when I tried to turn them, so I ended up baking them instead, which worked fine.

I liked the use of pork in the recipe, especially because my family's sauce is pork-based. Next time I may try this 75/25 proportion vs. a 50/50 beef : pork ratio and see what that does, or maybe 50/25/25 beef : pork : veal. Oh, I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this!