Brown - The meatball cookbook bible: 500 mouth-watering variations on one of the worlds best-loved foods

This book is dedicated to my wonderful sister, Nancy Dubler, whose enthusiasm for meatballs and love of food constantly delights me.

W ho doesnt like meatballs? Meatballs are fun food, casual food, and flavorful food all rolled into one easy-to-eat morsel. And meatballs are so easy to make.

There isnt a cuisine that doesnt have a meatball of its own, call them pulpety in Poland, almondigas in the Philippines, or keftedes in Greece. The world loves meatballs. And this book lets you sample them all. Youll find recipes from meatball-loving countries around the world, and youll find meatballs made from a panoply of foods.

Meatballs are often thought of as family fare or peasant food. And with good reason. Add some vegetables, breadcrumbs, rice, or any other number of ingredients, and meatballs are a way to stretch a limited amount of expensive meat to feed more people. Now thats a concept that appeals to us today with skyrocketing food prices. Meatballs, however, can have much loftier culinary connotations. Take the French quenelle ; its nothing more than a poached meatball made with fish.

This book also contains many variations on the meatball theme. My theory is that after you make a recipe onceand like the resultsyoull want to make it again. You can make it exactly the same way, or change it to add variety to your table. For example, who doesnt love basic Italian-American meatballs on top of spaghetti? But Ill show you how to prepare one-step lasagna with leftover meatballs.

Unlike most foods, meatballs also have dual personalities. They can be plain. They can be fancy. The same meatballs your family enjoys for dinner one night can be made as miniatures and served to guests as part of the hors doeuvre at your next cocktail party. Meatball dishes work well at buffets because theyre fork-only food. Even if larger than bite-sized, they can be divided into smaller pieces without using a knife, so guests can eat them easily while standing up.

So read on and start makingand enjoyingmeatballs.

M eatballs are good news for cooks. Why? Its almost impossible to mess them up. Theyre not like a souffl that can turn into a flat pancake instead of reaching great heights. You dont need to be a professional chef with a battery of culinary skills. Meatballs are one of the easiest foods to make successfully, and in this chapter youll learn the many ways there are to make them. Youll also learn ways to transform meatballs into other forms of foods such as a hearty meatball shepherds pie or meatball lasagna, as well as general pointers on food handling that will make your kitchen a safer environment for all cooking.

My definition of meatball is a broad one; anything made from a mixture that is ground and ends up round is a meatball. Many of the recipes dont even use meat! There are meatballs made with poultry, fish, and vegetables. There are even balls made from sweet mixtures. Are they desserts?

Each ingredient in the ground mixture has a purpose, and that is to produce a flavorful meatball with an appealing soft texture. While many meatballs are made the size of marbles or the size of golf balls, no one wants them to taste like one. The ideal texture for a meatball is a soft interior; the exterior can be hard or soft depending on how they are cooked. Some of these ingredients play more than one role; for example, using rye bread for moisture adds flavor from the caraway seeds, and adding ketchup for flavor will also enhance the moisture in the mix. Here are the various categories of ingredients that comprise a meatball, with some variations given:

The Starring Player: The primary ingredient of a meatball is usually meat. But that can mean beef, veal, lamb, pork, poultry, or some combination of these. They can also be made with fish and shellfish. Grains, legumes, and vegetables can also take on the starring role, but with a different touch than meat or seafood.

The Flavor Boosters: This category includes herbs, spices, cheeses, vegetables, and prepared sauces and condiments. These ingredients vary in proportion by recipe; there are no hard and fast rules. If the meatball is intended to be eaten in a sauce, there will be fewer flavoring ingredients in the meatball itself, compared with those that are eaten off a toothpick as a stand-alone item. In addition to adding flavor, cheeses and condiments such as ketchup, mustard, or soy sauce also add moisture to meatballs. The vegetables in the meatball mixture can be either raw or cooked. Some combination of onion, celery, garlic, and carrots are most frequently used, but chopped mushrooms or mashed potatoes can be added as well.

The Seasonings: Notice that specific amounts of salt and pepper arent listed in the recipes because I believe this is a very personal decision. First make the meatball mix without salt and pepper because some of the secondary ingredientssuch as seasoned breadcrumbs or condimentsmay already include some salt and pepper. Season the mixture after all other ingredients have been added and blended.

The Texture Enhancers: Most meatball recipes include at least one whole egg, and sometimes an additional egg yolk or egg white. The egg serves as a binder for the other ingredients so the meatball holds its shape. The egg also offers a bit of fat and liquid to give the meatball a pleasing mouth feel when chewed. Some vegetables, such as cooked chopped spinach or shredded cooked carrots, also add texture to meatballs.

The Moisture Magnets: In addition to liking meatballs with a soft interior, we also like meatballs that have a moist interior. Thats where some sort of carbohydrate enters the picture. It can be anything from torn bread, fluffy Japanese panko, crushed crackers, or plain breadcrumbs to grains such as raw or cooked rice, oatmeal, or bulgur. The purpose of the carbohydrate is to absorb moisture as the meat cooks and gives off liquid. Depending on what ingredient is used, the moisture magnet can also add flavor and texture to the meatball. Some recipes have a low moisture content, so the moisture magnet is soaked in a liquid before adding it to the mixture. In recipes with a high moisture content the carbohydrate is added dry. The liquid in which it soaks can be as simple as water, to add only moisture to a recipe, or wine, stock, fruit juice, or tomato sauce to add flavor. While each recipe in this book specifies a particular carbohydrate, feel free to change it or use whatever is on hand. Experiment. The only caveat is to determine if the moisture magnet was also contributing to the flavor of the meatball and adjust accordingly. For example, Italian pre-seasoned breadcrumbs are one of the great convenience foods on the market, but if all you have are plain breadcrumbs, add 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning (or some combination of dried basil, oregano, and thyme) to the mixture per 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs used.