Anyone have a great homemade meatball recipe they care to share?

[fire it up]

Howdy all you fine Ladies and gentlemen.
Recently I received some great sauce from Rivet and want to do a big Family spaghetti and meatball dinner with it.
I want to smoke the meatballs but don't really have a recipe for meatballs and figured I could ask here and probably get some great results.
Now I know a lot of recipes call for a mixture of ground beef, veal and pork which is what I was thinking of going with but that's about as far as I got.
I know I could go and look up some recipes but was hoping to hear from some of you fine folks and maybe try out a tried and true homemade recipe.

Ingredients and mixtures of meats can be broad, anything except venison since I have no access to it but as far as most any other meats I can get my hands on.

I have a few days before I need to do these so I'll be checking back often.
Thanks in advance for any submissions.

Happy smokes

 

[chisoxjim]

heres one I did that I adapted from Chef Paul Prudhommes meatball recipe, the meat was a mix pack meant for meatloaf.


http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=77365

hope this helps.

 

[chefrob]

i use pretty much the same but i don't use the vinegar and i add fresh basil.

 

[the dude abides]

Here's one I've done and like. I've used the recipie for a meatloaf and moink balls too.

3lbs. 85/15 Ground Beef (chuck preferred)
1lb. Ground Pork
1/4lb Bacon
2 cloves garlic
1/4 sweet yellow or Vidallia onion
2 large eggs
1 sleeve Keebler Toasteds Onion flavored crackers (crushed)
2 TBS Soy Sauce
2 TBS Worchestshire Sauce

Chop up bacon into small pieces and start to fry in pan. Add finely chopped onion, add garlic (pressed if you have one). Cook until bacon just starts to crisp up and onion and garlic are cooked through. Don't burn your garlic. Drain on paper towels and chill.

Mix all of the remaining ingredients and include the chilled bacon, onion garlic mixture. Mix well but don't turn the whole thing into mush.

Smoke or oven bake to 165*.

Then you can do whatever you want with them. I freeze them in small batches and thaw them out for sandwiches, pasta, whatever. They're a hit at parties when tossed in the crock pot with my homemade sauce.

 

[nwbhoss]

Sounds like a great recipe!!!!!!!

 

[mballi3011]

I have not tried theses but John3198 did and they look like they would be great and he said they were so maybe this is what the family needs. Geert said their hot
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...hlight=treegje

 

[john3198]

Treegje's reciepe works pretty well. You can tone down the heat. For what you are doing, I would omit the cheese. The ones I did last night I used 1 lb gr pork, 1 lb gr beef, some sauteed onion and garlic, spices and thyme, parsley, oregano, 2 eggs and some bread crumbs. Turned out really good.

Also, if any of you folks get Cook's Illustrated, Jan-Feb 09, page 14 has a reciepe for Sweedish meatballs. I've made them as in the reciepe, e.g. pan fried, and they were great, as was the sauce. We ate half of them as they were cooking!

I am going to try them on the smoker soon. Will let everybody know how they come out.

 

[fire it up]

Thanks for the idea and recipes.
Unfortunately my Family doesn't care for hot stuff like I do but I do like the idea of adding some cheese in the middle of the meatballs so I might adopt that idea to whatever batch I do, just have to make sure to do a few extra...don't want to serve anything without taste testing first

 

[badfrog]

Here is my favorite meatball recipe.

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 lb gound veal
4 eggs
1 C whole milk
2 T Olive Oil
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 C Italian bread crumb
1 C chopped fresh parsley
2 T oregano
1-2 T kosher salt
1 T fresh ground black pepper
1 Lg onion chopped very fine
1/2 C grated Parm cheese

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and then let rest for 30 minutes or so. form into meatballs. saute gently in Olive oil turning frequently to brown evenly.
These freeze great!

 

[foxmid]

This is very similar to what my recipe is. I saute the onion with some garlic prior to mixing them up. I also add the zest of one lemon. My only other mod is to use ground oatmeal rather than bread crumbs. I find that the ground oats make a much more tender meatball than the breadcrumbs.