meatballs

A great meatball is not only juicy and flavorful, but it should also be light. There's nothing worse than a dry over-cooked meatball.

There is a lot of talk about "the perfect mix" of meat, whether to use only beef, lamb, pork, or a mix, there is also a debate on the ratio of eat to fat. I like to keep it nice and simple; I use all beef that's 80% meat and 20% fat.

When I make meatballs, I tend to make them on the smaller side so that it takes less time to fully cook all the meat and they are less likely to dry out that way.

For the meatball itself, I take about two pounds of ground meat, two extremely finely chopped shallots, about a quarter cup of fresh parsley, a half a cup of panko breadcrumbs, i use panko because they are a bit more textured and lighter than regular bread crumbs, and one egg yolk and a tablespoon of Dijon mustard. I use both egg yolks and mustard as binders because using too many egg yolks is not that healthy (not that I'm always conscious of that but I try to avoid unnecessary fat when I can).

Just like when you make dough, you don’t want to over work it, the same applies here, you want to incorporate everything evenly, but you don’t want to over-work the meat.

To cook your meatballs, you can either line them on a sheet-pan, and cook them in a preheat oven at 375 degrees, or cook them in a sauté pan on the stove. I'm going to refrain from giving a cook time because your time will vary based on the size of the meatballs. I prefer to cook them in a sauté pan so I can then deglaze the pan to make a sauce to accompany my meatballs.