I suspect grandma may have had a hand cranked meat grinder that could grind meat finer than what we buy in the markets today.
I think I prefer meatballs having a more open texture i.e. not being finely ground. Swedish meatballs, that I have bought, have been like solid bullets.
I avoid buying meatballs because in my experience they're overcooked and hard. Meatballs I've made at home, including the Swedish kind using my stand mixer and the Cooks Illustrated recipe, have been light and delicious
Yes, that makes sense.I avoid buying meatballs because in my experience they're overcooked and hard. Meatballs I've made at home, including the Swedish kind using my stand mixer and the Cooks Illustrated recipe, have been light and delicious
Doesn't tenderness depend on how they are cooked, e.g. on not too high a heat, i.e. not attributed to grinding meat twice?Oh how well I know. One purchase was all it took. They cook the meatballs until they are thoroughly cooked right through. When the home cook precooks them, we only partially cook them and let them finish in whatever sauce we are making for them.
I grind my meat twice. I am always surprised at the difference in the flavor and tenderness from what you buy at the grocery store.
Doesn't tenderness depend on how they are cooked, e.g. on not too high a heat, i.e. not attributed to grinding meat twice?
Not entirely. Tenderness also requires moisture, which is why higher fat beef and pork make better meatballs than low fat chicken and turkey. When you cook all the juices out of meat, it's dry and tough. Even in general cooking, though, moisture makes for more tender food.
I wonder how well it work in a food processor with a dough blade.
If the objective is a smoother mixture and air being introduced, that should work fine. The regular blade would work as well.
That she did. My mom has it. My grandma didn't buy ground meat--she did that by hand using that hand-crank meat grinder that she attached to the kitchen table.I suspect your grandma may have had a hand cranked meat grinder that could grind meat finer than what we buy in the markets today.
I'm willing to bet our grandmas were darned good cooks! I apologize to my grandma's memory every time I make bread using the bread machine...I imagine she turns over in her grave every time I load it up...she took so much time teaching me how to make bread...I don't think anyone over 50 has a grandmother who used a stand mixer It certainly does make a lot of things easier to make, which of course is the point.
I've looked at recipes on line for Swedish Meatballs till I'm blue in the face. So many of them say to use your paddle attachment to mix the meat. Now I know I can mix it by hand like my Aunt Jessie did, but it just gripes me for some reason. Not everyone who cooks, and does it well, even wants a stand mixer. OK, off my soapbox now and headed back to bed to try and get to sleep. ACK..maybe this guy can knock me out..
I'm a little late here, but thank you for this! I don't have a stand mixer either. Well, I do, but it's my late mother's and it doesn't have a paddle attachment. Can't bear to part with it. I don't have the room or counter space to buy a new one, plus I would rarely use it.
Come to think of it, I'm probably one of the only ones here who doesn't have a food processor, either...I had one a few years ago and gave it away because I never used it. So I'll be making these swedish meatballs by hand.
Doesn't tenderness depend on how they are cooked, e.g. on not too high a heat, i.e. not attributed to grinding meat twice?
I'm willing to bet our grandmas were darned good cooks! I apologize to my grandma's memory every time I make bread using the bread machine...I imagine she turns over in her grave every time I load it up...she took so much time teaching me how to make bread...
Yes that was my thinking too when I read Addie made them with milk. Somehow the thought of doing this has never appealled to me though (mixing milk and blood I guess). I rely on the egg and moderate cooking (i.e. not too high a heat) to keep them fairly tender but I am more concerned with flavour anyway.It's actually the combination of milk and bread crumbs, called a panade, that makes meatballs and meatloaf so tender. Then the egg combines with both of those to bind it all together.