buckytom
Chef Extraordinaire
i will be cooking for 60+ tonight. that is, i am in charge of catering my dept.'s holiday party on thursday. i have ordered a few trays (chicken francese, veal marsala, baked ziti, pasta primavera; each serves about 25) from a restaurant across the street from my building, but i have been threatened that if i don't make my pot o' sausages and meatballs in pepper/onion/tomato sauce, i shouldn't show up.
now, my dilemma is that i've never made so many meatballs before, and in order to make so much, i will need to use my lobster pot, as well as an 8 qt. stock pot. i have 12 lbs. of hot and sweet sausage that will be browned and added to the sauce, but i will need to turn 7 lbs of ground beef, a dozen eggs, a large container of breadcrumbs, parsley, oregano, milk, and a hunk of grated parmesan into as many meatballs as possible.
what is the best way to combine all of these ingredients so that all of the meatballs will be uniform? not some with lots of herbs, others with lots of cheese. i don't want to do it all in one big bowl to avoid that problem, and also, i don't want to overwork the meat so that they will come out tender.
i was thinking that i should divide the meat and the other ingredients into thirds, and make the meatballs from each portion seperately. unfortunately, i usually make only a pound of meat at a time, and i've always eyed the amounts of each ingredient, going by the "feel" of the combined product to be able tell what it needs (more breadcrumbs, more milk, etc.), so my measurements may be off.
another problem is how to make 2 seperate pots of sauce identical, when i've never measured anything that went into them in the past. should i try to mix/blend them, or is that inviting disaster?
do you have any tips that might help?
TIA.
now, my dilemma is that i've never made so many meatballs before, and in order to make so much, i will need to use my lobster pot, as well as an 8 qt. stock pot. i have 12 lbs. of hot and sweet sausage that will be browned and added to the sauce, but i will need to turn 7 lbs of ground beef, a dozen eggs, a large container of breadcrumbs, parsley, oregano, milk, and a hunk of grated parmesan into as many meatballs as possible.
what is the best way to combine all of these ingredients so that all of the meatballs will be uniform? not some with lots of herbs, others with lots of cheese. i don't want to do it all in one big bowl to avoid that problem, and also, i don't want to overwork the meat so that they will come out tender.
i was thinking that i should divide the meat and the other ingredients into thirds, and make the meatballs from each portion seperately. unfortunately, i usually make only a pound of meat at a time, and i've always eyed the amounts of each ingredient, going by the "feel" of the combined product to be able tell what it needs (more breadcrumbs, more milk, etc.), so my measurements may be off.
another problem is how to make 2 seperate pots of sauce identical, when i've never measured anything that went into them in the past. should i try to mix/blend them, or is that inviting disaster?
do you have any tips that might help?
TIA.
