I’ve never bothered to make meatballs before (well, except for porcupine meatballs), so tonight I’m making the attempt. A pound each of ground pork, ground veal, and ground beef. Some salt, dried parsley, dried oregano, thee big cloves of crushed garlic, a couple of eggs, a cup each of Italian bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, and a package of thawed frozen spinach. I’ve made 22 meatballs, about 1-1/2" to 2" in diameter.
Now the question: How long do I bake them at 400ºF?
Madame Pepperwinkle says make sure the oven is preheated before you stick them in, then check 'em at 20 minutes. You’ll need something to catch the grease.
Until golden brown and delicious. Or the internal temp of each and every meatball reaches 160 for 15sec.
Shouldn’t take much more than 12-15min depending on the size.
ETA 400F is freakin hot.
I put them in for 25 minutes, turned them, and put them in for another 20 minutes. I took one and cut it in half, and it’s done; so now they’re in the sauce. They can sit there a while. Game Of Thrones is over an hour away.
A few notes:
350º is fine. 400º is too hot.
Place a cookie rack inside a jelly roll pan and bake the meatballs on that. The grease drips away.
3 kinds of meat is overkill. Pick 2.
Add some crushed red pepper flakes to your mix. Not a lot, but some.
I forgot the red pepper flakes. SO said that’s OK; she would rather I forgot.
Not that this addresses your question at all (sounds like you got that one figured good anyway), but a couple meatball secrets I’ve learned over many batches are: (1) Soak the breadcrumbs with an equal volume of milk before adding them to the meat. Supposedly this develops the starches or some such scientifical thing and they slide in among the meat and do a lot to keep the meatballs light and tender. (2) About a teaspoon of baking powder per pound of meat also fluffens up your balls in satisfactory fashion.
You could just simmer them in sauce. They’ll hold their shape better and be more flavorful.
Agree
Agree
Vehemently disagree. I use lamb for the third.
Added–oven-baked meatballs are abouth 60% as good as pan-fried .
I personally don’t think 400 is overkill. It depends on what you’re doing. I like to fry the meatballs on a cast iron pan, and then simmer in the sauce to finish, but you can do them in a hot oven (I go as high as 450) until they’re browned, and finish simmering in the sauce. There’s a million different ways to do it, all yielding slightly different textures. I personally am a fan of high heat via cast iron browning or oven (if I’m feeling lazier and don’t want to babysit) and finishing in the sauce.
Agree. Fry them until brown, then finish cooking in the sauce for about 20 minutes.
I have to say they turned out quite well. Loads of leftovers, too.
What time should I show up?