Mix the Rice-A-Roni, egg, salt & pepper, and ground beef. Shape into meatballs and brown in a skillet. Mix Ric-A-Roni sauce mix with 2½ cups water. Add to meatballs when they’re cooked. Simmer 20 minutes. Add a little flour to thicken the gravy.
Well, not with that particular recipe. I always made mine with rice, not rice-a-roni. I suspect a few other ingredients would be different in my recipe too. After all, you left out the vegemite!!!
I was in the SCA - society for creative anachronism - for many many years. A medieval sotletie is a presentation dish where frequently foods are made to look like something else entirely [like sewing together parts of a chicken and a rabbit to look like a griffon] and one of the cute things to do is make ‘hedgehogs’ - meatballs formed into little hedgehogs where the spines are made with almond slivers.
The porcupine balls I make are made with regular rice, and simmered in tomato soup. My brother likes to put a cube of cheese in the middle of each ball too. Mmmm I think I know what I am having for dinner.
This sounds like my recipe (I got it from Mom, who probably got it off a soup can or rice box or something). The additional “cube of cheese in the middle of each ball” is pure genius! I’ll have to try that the next time I make 'em.
For an oriental take, try Pearl Balls. (This is just one variant of the recipe. I must have nearly a dozen different versions around here. You can use pretty much any ground meat you want, including pork, chicken, or beef.)
My mother made Porcupine Meatballs when I was growing up. A decade or so after I left home, I asked her if she still had the recipe, but she didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. I do remember that her version was mainly just seasoned ground beef, and that it used instant rice.
[SIZE=1]P.S. The Google ad I got with this thread:
I’ve never heard of porcupine meatballs. And to think I thought this thread would contain a recipe that would make porcupine more palatable. (Though I did wonder where one would obtain the meat!)