[0 - 1] - One of my favorite books as a kid,
[1 - 4] was a gem called "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"
[5 - 7] It has since been made into an animated movie.
[7 - 9] The gist is that in one special town,
[9 - 11] instead of regular precipitation
[11 - 13] like, rain and snow, food falls from the sky.
[13 - 15] That's a dream scenario if you ask me.
[15 - 18] Well, today it's a little overcast, and you know what?
[18 - 20] There's a 100% chance of meatballs.
[20 - 24] (upbeat jaunty music)
[24 - 26] I wanna start off by saying that your meatballs are great.
[26 - 28] Your grandmother's meatballs, they're wonderful.
[28 - 30] The meatballs at the red sauce joint down the street,
[30 - 32] some of the best around.
[32 - 34] But look, we can always improve, right?
[34 - 36] So no disrespect to the meatball pros out there,
[36 - 39] but I've got a slew of meatball tips and techniques,
[39 - 40] and I guarantee at least one of them
[40 - 42] will make your meatballs more flavorful,
[42 - 44] more succulent, more tender,
[44 - 46] or just a whole lot easier to prepare.
[46 - 47] If you're gonna go all out and make
[47 - 49] the ultimate meatballs and marinara,
[49 - 51] do yourself a favor and make a big batch.
[51 - 53] What I'm about to show you serves 12 people.
[53 - 55] You can serve it all at once for an epic party
[55 - 56] or freeze leftovers,
[56 - 58] so any day can be Meatball Day.
[58 - 60] Okay, let's start with the meat of the matter.
[60 - 62] A lot of recipes call for meatloaf mix,
[62 - 65] which is typically a combo of beef, pork, and veal.
[65 - 67] Meatloaf mix tends to vary in grind size,
[67 - 68] quality, and ratios.
[68 - 69] So, we like to make our own.
[69 - 72] We use a 2:1 ratio of relatively fatty,
[72 - 74] 85% ground chuck to ground pork.
[74 - 77] And then actually skip the veal entirely
[77 - 80] in favor of pure gelatin. Huh?
[80 - 81] The idea is that beef and pork
[81 - 83] supply lots of fat and flavor,
[83 - 84] and that veal is a rich source
[84 - 86] of relatively tender collagen
[86 - 88] that breaks down into gelatin.
[88 - 89] Veal doesn't add much flavor.
[89 - 92] It's expensive, and it can be hard to find.
[92 - 93] Powdered gelatin gives us all
[93 - 96] of the functionality without any hassle.
[96 - 98] And what functionality is that, you ask?
[98 - 100] Water-holding capacity, of course.
[100 - 101] Gelatin can absorb and trap
[101 - 103] about five times its own weight in water.
[103 - 108] You've seen gelatin work its magic in jell-o. Hmm, jell-o.
[109 - 111] But today we're talking about meat and meatballs.
[111 - 113] So let's check out a little experiment using broth.
[113 - 116] In this glass, I have a basic chicken broth,
[116 - 117] and in this glass is broth to which
[117 - 119] I added unflavored gelatin in the ratio,
[120 - 122] about five parts broth to one part gelatin.
[122 - 124] Look at the difference.
[124 - 127] Oh, right, so sorry. They look the same.
[127 - 129] Look at the difference when I pour them.
[129 - 134] So this one doesn't pour. It does bounce though.
[134 - 135] Let's check that out in slow-mo.
[135 - 139] (gentle classical music)
[141 - 143] Besides being very cool to look at,
[143 - 144] why does this matter?
[144 - 145] Well, gelatin is a game changer
[145 - 147] in a ground meat mixture like meatballs,
[147 - 149] where it binds up the free water
[149 - 151] that's typically released from the meat during cooking.
[151 - 153] It keeps the meatballs juicy,
[153 - 154] instead of letting them run dry.
[154 - 157] So we've got beef, pork, and gelatin.
[157 - 159] Let's move on to the panade.
[159 - 161] A panade is a liquid and bread paste
[161 - 162] that's often folded into ground meat
[162 - 164] before shaping it into meatloaf and meatballs.
[164 - 167] Good Italian style meatballs should be tender enough
[167 - 169] to cleave easily with a fork.
[169 - 170] Not rubbery, like one of those
[170 - 171] Spalding high-bounce balls.
[171 - 173] Incorporating a panade into the meat mixture
[173 - 175] is key to getting this texture.
[175 - 177] The starch in the bread absorbs liquid
[177 - 179] to form a gel that lubricates the meat,
[179 - 180] keeping it moist and tender,
[180 - 182] and preventing the protein molecules
[182 - 184] from linking up into a tight matrix.
[184 - 186] And its effectiveness is hard to overstate.
[186 - 187] Check out this experiment.
[187 - 189] I made two batches of meatballs,
[189 - 190] one with a panade and one without.
[190 - 192] This one is made without a panade,
[192 - 193] and you can see it's just dense
[193 - 195] and hard to push a fork through.
[195 - 197] It's more like a well done burger than a meatball,
[197 - 198] and I think we can all agree
[198 - 200] that a well done burger is a much worse food
[200 - 201] than a meatball.
[201 - 203] This one includes a panade.
[203 - 206] It is plush fork tender, and just so much nicer to eat.
[206 - 209] Now the best part is that a panade is a cinch to make.
[209 - 210] You can make a panade with any kind of bread
[210 - 212] or breadcrumbs in any liquid.
[212 - 215] Milk, water, broth, even orange juice.
[215 - 217] Okay, maybe anything but orange juice. For meatballs,
[217 - 219] I like a combination of panko and buttermilk.
[219 - 221] The coarse crunchy Japanese breadcrumbs
[221 - 223] don't contribute much moisture of their own,
[223 - 225] so they're highly absorbent,
[225 - 227] and the acidic buttermilk adds pleasant tang
[227 - 229] while also helping to tenderize the meat.
[229 - 231] Next up, let's talk about flavor.
[231 - 233] Your meatballs need ham and cheese.
[233 - 235] And by ham and cheese, I mean prosciutto and parmesan,
[235 - 237] which make the meatballs so much more savory.
[237 - 240] Now, I don't mean that they'll taste like ham and cheese.
[240 - 243] I mean they will taste like sweet, sweet synergy.
[243 - 244] Allow me to explain.
[244 - 246] Fresh meats like beef and pork are mildly savory
[246 - 249] due to naturally occurring substances called nucleotides.
[249 - 252] Prosciutto and Parmesan are intensely savory
[252 - 253] because they're packed with glutamates
[253 - 255] that provide the taste we call umami.
[255 - 257] But a really special thing happens
[257 - 259] when nucleotides and glutamate
[259 - 260] are combined in your mouth.
[260 - 263] The savoriness can be amplified, eight fold.
[263 - 265] The key to incorporating both seamlessly,
[265 - 268] is finely chopping the prosciutto and grating the parmesan.
[268 - 271] A few eggs, which bolster the panade,
[271 - 273] some parsley, garlic, and salt and pepper,
[273 - 275] and our meatball mixture is done.
[275 - 276] Let's get cooking.
[276 - 277] Now, at this point,
[277 - 278] I could bust up my skillet and oil
[278 - 280] and start frying these 40 meatballs.
[280 - 282] But we all know how that goes.
[282 - 284] And the tender meatballs flatten on a couple of sides
[284 - 287] that end up looking more like sliders than meatballs.
[287 - 290] There's a better way, and that better way is roasting.
[290 - 293] This takes so much labor out of this labor of love.
[293 - 295] Rather than standing at the stove batch cooking,
[295 - 298] all you do is set racks inside baking sheets,
[298 - 300] coat them with non-stick cooking spray,
[300 - 301] evenly space out the meatballs,
[301 - 304] and then roast them at 450 degrees.
[304 - 307] In 30 minutes, they are gorgeously brown like this.
[307 - 311] Let's ooh and aah. Ooh. Aah.
[312 - 313] The racks promote air circulation
[313 - 314] so they brown uniformly.
[314 - 315] You don't even have to turn them.
[315 - 317] Just rotate the trays halfway through cooking.
[317 - 320] So simple, so well-browned, so delicious.
[320 - 322] So meatball-y. So...
[322 - 323] Okay, I'll move on.
[323 - 325] Our meatballs are cooked through at this point.
[325 - 326] You could eat them right now,
[326 - 328] but they wouldn't be tender enough.
[328 - 331] The best meatballs are braised in their final sauce.
[331 - 332] So, let's make that sauce.
[332 - 335] I've got some classic aromatics, onion, garlic,
[335 - 337] pepper flakes, and dried oregano.
[337 - 338] I'll let those get nice and golden.
[338 - 340] And then in goes tomato juice, crushed tomatoes
[340 - 342] and a little white wine for brightness.
[342 - 344] Yep, you heard that right. Tomato juice.
[345 - 347] Turns out it's not just for airplane cocktails.
[347 - 350] Tomato juice is so savory and packed with umami.
[350 - 351] And its thin viscosity
[351 - 354] is gonna make the sauce very loose at first,
[354 - 355] but that's actually a good thing.
[355 - 356] As the meatballs braise,
[356 - 358] the sauce reduces and tightens.
[358 - 361] Okay, time to marry the meatballs and the sauce.
[361 - 362] Now that's a wedding I'd like to attend.
[362 - 365] (wedding march music)
[365 - 367] I'm not just gonna warm them up in the sauce.
[367 - 369] I'm going to braise them for a full hour.
[369 - 371] Braising in the oven is hands off
[371 - 373] and the heat circulates evenly around the pot,
[373 - 376] so food cooks gently with no risk of scorching.
[376 - 377] That might seem like a long time,
[377 - 379] but it's important for two reasons.
[379 - 382] First, a long braise allows for plenty of flavor transfer
[382 - 384] between the meatballs and the sauce.
[384 - 385] Each one will get better.
[385 - 387] And the second one might surprise you.
[387 - 389] While we are using ground meat, which is naturally tender,
[389 - 391] both the beef and pork are made from
[391 - 393] tough collagen-rich cuts.
[393 - 395] Long cooking a ground meat mixture like this,
[395 - 397] helps the collagen break down into gelatin.
[397 - 400] The meat gets even more tender, and we get more gelatin.
[400 - 402] And after watching our broth bouncing around,
[402 - 405] we all know that gelatin is our best friend.
[405 - 407] No, seriously, I turned him into a friend.
[407 - 409] Look, it gets lonely on set, okay?
[410 - 412] The end result of this long braise
[412 - 414] is succulent, ultra tender meatballs.
[414 - 415] While that was happening,
[415 - 416] I took the liberty of boiling up
[416 - 417] just a small amount of spaghetti.
[417 - 420] Let's add our quiver to the touch-tender meatballs
[420 - 422] and lay it on our savory sauce.
[422 - 424] And let's hit it with a little extra grated parmesan.
[424 - 427] Oh, man, it is time to dig in. Hmm.
[427 - 430] The marinara has this full gravy-like body
[430 - 432] that coats the pasta perfectly.
[432 - 435] The meatballs, honestly are unbelievably good.
[435 - 438] So succulent, so flavorful, so... So...
[438 - 439] You know what? I'm just gonna stop talking.
[439 - 444] Because this is undeniably how to eat meatballs.
[444 - 447] (bright gentle music)
[447 - 450] Thanks to Test Kitchen alum, Andrew Janjigian,
[450 - 453] for unlocking all of these meatball and marinara secrets.
[453 - 454] Who's got more secrets for me?
[454 - 457] I promise I won't be able to keep any of them.
[457 - 459] Leave all of your meatball intel in the comments below,
[459 - 461] and don't forget to hit subscribe and thumbs up.
[461 - 463] I really love making this show for all of you.
[463 - 465] So, thank you so much for watching.
[465 - 466] I'll see you next time.