Cranberry co*cktail Meatballs Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are co*cktail meatballs made of? ›

co*cktail meatballs were a popular appetizer in the 1960s and 1970s. My mother and grandmother used to make them from a well-known recipe that called for frozen meatballs, grape jelly, and Heinz chili sauce. It seemed like everyone made them that way back then!

Baking soda, otherwise known as sodium bicarbonate, appears often in köfte recipes. It raises the PH level of the meat, making it harder for the meat's protein molecules to bond. This in turn allows the meat to retain water as it cooks. And more water means a moist meatball.

Replace the Grape Jelly with apricot preserves, orange marmalade, canned cranberry sauce, raspberry preserves, or hot pepper jelly.

When meatballs are packed together too tightly, they cook up tough, rubbery, and chewy. → Follow this tip: Being gentle is the name of the game when it comes to forming meatballs. Consider oiling your hands so the mixture won't stick to them, and then gently and quickly form the meat into evenly sized balls.

Cook's Illustrated explains that adding too many eggs will put your meatballs at risk of having a soggy texture. Any additional and unnecessary liquid will also cause difficulty mixing and forming meatballs. Adding a single egg should be enough to do the trick, with two being the maximum for each pound of meat you use.

Egg and breadcrumbs are common mix-ins to add moisture and tenderness. Another binder option that people swear by is a panade, which is fresh or dry breadcrumbs that have been soaked in milk. “The soaked breadcrumbs help keep the proteins in the meat from shrinking,” as food writer Tara Holland explained in the Kitchn.

Adding raw meatballs to the sauce and gently simmering till cooked yields ultra-tender results, and infuses the sauce with meaty flavor—a slow cooker gives great results.

When it comes to adding liquid to meatball mixtures, milk is often used for its versatility, depth of flavor, and richness. Without the use of milk, you may be faced with a plate of dry meatballs. Milk adds a certain level of moisture that helps produce perfectly tender meatballs.

What is the secret ingredient to tenderize meat? ›

Whether hosting a holiday cookout, serving up some stir-fry or tackling game meats, baking soda is the go-to meat tenderizer to help make your steak, chicken or turkey silkier, juicier and yummier.

The Key to Tender Meatballs

Here, we're soaking fresh or dried breadcrumbs in a little milk until the bread becomes soggy, then mixing that right into the meat. This binder (aka panade) helps add moisture to the meatballs and also prevents the meat proteins from shrinking and becoming tough.

Because meat shrinks when cooked, mince proteins are likely to separate and crumble unless bound together. Whether it's breadcrumbs or egg (or both), or simply salt, binding the mince is a crucial step in maintaining the softness of your meatballs while preventing them from falling apart.

This is especially important when working with pork, turkey and chicken, which are very wet when ground. Refrigerating gives the fat in the meat time to solidify, which helps maintain the shape. Chill your meatballs for anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, depending on their size.

Mix it up really well (your hands work best for this) and use a small cookie scoop to grab a meatball sized portion. This will allow you to have uniformly sized meatballs. Roll them in your hands to make them as round as possible. This is where the methods will deviate.

“Based on the results of our mapping, we can confirm that the contents of the meatballs follow the Ikea recipe and contain only beef and pork from animals raised in the U.S. and Canada,” Ikea North America spokeswoman Mona Astra Liss said in a statement.

Our meatballs and meat sauce are made with 100% ground beef. They do not contain any pork.