I Made 65 Meatballs To Create The Perfect Recipe

We went through 11 pounds of meat,

two dozen eggs,

208 ounces of tomato,

17 cloves of garlic,

two pounds of parmigiano reggiano

and 65 total meatballs.

This is my final plate.

I'm Hana in the BA Test Kitchen

and I'm here to show you how I developed

my ideal version of spaghetti and meatballs.

[audio squeaking]

Usually my game plan when it comes to recipe development

is to start with kind of a standard specimen of that recipe

and so my plan for today is to tackle traditional

spaghetti and meatballs consisting of three different types

of meat, beef, pork, veal, with added ingredients

like the ground parm, parsley, egg, breadcrumb mixture

and then let's talk about the sauce.

I would say either a puree or a passata.

Basil is a question mark.

For weeknight friendly,

I don't know if I want there to be

two different types of herbs.

EVOO, salt and pepper, thick or regular spaghetti,

usually the bronze cut is the best.

I think that's a good place to start.

That's the list of ingredients.

I'm gonna start with that version.

Let's see what kind of tweaks I'd like to make.

We're using ground beef.

Pork brings the luscious fat and mouth feel.

That's also why it's important to get 80,20 beef

because that is also a high level of fat.

Fat is flavor.

The veal lends a lightness to the meat mixture.

I'm going to make a panade

made with dried breadcrumbs and milk.

What that acts is kind of a glue but also a filler.

Whoops.

Quarter cup of cheese.

Almost like we're starting carbonara, huh?

I like to keep the meat separate from the wet ingredients.

By doing this, you can ensure that everything

will be incorporated into the meat mix in a very even way.

Gentle, you don't want to compact the meat.

No, no, don't do that.

When you overmix your meat,

the likelihood of you ending up

with a tougher meatball is higher.

I like to add just a little bit of oil

to the ice cream scoop.

Let's see how much this will yield.

So, again, not compressing, I'm going to shape first

and then kind of pat them later.

Oh my gosh, are we gonna have 16?

I'm gonna make sure it's 16.

I like 16 because if this recipe

is to serve about four people,

you know right away you can have at least

three to four meatballs.

What I like to do is not form them 'cause they're quite wet,

but you kind of wanna knock some air out of them.

Do you hear that?

You're slapping them.

If there's too much air, they'll just like crumble

when you go to eat them.

What I'll probably do is just stick this in the fridge

and what I think that will do is help them retain

their shape and be ready for the pot

once it's time to go and sear them,

just so they don't completely disintegrate on us.

What searing accomplishes for meats

is it creates caramelized crust due to the Maillard reaction

and that's just that nice browning effect.

It kind of provides a shell of integrity

so that the thing doesn't just fall apart.

[oil sizzling]

These are a little bit on the wet side.

Yeah, I already know I'm not gonna sear in my next version.

You know what I'm gonna do, actually, stay right here.

I'm going to grab two spoons.

The spoons will not just help maintain the shape,

but it'll be a little more gentle.

I'm not a huge fan of this process

because it's a little messy,

a little too much babysitting involved.

I feel like there's a better way

and we'll find the better way.

Right now they look like Korean meat patties.

I would say this is no good.

So what I'll do is fish out some of the excess meat

and then I'll start the sauce.

Marinara, to me, is pretty plain.

I wanna keep the focus on the meatballs

and keep the sauce pretty straightforward.

If you keep a wooden spoon like this,

it won't splatter all over you.

I might actually put the meatballs in now.

I'm changing it up.

The meatballs will gently simmer, almost poach,

in the marinara sauce.

I think it looks okay.

I think the shape could be a little better

but as it cooks, it also firms up a bit.

So we'll see what the end result is like.

Oh, it's tender.

Tender, it is.

But is it too tender?

Hi.

I'd be curious to hear what Mr. Morocco says.

What problem are we solving here?

My ideal meatball is a tender one.

So, yeah, I want you to feel it.

Well, it's tender.

Okay, I think the texture is good

and that is actually my intention to preserve texture first.

But when I was searing them,

they were also very wet, very soft and so the sear-

[Chris] And they were holding together?

Barely. Barely.

I would say the flavor of the meatball

is lacking a little bit of character and depth to me.

[Hana] I agree with you.

It feels like it's like a little bit beige.

When I was doing the BA's best, I think it was, meatballs.

That's when I ultimately decided

to put a little bit of cured meat in there.

Oh, interesting.

Like prosciutto or salami, something just to bring

that additional nuance, but that's not a solve

that I think works for most people.

Yeah, there can be so much more and I already have ideas

on how I can improve it. If I go over to the pot

and take another meatball right now for lunch,

don't accept that as confirmation

that like your work here is done.

[Hana] Okay. That's just me being hungry.

I just wanna make that very clear.

Well, this it is lunchtime.

No, please help yourself.

But if it wasn't good,

you wouldn't have take another one, right?

Sure.

All right, I'll see you later. Okay, thank you.

My first attempt, I think, was decent.

Not the greatest.

Chris took another meatball so it's not all that bad,

but definitely room for improvement.

Now that I've cooked through kind of a full recipes

worth of both meatball, pasta and sauce,

I'm going to set the sauce and pasta conversation

to the side and just nail the meatballs next.

So we are working on our second version

and they're already a few very important tweaks

that I think we will take into consideration.

Chris's feedback and mine as well

was that while the texture was nice,

the flavor could have benefited

from a little bit more oomph.

I'm going to borrow a technique that I often use

when making Swedish style meatballs.

The method there is saute a yellow onion first

and letting it cool a bit

before introducing it to the meat mix.

Onion also brings a lot of umami

so I think we'll add a ton of flavor and moisture.

So the first version we use the traditional

trio of veal, pork and ground beef.

I think for this one I wanna see if I can still achieve

the same juicy tenderness with just beef and porks.

No offense to veal, but I wanna focus on

kind of easily obtainable meats that you can find anywhere.

I noticed the first batch of meatballs was quite liquidy

so I think removing one egg will help us.

I'm looking for soy sauce.

Sorry, are you okay?

I know I didn't see any earlier.

Hi.

I wanted to introduce my secret ingredient for version two.

Soy sauce.

I'm like just make everything Asian, right?

I couldn't find our regular soy sauce

so I'm gonna try with the lower sodium version.

I just wanted to add more depth to our meat mixture

and I think even just adding a teaspoon,

perhaps two, will help us get there.

Don't tell Chris.

Let's see if his super taster taste buds can detect this.

Oh, you know what I just thought of actually?

So one of my favorite brown meat preparations

is menchi katsu which is deep fried

Japanese style meatballs.

In that technique

and also in a lot of dumpling filling techniques,

you should be mixing the meat

until it becomes almost pasty.

It's like a stirring claw like motion

which you can mimic with a spoon or spatula as well

and what it's doing is just getting more mousse like.

You can already see.

Do you see how it's becoming more of a homogenized form?

Oh my gosh, I love this.

It almost looks like pate.

They're maintaining more of a ball shape

as opposed to kind of like a domed patty.

I can already tell this version is better.

I wanna put them under the broiler.

I love the broiler.

These probably would've fared better with the sear off

as well but I'm not gonna even bother.

[meatballs sizzling] Oh, she's sizzling.

OMG!

Okay, yeah, that's the browning we like and love.

So my sauce has been simmering.

I'm just gonna add them in and already the meatballs

look so much better than version one.

They have a nice bowl shape.

Looks like they held up well.

They actually got a really nice crust on the bottom as well.

Fricking love the broiler.

I'm gonna check one in maybe 10 minutes, low and slow.

I'm just gonna try one meatball

'cause I don't wanna overcook them

and if it is ready then we'll just pull them off the heat.

Oh, they're so cute.

Look.

When you see the oil splitting from the tomato sauce,

that's a good sign.

Mmm!

Oh, yeah, the flavors are amped up

and I'm not having this with pasta

but definitely more savory.

Wow, I want someone to try this.

These are mine.

Yes, so this is version two.

What tomatoes are you using?

Just so you know,

the meatball is what I wanted to focus on.

So I used Rao's just an equal amount

so don't eat too much of the sauce.

Focus on the meatball.

Definitely firmer. Definitely firmer.

It eats very nicely.

Did you always have the raw onion in there?

[Hana] It's not raw, it's sauteed.

You're gonna make me saute onion to make a meatball?

[Hana] Just one onion

and one tablespoon of olive oil and some salt.

It took no time at all.

Did it really take no time?

Can we wind it back?

Can we check the time code on that?

[tape squeaking]

[bell dinging]

Do you detect anything else in there?

I have a secret ingredient.

It's very nicely savory.

Okay. A little bit deeper.

Yes. Definitely, than previously.

I added a bit of soy sauce 'cause I can't help myself.

It's working.

It's not obvious at all.

Good.

This is beef and pork.

The veal is not in this mix.

Do you feel like you could potentially

reintroduce a little bit more tenderness

now that you're in a beef and a pork space?

Yes, I was even thinking just bring sliding the ratio

where pork is a bigger part of it.

Only thing I'd say, I would still be annoyed about

as a user of the recipe would be cooking out the onion.

I wanna just put the things in the thing,

on the thing and be done.

You know what though Chris?

I'm not promising an easiest meatball scenario.

I'm giving people tender.

Tender, all right, well you better give them

real frigging tender.

Okay.

I'm still very happy with the flavor.

I'm gonna tweak the texture so we get a little bit

more of the tenderness back.

I can bring a little more liquid back

without negatively impacting

the structural integrity of the meatball.

So, hopefully we can do it.

[laughing]

Good morning.

This is day two of spaghetti and meatball development.

We're now on our third version.

My thinking is I will improve upon yesterday's two versions,

bringing back some of the moisture and tenderness

that was lost between version one and two,

but still keeping the nice shape that we achieved

in the second version.

The first thing I'm going to do

is start on a simple marinara.

Today I'm gonna be using a pasada

which doesn't get heated prior to being bottled.

So it is able to retain a little bit more brightness

in my opinion.

The tomato sauce does not need that much time,

but I do want to establish an aromatic base

and just let this simmer down a little bit

to concentrate the flavor.

One major change that I'm doing in version three

is instead of sauteing the onion,

which might be a little bit of an inconvenience

for a cook at home, is to just simply grate it

into the meat mixture.

We use pureed onion and some fruits all the time

in Korean barbecue marinade.

So I'm just pulling from my personal knowledge

to see if this will also kind of provide

that nice tender moment for our meatballs.

I'm going to increase the liquid

in the panade just a little bit

to see if I can bring some moisture back to the meatball.

So I can already tell by feeling and looking at them,

that they're softer than yesterday's second version,

but a little bit firmer than version one.

So I think yesterday it was in for like six and a half,

maybe seven minutes.

While it gave it a nice crust,

I think that cooked the meatball further than I wanted

and so today I wanted to bring it back

just so I could have a tender meatball.

So I'm pulling at five minutes.

It's not as golden as yesterday,

but I don't want them to be in here for too long.

So you can tell it's just set on top,

but it's not a caramelized situation as it was yesterday,

super brown, but that's okay.

We want to preserve the texture.

These are so tender that I'm not gonna use tongs.

I'm gonna gently coax them in with a spoon.

I'm actually very happy with how they look

considering the shape they were in out of the broiler,

which was too soft for the tongs to touch.

Would you like to try version three?

Yeah.

Do you taste any difference from yesterday flavor wise?

It definitely tastes a little brighter.

Okay.

The meat.

I grated half an onion really into the meat mix

and incorporated both the pulp and its juices.

So pulling a page from the Korean barbecue marinade book.

Koreans often use a pureed fruit and onion mix

to both give flavor, sweetness and to tenderize the meat.

I think it's coming through as freshness and brightness.

That's good.

But without any of the heat.

When I see red sauce that's has this absence of texture.

It's just that luscious kind of velvety, it's so my grandma.

Oh, amazing.

That's who I'm channeling.

Oh my God.

It honestly tastes a good bit like hers too.

Just the sauce.

Wow!

I think I'm done.

Just kidding.

It's very tender. Okay.

Did you try to brown it?

Went back to the broiler and I pulled it a few minutes

before I pulled it yesterday.

I like that the oven is setting the shape of the meatball.

I don't mind that it didn't get browned.

Yeah, and frankly when moving it into the jacuzzi,

I couldn't even lift them with tongs

because I had to spoon them in.

This is really tender.

It's certainly holding together, but, wow.

Love it.

You're done.

I'm done?

Easy day.

Cut, no, just kidding.

[laughing]

Okay, wow, I'm so proud of where I am at this stage

because frankly I thought I would need

at least a couple more attempts, but I was really happy

with this last version, version three.

Version four, well, it's the same as version three

as far as ingredients go.

I'm going to keep a tighter eye on time.

I want to just keep an eye on the broiler,

nail down the time and the color

that I'm aiming for and cook through it

as if you were to cook through it at home.

One thing I will be doing a little differently

in this run through is test two different types of pasta.

So you have your standard spaghetti

and then thick spaghetti.

I think this slightly thicker shape will hold well

to the meatballs and with the pasta water going,

broiler preheating and sauce going,

we're gonna do the recipe from start to finish.

So now it's about timing and making sure

that the order of the instructions

that I will deliver you all makes sense

and feels like the best use of time.

Oh my God, just under an hour, guys.

They look actually the best so far.

Juicy.

These are delicious.

Thick spaghetti I've been seeing around in my local stores,

but they're actually harder to find than I thought.

So let's see if taking the effort

to search for thick spaghetti is worth the difference.

I'm, so far, very happy with the regular spaghetti,

as it's intended, I guess.

I would say stick to the regular spaghetti.

The thick spaghetti does offer a different sensation

but in my final recipe, I think I'll call for

the regular, standard, classic spaghetti.

I would be so happy to have this for dinner

with a big glass of wine, like this big, I'm like,

Leslie, let's have some wine.

Maybe some garlic bread or Caesar salad alongside.

I think when you think of spaghetti and meatballs,

this is what you're thinking of.

This is, it's my final version.

I'm very proud of it

and I hope you guys make spaghetti and meatballs at home.

I would be so touched, especially if you tried my version.