Meatballs!

[Dark Cloud]

This evening I made up 10 pounds of meatballs, cooked them off, and when they cool i'll vacume pack them into meal size packages then freeze.

I have made them a bunch of times and always just dump in garlic, breadcrumbs, egg, parm cheese, ect. They always come out very good but this time I did some searching around the net and ended up really likeing the looks of Alton Browns recipe, so I used it. They came out awesome! I dont usually duplicate recipies but this one I will.

Ingredients

1/2 pound ground pork

1/2 pound ground lamb

1/2 pound ground round

5 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained thoroughly

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan

1 whole egg

1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil

1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 cup bread crumbs, divided

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the pork, lamb, ground round, spinach, cheese, egg, basil, parsley, garlic powder, salt, red pepper flakes, and 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs. Using your hands, mix all ingredients until well incorporated. Use immediately or place in refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

Place the remaining 1/4 cup of bread crumbs into a small bowl. Using a scale, weigh meatballs into 1.5-ounce portions and place on a sheet pan. Using your hands, shape the meatballs into rounds, roll in the bread crumbs and place the meatballs in individual, miniature muffin tin cups. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

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I used a 50/50 venison-pork mixture. Dont be afraid of the spinach or red pepper, they add alot without even knowing it's in there. My oven runs hot and 20 minutes was perfect! I did some in the mini-muffin pans and it works well but I liked the regular pans better.

They did not brown up but thats ok. i'd rather have them cooked to the right temp than worry about being browned. I did pan fry some in a little olive oil. They did get a nice crispy outside but i like the flavor of baked ones better. Enjoy...

p.s. - there is absolutely no way someone could tell these were venison! They are a great way introduce venison to someone who is iffy on eating it...

[Deitz Dittrich]

alton is my hero.. dude flat out rocks..

[Jim Uran]

Yeah, he's such a food nerd. But he packs a lot of knowledge.

[deerminator]

Those look awesome. You know with Alton's recipes that whatever you make is usually going to work well. You just experiement with the extra spices and seasoning to make it your own. He heas a really good recipe for cheese grits that goes awesome with venison tenderloin. I also want to try his jerky recipe using a box fan and furnace filters to make.

After watching that show so often, I knew when my wife wanted to get me a smoker that it had to be electric. "Well, Alton Brown says the dry heat of electric is what you want versus charcoal or gas."