Published January 1, 1998.
For our spaghetti and meatballs recipe, we wanted nothing short of great meatballs: crusty and dark brown on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. Focusing on ingredients for our meatball recipe, we found that milk did wonderful things for meatballs, especially when mixed to a paste with fresh bread crumbs. Still better was buttermilk, which delivered a delicious flavor. Eggs were also important for texture and flavor; their fats and emulsifiers added moistness and richness. Egg yolks alone worked best; the whites just made the mixture sticky and hard to handle, with no benefits. Another contribution to the flavor dimension can be gotten by adding some ground pork to the usual ground beef (usually chuck); we found 1 part pork to 3 parts beef to be about right.
This streamlined recipe can be on the table in under an hour.
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