Using failure to level up meatballs

Summer sourdough has been a bitch

This is a tale of two foods, of failure and success, of sourdough and meatballs. Just as I would want to hear the bad news before the good if presented with the option, let’s begin with the failure.

Sourdough. Sourdough, sourdough, sourdough. I thought I had figured it out. I was baking loaves that were tall and round, with a good distinctive ear, a crumb that I wanted, and great flavour. These were the kinds of loaves that you would pay good money for at an artisanal bakery or farmers’ market stall. I had figured out the starter feeding schedule, the shaping method, the scoring technique, and the baking temperature and timing. I knew how to bake a loaf of goddamn sourdough bread.

And then a couple of weeks ago, I was producing failed loaves. When it came to shaping, the dough was very wet and sticky, almost impossible to shape into a round. I baked them anyway, and they did not rise nearly anywhere near as much as much as they had been.

I had changed nothing. Starter feeding, ingredient ratios, mixing method, stretch and folds, bulk fermentation, shaping, overnight fridge rest, scoring, baking. Why, when I was doing the same thing, were the results so different?

It turns out that my not changing anything was the problem. See, even though I live in San Diego where the weather is pretty mild year-round, without cold frosts and snow in winter, scorching desert temperatures in summer, and tropical levels of humidity depending on the season, there is apparently still enough of a difference in summer and winter temperatures to affect sourdough.

Chef Penny Stankiewicz wisely said that she thought my problem was that my bulk fermentation was too long and the dough was over-proofed. I had left those failed loaves in the bulk fermentation stage for 10–12 hours, following my old schedule of shaping after dinner. Penny told me that with the current weather, her loaves are in the bulk fermentation phase for three to five hours.

So for the past two loaves, I shortened the bulk fermentation to four to five hours. I actually set a timer instead of waiting for a convenient time in the day to check on it, and my loaves are tall again. Here is a reminder to watch for the signs for when dough is ready and don’t just rely on timing. But also set a timer.

What I did with the failed loaves

Well, we ate one of them. It still tasted fine! It just wasn’t that pretty. I’d baked two at the same time, and one was still pretty and golden brown. That one had prime oven real estate, I guess. The other one was not only flat but it was also pale. So we ate the prettier one and the pale, flat loaf was turned into breadcrumbs.

You may recall my disappointment at baking food from scratch only for them to still be technically ultra-processed because the ingredients I’d used, like breadcrumbs, were UPF. I had never made breadcrumbs before because usually we ate the bread that I made. I didn’t usually have old stale loaves lying around. This failed sourdough loaf seemed like the perfect opportunity to try my hand at breadcrumbs.

They turned out pretty well! They looked like breadcrumbs! (Shocking, I know). I used some immediately and the rest are in the freezer. I think breadcrumbs can now be added to the list of foods I can now make instead of buy. As for what I used them for…

Meatballs keep getting better and better

I had never made meatballs until moving to America, and the meatball recipe I used once I started was from my mother-in-law. Those were the meatballs that set the standard in the family, and they were meatballs that my husband, children, and everyone in the extended family loved. I loved them too. So when I wanted to make meatballs, I just used that recipe.

That recipe involved only ground beef, one egg for every pound of meat, half a cup of breadcrumbs for every pound of meat, and liberal amounts of salt, powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Mix everything together, shape into balls, then place them on a baking tray lined with aluminium foil and bake in a 350F oven for 25 minutes. Then serve with marinara sauce and spaghetti. For the four of us, and for enough to have leftovers, I usually used 3lb of meat.

I was using that recipe for years, and they were always a winner with the kids. And then I started changing things…

The first was the Italian seasoning. I had run out of the spice blend and one day when I tried to buy it, the shop was out. So instead I just used a mix of dried basil, oregano, marjoram, and thyme. I’m currently out of marjoram so I put in parsley last time — basically any dried green herb that might reasonably be found in Italian seasoning is fair game.

Then I had ground pork that I didn’t have a use for, so for one batch of meatballs, I used 2lb of ground beef and 1lb of ground pork and they were fantastic. Noticeably better than the ones made with all beef, and this became a permanent change.

The next change was minor but important. I was reading a Reddit thread about what things people do to level up their meatballs. One commenter said they added grated pecorino cheese and Worcestershire sauce. Someone replied and said that sounds like they would add a great umami kick and they could see why that would make good additions. So the next time I made meatballs, I added grated pecorino and some splashes of Worcestershire sauce. Those commenters were right, and the meatballs became even better.

Finally, there was one more thing I did to level up meatballs. I changed the cooking technique. When I make meatballs, I usually cooked one tester meatball in a cast iron pan before shaping the whole batch, to see if I needed to adjust any of the seasonings. I noticed that the tester meatball always tasted that little bit better than the ones out of the oven, and my suspicion was the cooking them in the pan and letting the entire meatball have direct contact with the heat allowed for better browning and flavour. So the last time I made meatballs, I cooked the entire lot in the pan instead of baking them. This was more time consuming because I had to do it in three batches instead of baking them all in the oven at once, but damn they were good.

So the last time I made meatballs, this is the recipe I followed (after every last thing of levelling up I had tried over hundreds of meatballs).

Ingredients

• 2lb ground beef

• 1lb ground pork

• 3 eggs

• 1.5 cups breadcrumbs

• 2 tablespoons garlic powder

• 1 tablespoon each of dried basil, oregano, marjoram, parsley, thyme (or 5 tablespoons of Italian seasoning)

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• A few grates against the microplane of Pecorino (maybe 1 tablespoon total?)

• A few splashes of Worcestershire sauce (I did about six glugs, maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons? Can you tell I’m not a professional recipe writer?)

Method

1. Combine everything in a large bowl. Get your hands in there and properly mix it all.

2. Cook a tester to see if the flavours are to your liking. If not, adjust seasonings. If so, proceed.

3. Shape into balls about the size of a ping pong ball. Or whatever you think a meatball should be sized. The original recipe says they should be 1 inch.

4. Heat some olive oil in a cast iron pan on high. Pop in enough meatballs to cook as many as once but don’t overcrowd them. They shouldn’t be touching each other. I used the 12 cast iron skillet (the biggest one I have) and I fit in about 15 meatballs per batch.

5. Turn the heat down to medium and keep turning the meatballs so they are evenly browned on all sides and cooked through.

The specific-to-the-way-I-usually-do-meatballs next step: Put the cooked meatballs in the fridge. Fold laundry, pick up the kids from school, go about your life. About half an hour before you want dinner to be served, proceed to the next step.

6. Heat up a pan on medium. Pour in marinara sauce. Add cold and cooked meatballs into the sauce and let it all warm up together and simmer on low for about 20 minutes. Cook spaghetti while you wait.

7. Serve. Grate parmesan over the top if you’re feeling fancy. Find out how many meatballs the children want for lunch the next day and set them aside lest they all get eaten on the first night.