Firehouse Subs Meatballs

Home reconstruction

Sub-shop meatballs are soft, wet and taste of the sauce all the way through. Most home meatballs are firm, dry, and taste of the sauce only on the outside.

The difference is when you stop cooking them.

Brown them, then take them out while the centres are still underdone, and let them finish in the simmering sauce for twenty minutes. They absorb liquid as they finish rather than shedding it.

A meatball cooked all the way through first has already contracted and pushed its juices out. Dropping it into sauce afterwards coats it and nothing more.

The panade again

Bread soaked in milk, mashed to a paste. Two slices to 900 g of meat, in 120 ml of milk.

Breadcrumbs pull moisture out of the meat. A milk-soaked panade brings moisture in, and the starch gel keeps the meat proteins from binding into a tight, springy network.

This is the same principle as a good meatloaf and it matters more here, because meatballs have more surface area to lose water from.

Do not compact them

Roll them lightly. A meatball squeezed firm has had the air pressed out and the proteins pushed together, and it cooks into something with the texture of a rubber ball.

Cup your hand and roll with barely any pressure. They should feel fragile. They will hold together, because the egg and the panade are doing that job.

Wet hands stop the mixture sticking and make light rolling much easier.

Beef and pork

Two to one, same as a meatloaf. All beef is firmer and drier; the pork brings fat and softness.

Do not use lean mince. The fat is structural.

What you need

Meatballs

• 600 g beef mince (80/20)
• 300 g pork mince
• 2 slices stale white bread, crusts off
• 120 ml whole milk
• 1 large egg
• 50 g parmesan, grated
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp dried oregano

Sauce

• 2 × 400 g tins chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp sugar, salt and pepper

Method

1. 1. Tear the bread into the milk, 5 minutes, then mash to a paste.
2. 2. Combine with everything else for the meatballs, mixing by hand **until just combined.**
3. 3. Roll lightly into 24 balls, with wet hands.
4. 4. Brown in olive oil in batches, **turning to colour all sides, about 5 minutes.** They will not be cooked through. That is correct.
5. 5. Set them aside. In the same pan, soften the onion 5 minutes, then the garlic.
6. 6. Tomato purée for a minute, then the tinned tomatoes, basil, sugar and seasoning.
7. 7. Simmer 10 minutes.
8. 8. Return the meatballs and simmer gently 20 minutes, turning once.

Brown in the same pan you make the sauce in

The browned bits left behind are concentrated meat flavour, and the onion softening in that pan lifts them into the sauce. Using a clean pan throws that away.

The half teaspoon of sugar

Tinned tomatoes are acidic and vary a lot in how much. Half a teaspoon of sugar does not make the sauce sweet — it takes the metallic edge off.

Taste before adding it. Some tomatoes need none.

Storing

Four days in the fridge in the sauce, and genuinely better on day two.

Three months in the freezer, in the sauce. Thaw overnight and reheat gently.

For subs: split a roll, three or four meatballs, provolone on top, under a hot grill until it melts.