{"id":7263,"date":"2015-04-23T11:10:44","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T10:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jameswhelanbutchers.com\/info\/?p=7263"},"modified":"2015-04-24T14:11:39","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T13:11:39","slug":"burgers-and-balls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jameswhelanbutchers.com\/info\/7263\/burgers-and-balls\/","title":{"rendered":"Burgers and Balls"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t pick up a food magazine or go to a food website these days without seeing the words \u2018budget\u2019, \u2018eat well, spend less\u2019, \u2018feed your family for a fiver\u2019 or any other of the myriad ways we are constantly being encouraged to save money. Here\u2019s the thing, and I don\u2019t wish to be controversial, but surely the wise amongst us were always interested in value and many people I know always worked to a budget. Savvy customers at James Whelan Butchers have always expected value without the compromise on taste or nutrition. Stretching a meal is nothing new but the media would have us believe that we need re educating.\u00a0\u00a0 If you grew up in Ireland when shepherds pies, beef stews, roast beef on Sunday and roast beef hash on Monday, bacon, lamb, chicken and maybe a fish day were popular, then you know how to eat well on a budget. This might be new to the media but it isn\u2019t to many of us. I sometimes think we have forgotten about the comfort and taste in those traditional Irish dinners not to mention the value and you\u2019ll never feel like you are on a budget.<\/p>\n

Making meatballs is very easy, but making mouth-watering, full of flavour, tender, juicy little brown succulent orbs of meat is another matter entirely! While most Western countries are familiar with the meatball and, indeed, most European countries have their own version, I still love the Italian take on it. Maybe I\u2019m slightly biased as the best meatballs I ever tasted were found in an Italian restaurant in the States. Now to be fair my wife likes to tease me that it was hardly a proper \u2018Italian\u2019 experience given that we were in America, but I beg to differ. The restaurant was run by immigrants and relatively young ones at that.<\/p>\n

\"MEATBALLS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So what are the rules of great meatballs? Well great meat balls are actually balls of great meat! If you don\u2019t start with quality at this stage you may as well forget about it. You also, ideally, need two types of mince preferably equal parts beef and pork. If you really want to push the boat out try adding some lamb mince for an extra taste dimension. The beef is what gives the meatball its substance while the fat from the pork and or lamb adds the real flavour. Where possible don\u2019t have the meat minced too fine.<\/p>\n

The next imperative in a meatball or a burger is the adhesive. If you\u2019ve ever cooked either and they have fallen apart during cooking it is highly possible that you didn\u2019t have enough glue! Now meatball and burger glue comes in the form of milk soaked bread. I discovered this tip while trying out a Delia Smith recipe for meatloaf. Instead of adding plain breadcrumbs, Delia wanted bread with the crusts cut off soaked in milk added to my meatloaf mixture. The next time I was making meatballs I tried it and it worked really well. The moist bread binds everything together without flavouring it, leaving the herbs, the meat and any other additions to do their job without interference.<\/p>\n

Finally when it comes to meatballs I always seal them on a pan on a very high heat before cooking them off, whether that\u2019s in a sauce or baking them in the oven. By sealing them quickly on a hot pan you keep all the lovely juices on the inside. I like my meatballs prepared medium in size and served with a tomato sauce, but maybe you would prefer the creamier paler sauces favoured in Scandinavian countries \u2013 it really is up to you.<\/p>\n

The rules for homemade burgers are very similar to meatballs in many ways. Start with great ingredients. Burgers are probably even more versatile in what you can add to them and how you serve them. Along with pork mince you could try adding some smoked lardons or how about stuffing them with cheese? British chef, James Martin, has a wonderful cheese stuffed burger recipe. I also like all the things that go with burgers \u2013 the onions, lettuce, slivers of juicy beef tomatoes all topped with crispy streaky bacon and with warm melted cheese on the top, sandwiched between soft burger buns. The main trick with burgers is not to make them too thick. If you do you run the risk of cooking them too much on the outside and not enough in the middle.<\/p>\n

With meatballs and burgers you really get a lot of bang for your buck plus they are always a real crowd pleaser. In our house we often make miniature burgers. They are great for little hands but work particularly well as substantial finger food for adults, always eliciting a little \u2018wow\u2019 as people chomp into the juicy meat without the guilt of a full size whopper.<\/p>\n

Mix up your mince, try it with different herbs and flavourings and along with being great value you\u2019ll also find that it\u2019s very tasty too. Drop by the website or the store in Oakville any day for more great money saving ideas. Great meat at great value is what we are really, really good at.<\/p>\n

Here are two of my favourite ways to cook meatballs available for download on our site:<\/p>\n

Spanish Meatballs in a Tomato Chorizo Sauce<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Persian Koftah (Beef and Rice Meatballs)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of \u00a0James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Food Market Monkstown and Avoca Rathcoole.\u00a0Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t pick up a food magazine or go to a food website these days without seeing the words \u2018budget\u2019, \u2018eat well, spend less\u2019, \u2018feed your family for a fiver\u2019 or any other of the myriad ways we are constantly being encouraged to save money. Here\u2019s the thing, and I don\u2019t wish to be controversial, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[138,99,768,48,552,47,1005,810],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n