Be brave, Mark. Use good 75/25 pork (or pork/beef mix for a punchier flavour); use onion/shallot; use soaked bread; make sure to use enough good (mineral rich) salt & pepper. Fry off nuggets of your mix to taste for seasoning - add more if needed). Finish in the oven, in your sauce. Trust me, the scars will heal next time!

Great recipe - an Asian(ish) take on Duck a L'Orange? I'd be tempted to add add a little of the rice vinegar (or lemon zest/juice) to the orange sauce itself - feels like it needs a little something acidic.

Thanks for sharing this Isabel Natrins! I'll have to try it. I'm still somewhat scarred by how terribly my first homemade meatballs turned out, but I may have to return to the kitchen with this...

Soaking got me thinking about using a liqueur instead. Didn't find exactly that, but came across this which looked mighty fine. http://www.mapleleaffarms.com/123?recipe=359&reccat=2 ... I wonder if I could make the meatballs ahead of time for Burning Man. William Bottini . For a while now I've wanted a way to post results of making outside recipes here, but no dice yet.

P.S. You might like to take a look at ...Once Upon a Cook: facebook.com/isabel.cooks, and/or: onceuponacook@isabelnatrins

You're very welcome William. Enjoy!

Isabel Natrins tagging you to make sure you see, but thanks I really appreciate your advice!

Post by Isabel Natrins:

Isabel, you're blowing my mind! Didn't think to soak bread instead of adding crumbs and milk separately. What a great tip! :D

For really juicy meatballs: Use a 75%/25% mixture of pork shoulder and belly. Sweat down a very finely diced onion (1 medium per 500g meat) in a little olive oil and salt, until well softened, but not brown. Soak day old bread (about 2 slices per 500g meat, cut the crusts off) in just enough milk so it all gets absorbed. Squish and knead all your ingredients (your recipe sounds really tasty William!) together thoroughly with very clean hands, shape the meatballs and seal and brown them in a frypan and then finishing cooking them in your tomato sauce (cover the dish) in the oven.

Is it possible to inject juice into a meatball? Is that a thing?

William Bottini you should try this new video Meatballs Cortinese Style and let us know ;)

One way I know how to make moist meatballs is to add bread that's soaked in milk. Heat the milk, turn off the heat, tear pieces of bread into the milk. Mash it until you get a paste like consistency and let it cool for a minute. Then add it into your meat & seasoning mix. The bread helps keep the juice and marinate in the meat. I use about 3 loaf of bread, about a 1 cup of milk for 9 meatballs. Also don't over manipulate them and compress them too much, mix them lightly. Another note is to buy meat that is not too lean.

Post by Lorna Borenstein:

Lorna Borenstein I have some frozen meatballs and homemade sauce. I'll try that today!

Post by William Bottini:

In the mixture. It sounds strange because it's a lot of liquid but supposedly the meat is able to absorb the water which results in a very juicy meatball. I would try half a cup first since I didn't actually test this out haha. I've read recipes that used sour cream as well instead of mayonnaise.

Post by Joe Chung:

What do you mean adding 1 cup water/lb. Joe Chung? Do you mean when I'm frying them? Or in the meatball mixture?

Mayonnaise sounds good too haha

I read somewhere once that having a great crust on the outside before putting meatballs into a sauce or stew or even finishing them in the oven will help keep the center juicy. I also remember watching a cooking show where the chef said adding 1 cup of water per pound of meat or adding a thick liquid ingredient like mayonnaise keeps meatballs juicy.

That is an excellent question. The only meatball recipe trick I know is to cook them in my homemade tomato sauce after they are browned but before they are fully cooked, which really does amp up the juiciness. That said I wonder if SStaffan Terjemight have some special advice on this.

Post by William Bottini:

Hey everyone,

I made meatballs last night and they were really good, but I wish they had been a little juicier. Any tips? My recipe was a combination of ground pork, breadcrumbs, parsely, egg, pecorino reggiano, and a little milk.

I didn't overcook them - but they lacked that amazing juiciness of an amazing meatball :|