Frozen meatballs come in handy. They dress up many an otherwise boring meal. Kids love them. And by using make ahead frozen meatballs, you can save yourself a lot of time in the kitchen.
If you look at the ingredients label on most pre-cooked frozen meatballs available at your grocery store, you probably will not want to eat another store bought frozen meatball again. Whether it’s soy meal adding texture or hidden MSG, the ingredients are scary.
That’s why I started making my own make ahead frozen meatballs. I cook them all up in a big batch (usually on a Saturday), then freeze them for later use. So easy!
Make Ahead Frozen Meatballs Recipe
The Players
- 3 eggs from pastured hens
- 1 small onion, chopped (or half a large one)
- 1 1/3 C. bread crumbs (or cooked brown rice)
- 2 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tbsp. Italian herb blend
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 3 lbs. grass-fed ground beef
The How-To
Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the next six ingredients and mix well. Finally, add the beef and mix well. Shape the meatballs into one inch balls (should make approximate 100 meatballs). Place in single layers on ungreased 1-inch deep baking pans and bake at 400F for 10 minutes, until done.
Drain the fats and store for later use or (heaven forbid!) discard.
Once the meatballs and pans have cooled to the touch, place the meatballs (tray and all) into your freezer to “flash freeze” them. After they’ve frozen, remove the meatballs from the trays and transfer to plastic freezer storage bags or other freezer storage.
Keep stored in freezer and remove only as many meatballs as you need at a time. You can thank the flash freezing for that. It helps each meatball hold its individual shape and not stick to the other meatballs around it. This way, you can remove as few or as many meatballs as you need for whatever you’re serving up.
Reheat make ahead frozen meatballs on the stove, in sauces, or in the oven (350F for 20 minutes).
Enjoy!
(photo by Mr. Usaji)
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i’m wondering if there is a non-grain substitute for the bread crumbs/brown rice? perhaps some kind of nut meal?
It sounds like it’d be worth a try. I’m partial to almond meal. Also, I’ve used grated cauliflower as a substitute for rice in other recipes. Perhaps it’s worth experimenting with here?
There are plenty of alternatives, although none are as straightfoward as using bread crumbs, or cracker crumbs. No other starch (included to absorb the exuded meat juice from the ground meats as they cook) can match their savory quality, since yeast-fermented breads have a special sensory ability to highlight umami flavors in meat and cheese (as do other foods like mushrooms, soy sauce, tomato paste, wine, and so on — this magnifying effect is one reason that pizza is so popular). The next best options are ‘besan’ (ground chickpea flour from India), or toasted, ground oatmeal flakes. Other starches like cornstarch, tapioca/cassava starch, arrowroot, etc. add no flavor and tend to create a gummy texture since they soak up much more liquid than crumbs do. I did find moderate success with “yam starch” from Taiwan (somewhat coarse and white; the plant is halfway between a potato and a sweet potato). Masa harina might be a useful substitute as well.
For someone trying to low-carb their meatballs, one can try using ricotta cheese, whey powder, or powdered gelatin in place of crumbs. These proteins help prevent meat proteins from interlocking as they cook (which toughens the meatballs) although they do not soak up exuded juices in the way that crumbs do, so the final product will still be a little substandard. A little bit of whey powder or gelatin goes a long way; one can use more significant amounts of ricotta, but it adds a “fluffiness” that may require more egg than in the original recipe to keep the meatballs bound together.
I haven’t tried nut meals, but I can nearly guarantee that they won’t work well. They don’t soak up much liquid, and even finely ground they are kind of “heavy”, and they contain significant amounts of oil, and their flavor is more assertive and less of a harmony to the melody of the ground meat.
Made these today, they came out perfect! I had a little bit of leftover mashed Kumara (like a sweet potato) that I mixed into them as well, not sure yet if it really added anything but I figured it would be a good way to use up leftovers. Thanks for the recipe!
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I am curious what would you do with the fat from these? I love how I just keep learning. I would hate to waste a usable fat source.
Christy´s last blog post …Gingerbread Bowl
Once it’s washed or well-strained, you can use it as tallow. I hear it makes good pie crusts, but I mostly use tallow when I want a cooking oil that doesn’t taste like coconut or ghee!
I make a hugh batch of meatballs regularly to freeze – wouldn’t do it any other way. I have never understood why anyone would by pre-made meatballs when they are so simple to make. I make a batch of 100 at a time, but they are much bigger than once inch, LOL. It’s the Italian blood from my mother, I guess!
This might be a dumb question, but what can you do with the saved fats? I know the answer for bacon grease, but I’ve never used fat drained from beef.
Heather´s last blog post …Our Thanksgiving
Heather — See my answer to Christy above.
I used to have a pretty appalling frozen chicken finger habit – and then I realized that what was attractive about them was not the deep-fried factory meat-ness of them, but the quick-hot-protein-ness. Keeping a zipper bag of frozen, grass-fed meatballs in my freezer has helped me boycott Tyson and still get my low-carb, good-fat fix!
Hmm, love this idea. I just made turkey meatballs last week, and it was a labor of love (though it only took me about 30 minutes). Hadn’t even thought of freezing them, so thanks for the great idea!
Extreme Fitness Results´s last blog post …Lust for Life
Such an easy “convenience” food, and we don’t need the corporations at all! One thought – the idea of shaping 100 little meatballs by hand might sound a tad tedious. Using either a large melon-baller or a small cookie-dough scoop makes the process much quicker.
starrskitchen.com
Starr´s last blog post …Yes, You Can: Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake
What Worcestershire sauce do you use? The stuff in my kitchen – which I won’t be buying again! – contains high fructose corn syrup and natural flavors (always a suspect ingredient).
I either make my own by whipping together Thai fish sauce, apple cider vinegar, molasses, garlic, tumeric, and salt, OR I buy the naturally fermented versions of it at my Asian market.
What would be a good substitute for Worchestershire sauce?
Every brand I’ve found so far has sugar, typically wheat, and other allergens which I can not have. We are grain free, dairy free, and sugar free.
Thanks!
Stephanie, see my answer to Michel above.
re. Heather’s question about using drained fat from beef – use it as you would “shortening” or other solid fats. (Technically I think fat rendered from beef or bison is “tallow,” whereas “lard” is pig fat.) You’ll want to strain the drippings well, chill, and reserve them to use as fat for other savory dishes, since they will retain the flavor of onion and other seasonings. If you manage to gather 1/3 c. or more, you can make the BEST pie crust with tallow.
starrskitchen.com
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YO! What a GREAT idea.
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http://tiny.cc/iQVB8 dinner 2nite *add cheez*, hope franks likes. on my way to pik up milk share & beef.. luv my farmer and his fam
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Thanks for this. I think I might do this this weekend… have a freezer full of grass-fed beef and lots of eggs from pastured hens.
And the kids have been loving meatballs.
I also like the Worcestershire sauce alternative.
hippygirl´s last blog post …Winter Cakes
I just made these and they are FABULOUS! Thank you for the simple, nourishing recipe.
BTW, I made them about 1/2″ – 3/4″ balls so they’d appeal more to my children and the recipe made about 250 small meatballs. YUM
Kristen,
Matt has been craving meatball subs for awhile now. It just seems like too much work for a sandwich. I don’t know why but I never thought of freezing, it would be easy to defrost meatballs for a sub! I know he will appreciate this blog entry.
Would you mind posting rough proportions for the worcester sauce you make? I haven’t been able to find any local to me and have all though ingredients already but would be helped along by some hints to start with.
I made a double batch of these last week and they are delicious. I didn’t have enough bread crumbs, so I put some oats in the food processor and ground those up as a substitute.
Anyway, I got 4 quart sized freezer bags full, plus enough for dinner the night I made them. And, it forced me to c lean out the freezer that’s in the kitchen (if it weren’t for the outdoor cats I could have flash-frozen them outside! haha). So it was all good. Thanks for the recipe!
hippygirl´s last blog post …Winter Cakes
I’m going to make these today with quinoa instead of rice or bread. I think that will increase the protein, reduce carbs, and work like rice or bread crumbs. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’m currently on a no yeast, no sugar, gluten free diet. So I’m going to check out the natural Worcestershire sauce I have and if it won’t work then I’ll experiment a bit.
hippygirl´s last blog post …Winter Highlights
Thanks for the 4th of July pointer back to these! I’ve been trying to sort out a good meatball recipe to replace the rather tasteless ones from Trader Joe’s. Their ingredient list isn’t exactly horrid, but they’re pretty bland (at least to me, my toddler loves them). But the convenience of having meatballs in the freezer? Priceless! They’re my go-to dinner when I need a Plan B.
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