The Recipe Thread
POSTED BY: JEWELSTAITEFAN
UPDATED: Wednesday, July 15, 2026 13:56
VIEWED: 27093
PAGE 33 of 36
Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Are these your mini-cupcakes from the 'garden' thread???
ETA Oh, never mind! I was just there and I see the answer is yes.
Yes, but I opted to make regular sized ones instead.
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Meatballs .... or any ground-meat recipe, like burgers
The secret to tender ground-meat recipes is ... starch.
When you cook raw meat, the protein strands shrink, harden, and lock together. (Just like egg whites harden and lock together when you cook them.)
Any ground meat cooked like that will be nothing so much as a Brillo pad.
In order to keep the fibers from locking together, you have to put some starch in-between them. Not a lot, but enough. So a zillion recipes always start with ... one slice of bread, softened with milk.
I've known about the starch trick for ages. When I make pineapple-teriyaki meatballs, I add some cornstarch. When I make almost anything else, I like to use panko, but you can use breadcrumbs or a slice of bread. But I've always ignored the milk part because I thought it was just to make mixing the bread into the meat more convenient, by making it softer. Apparently, there is some magic to the milk because I tried it for the first time after YEARS of making meatballs and burgers without, and they came out GREAT. (oh, and BTW ... for Swedish meatballs, cream is the thing to use).
SO, for my spaghetti and meatballs I used 2 lbs of ground turkey, about 1/3 c of panko, salt and pepper to taste, and about 1 T of very fine diced fresh basil. AND, about 1/3 c of canned milk. (No idea how well fresh milk would work, but canned milk is about twice as concentrated as fresh, plus it has a little phosphate added to it, which prolly helps.)
Formed into small meatballs (about 1 oz cooked), lightly browned in neutral oil (in this case, canola) ... not cooked thru ... and then buried in 2 c tomato sauce plus appx 1 T sugar (my homegrown tomatoes were more acid than sweet this year) and appx 3T grated Parmesan and simmered gently for about 30 minutes to share flavors with the tomato sauce. No oregano, no parsley, no other flavors, not even added salt.
Perfection! Moist, tender, flavorful meatballs in a tasty sauce.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Quote:Cream? Sounds like that might be also used for Alfredo sauce. Does that seem right?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Meatballs .... or any ground-meat recipe, like burgers
The secret to tender ground-meat recipes is ... starch.
When you cook raw meat, the protein strands shrink, harden, and lock together. (Just like egg whites harden and lock together when you cook them.)
Any ground meat cooked like that will be nothing so much as a Brillo pad.
In order to keep the fibers from locking together, you have to put some starch in-between them. Not a lot, but enough. So a zillion recipes always start with ... one slice of bread, softened with milk.
I've known about the starch trick for ages. When I make pineapple-teriyaki meatballs, I add some cornstarch. When I make almost anything else, I like to use panko, but you can use breadcrumbs or a slice of bread. But I've always ignored the milk part because I thought it was just to make mixing the bread into the meat more convenient, by making it softer. Apparently, there is some magic to the milk because I tried it for the first time after YEARS of making meatballs and burgers without, and they came out GREAT. (oh, and BTW ... for Swedish meatballs, cream is the thing to use).
SO, for my spaghetti and meatballs I used 2 lbs of ground turkey, about 1/3 c of panko, salt and pepper to taste, and about 1 T of very fine diced fresh basil. AND, about 1/3 c of canned milk. (No idea how well fresh milk would work, but canned milk is about twice as concentrated as fresh, plus it has a little phosphate added to it, which prolly helps.)
Formed into small meatballs (about 1 oz cooked), lightly browned in neutral oil (in this case, canola) ... not cooked thru ... and then buried in 2 c tomato sauce plus appx 1 T sugar (my homegrown tomatoes were more acid than sweet this year) and appx 3T grated Parmesan and simmered gently for about 30 minutes to share flavors with the tomato sauce. No oregano, no parsley, no other flavors, not even added salt.
Perfection! Moist, tender, flavorful meatballs in a tasty sauce.
Do you think powdered milk would work?
I've never added anything to hamburger meat except sometimes chopped onion. I use low fat ground beef - 95-97% fat free. I fold the meat in on itself until it is circular and thick, then press a dimple in the center with thumb (may have learned that trick from Jay Leno), and put in my George Foreman grill to drain the grease. Push down on the lid once on each side, flip halfway, total about 8-10 minutes.
Those always come out nice and juicy. Biggest challenge is finding suitable buns, sized right and soft, not too dry. Sometimes just the hamburger and bun, sometimes add (Marzetti's) 1,000 Island dressing, or real ketchup, or a good steak sauce (not A1), and/or a leaf of lettuce. Or peanut butter on the lid.
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Copied from another thread:
Quote:
I also finely discovered the way to use chix breast in chicken and dumpling soup. Bc, of course, hubby will only eat chix breast even tho it comes out dry and tasteless if you overcook it.(The Japanese,I found out from my Japanese friend, think of chix breast as inferior meat. They prefer thighs. I agree!!!)
CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS -SOUP
Anyway, I start by browning drums, thighs, and disjointed wings in the bottom of a pot in a little oil. Remove, and add 1 c sliced carrots and 1 c sliced celery and 2 diced onions* and cook for about 7 min until just beginning to soften. Stir in 1/4 c flour. Deglaze with 1/4 c sherry*. Add two box no salt chix broth, sprinkle with thyme, nestle the chix legs and wings into the pot and simmer for about 40 mins. Everything will be throughly cooked.
Now here's the trick with the chix breast: cut each breast crosswise into about 1.5-2 inch thick slices.
At this point you can add 1 c peas* or 2 c spinach, the chick breast pieces, and the dumpling dough balls**. Bring to a simmer and simmer gently, covered for no more than 20-25 minutes! Any longer and the breast pieces will be overcooked and tough!
DUMPLING DOUGH
Mix thoroughly 1 c flour, 2teasp baking powder and 1/4 teasp salt. Cut in 3 tablespoon either rendered chix fat, coconut oil, or unsalted butter. (I use coconut oil)
Add just enough full fat milk to make a stiff dough. Don't overmix.
I prefer small dumplings bc they cook thru thoroughly,about 2 Tablespoons size. I scoop out with a small spoon and push them off into the soup, no need to be round and neat.
There are two secrets to tender dumplings, just like piecrust. But first, a little kitchen chemistry about gluten:
Gluten is a tough, springy protein which bread makers like because it allows the dough to trap the bubbles formed by yeast, resulting in a light, airy loaf instead of a solid hard mass.
But... there is no gluten in wheat flour! Gluten only forms when two other proteins -gliadin and glutenen- react. And you can get them to react by adding water and mixing them (kneading bread or kneading and stretching pizza dough, for example)
In the case of dumplings, pancakes, and other " quick breads", the bubbles are formed by baking powder. But you don't want tough dumplings and pancakes, so ONE secret to tender dumplings, pancakes aisnd other quick breads and biscuits is DONT OVERMIX THE DOUGH or you will create gluten!
The other secret, just like pastries and piecrusts,is FAT. Fat coats the flour particles and keeps them apart, so the gliadin and glutenin don't have a chance to contact each other.
http://www.cookingscienceguy.com/pages/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Expl
aining-Gluten.pdf
So now you know the secret to tender dumplings. Also, there used to be specialty low-gluten flour called "cake flour" and in the south they sell (I've heard) one called White Swan just for biscuits and quick breads.
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ummmm.... So gluten makes light, airy bread - but hard dense pancakes?
Is that right?
Does butter coun t as fat?
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YEAST makes bread light and airy.
But think about the texture of pancakes versus bread. Both have bubbles in them and both are made of wheat ... usually, just all-purpose flour bc that's what's commonly available.
But pancakes .. think of a stack on your plate ... you should easily be able to cut with a fork or even a spoon.
Well-made bread (Wonder Bread doesn't count) needs a knife to cut. A sharp one at that. It has a definite chewy texture. That texture comes from having developed the gluten through wetting and kneading/mixing.
*****
Oh, butter DEFINITELY counts as fat! Many people like to use butter in their pastries ... think croissants! But only use unsalted or your food will be too salty.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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I have a recipe from my MIL for Hungarian kifli cookies. So rich, tasty, and easy (except for the shaping part ... THAT is a PITA!)
1 lb unsalted butter
1 lb cream cheese
1 lb flour
Blend butter and cream cheese together. Add flour and mix well. (This particular recipe has so much fat and so little water you don't need to worry about over-mixing the dough. I know bc I asked, and my MIL was a FANTASTIC cook and baker.) Chill in the frig overnight to make the dough easier to work.
roll out the dough on a floured (baking) parchment paper to about 1/4" thick.
You can cut into circles or rectangles about 3", place a teaspoon of jam (I used apricot preserves) or walnut or poppyseed filling in each, roll up, seal, and form into crescents.
Bake at 375F* for 10-15 minutes or until light golden brown.
Like pie crusts and all pastries, this always seems excessively high to me, but I'm not a baker, and it works out fine. 
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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For croissants, and kifli, and pie crust, and biscuits, and even pancakes you definitely need some gluten development! The trick is to get just the right amount!
I know because I've been experimenting with making biscuits out of gram (chickpea) flour.
Without gluten what you get is crumbly, and it doesn't hold together as well. And even if you've cut butter into the gram flour, you definitely don't get flakes, because, as I've concluded, there's no gluten.
You need just enough gluten development to hold the pancakes together. More importantly, you need just enough gluten development to hold the individual flakes in your pastries, pie crusts, and biscuits together, so that they can be fried in their own internal butter into separate delectable flakes, all held together in one light, tender, yet crispy edible.
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I bow to greater experience! I'm not a baker, just a cook.
So SOME gluten development is necessary!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Sadly, yes. One needs some gluten for flaky anything.
That means I'll never make a flaky curry biscuit filled with vegetables and meat out of gram flour.
That doesn't mean I won't keep working on the recipe through! It just won't be as I imagined it originally.
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