Try this Taiwanese Meatball recipe, or contribute your own.
- Carbohydrate 0.270675555291006 g
- Cholesterol 0.108888888667971 mg
- Fat 0.478664445308821 g
- Fiber 0.0382777777777778 g
- Protein 0.110588888706079 g
- Saturated Fat 0.0802333334327105 g
- Serving Size 1 1 -40 ball (52g)
- Sodium 235.56755602156 mg
- Sugar 0.232397777513228 g
- Trans Fat 0.0212272222599078 g
- Calories 7 calories
Step-by-step
- soak dried mushrooms for 1-2 hours and squeeze out the water
- put ground pork into the freezer for 30-60 minutes so it's half frozen
- finely chop mushrooms
- add all ingredients into mixing bowl
- use the flat beater and beat at medium speed for 10-15 minutes until mixture becomes pasty
- let the meat paste rest in the fridge for 30 minutes
- shape meat paste into golf ball size meatballs
- cook in a pot of simmering water (do NOT boil) until the meatballs float to the top
- put meatballs in a prepared broth and add some finely chopped celery to serve
- Refrigerate extra meatballs for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months
Pork fat does the structural heavy lifting in this formulation, specifically requiring a thirty percent fat ratio to prevent the finished spheres from turning dry and mealy. Ground meat must be chilled until half-frozen before mixing to keep the animal fats solid, which prevents the proteins from melting prematurely under mechanical friction. Dried shiitake mushrooms introduce concentrated glutamates that fresh caps simply cannot match, trading moisture for an intense umami density. Rehydrating these mushrooms requires one to two hours of soaking time, followed by thorough manual wringing to ensure excess water does not dilute the meat paste.
Mechanical Emulsification and Thermal Control
Achieving the characteristic bounce of these meatballs relies on physical protein extraction rather than chemical leavening alone. Beating the mixture with a flat beater at medium speed for ten to fifteen minutes shreds the muscle fibers and forms a sticky, cohesive paste. Crushed ice added directly to the bowl moderates frictional heat generated by the mixer, keeping the temperature low enough to preserve the gelation properties of the meat. Simmering water—never a rolling boil—prevents the newly formed proteins from seizing and cracking during the final cooking stage, which maintains structural integrity as the meatballs rise to the surface.
- If the meat paste feels too wet to hold a shape, check that the rehydrated mushrooms were fully squeezed of liquid before chopping.
- Should the mixture break and release grease during the ten-minute mixing phase, transfer the bowl to the refrigerator for twenty minutes to resolidify the fat.
- When shaping the portions, wet hands prevent the sticky paste from adhering to skin without altering the moisture balance of the recipe.
