Put your ground meat into a big mixing bowl. Add your seasonings (nutmeg, pepper, and salt). Grate 2 TB of onion and add to the bowl. If using a Texas Sweet Onion, usually a quarter of one is all you need. Beat the egg lightly and add to the bowl. Add the bread crumbs and milk. Use your hands to mix the ingredients together until well combined. It will be a wet mixture but firm enough to allow you to form balls.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I have found that if I use leaner meat, like turkey, I use less milk. Otherwise the mixture will be too wet. In this case, best to start with 1/2 cup and see where the mixture is and then add the additional milk if needed. Remember though that the milk is important because it gives the meatballs their soft texture when cooked, so don't skimp on it.

Form the mixture into golfball-sized balls. Heat a large pan over medium to medium-high heat. I recommend a large iron skillet. If using a non-stick pan and leaner meat, add a little bit of cooking oil to prevent them from sticking to the pan. I recommend wesson or other vegetable oil (you want something without an overt flavor).

Brown the meatballs in the pan. I place all the balls in the pan in a spiral, then let them brown for about a minute and then turn the balls starting with the one I added first. Repeat this until all sides are browned. Remember that you just want to brown them. You are NOT trying to cook them all the way through. The point is to get them solid so they will not fall apart when you simmer them. The best way to tell if they are sufficiently browned is to insert a fork and if the fork enters easily without the surface of the meatball flexing, they are ready for the next step.

Here is where Noni and I diverge in our cooking methods. Once the meatballs were browned, she would add the soup and milk or water, cover the pan, and let them simmer for 20 minutes until the meatballs were cooked through. Note according to her original recipe she says you can just add 1/2 cup of water to simmer the meatballs instead of the soup. She never made it this way for me. Considering she lived during the Depression, I would not be surpised if this method may have been a cheap way to do a gravy when no soup was available.

I remove the meatballs from the pan and place them in a bowl. I then either add the soup and milk to the pan and season it (salt & pepper) or I create a gravy (butter, flour, milk & water, salt & pepper - I'll add my personal recipe soon) or do both. If I am using a can of soup, I add the milk by eye in order to get the right consistency. I find using a full soup can of milk makes it a bit too thin for my taste. If I do a double recipe, I'll usually make a gravy and then supplement it with a can of mushroom soup. Once the gravy is ready, I add the meatballs, cover the pan and let them simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes to cook them through.

Make your preferred starch to serve the meatballs on. Egg noodles are traditional, but I prefer just doing instant mashed potatoes. Serve up the meatballs and gravy on top and enjoy!

Back to Recipes