Comments on: meatball sliders

By: deb

deb — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:08:15 +0000

No, it’s just meatballs which are fussy to fry — the tender ones, i.e. the best ones, really love to fall apart. I recommend getting your pan totally heated, then adding the oil, and once the oil is very hot, add just a few meatballs at a time. If you have a flexible fish spatula, these are my favorite for anything that requires a spatula, because they’re so thin, they’re a cinch to slide under foods without breaking them. Nevertheless, don’t move the meatball until it wants to move — i.e. it’s formed a brown edge, and will release more easily. Then just gently roll it by sliding your spatula underneath…. I apologize if this is too much detail! But I find that preheating the pan exactly like that and being patient to not move the meat until it wants to be moved helps a lot.

By: MCHoey

MCHoey — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:11:39 +0000

Deb – I love these sliders but they always fall apart on me in the pan. Always. Any tips? Could using EVOO instead of vegetable oil be the culprit? Thanks!

By: MM

MM — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:36:48 +0000

Wait — the ingredient list calls for 1 bulb of garlic, but the recipe calls for two? Which one is it? If I’m making rolls using 4 1/2 lbs flour, how much garlic should I use? Thanks!

By: PollyG163

PollyG163 — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:02:11 +0000

I made them this past weekend for a beer tasting party and they turned out great! I wasn’t feeling too ambitious, so I didn’t make the rolls. Trader Joe’s makes slider buns, so I cheated and used them. The TJ rolls worked well but I do think that if you have more patience and time, the end result would be more elegant with Smitten Kitten roll recipe. I will definitely use this recipe again!!!

By: Kelley

Kelley — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 15:17:26 +0000

Has anyone transported these appetizers? I’m wondering how impressive they will be if I assemble them at home and then take them to a party 30 minutes away…

By: Kristen

Kristen — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:37:42 +0000

I made these as an appetizer for Christmas day with the family and EVERYBODY loved them! In fact, I was frying the meatballs up as the guests arrived, and almost half of them were gobbled up even before I added them to the sauce or prepared them on the rolls. I really enjoyed the meatballs in particular. Unfortunately I did not try the recipe for the rolls (I used a different recipe from Allrecipes that I was *not* very happy with), but next time I will be trying the garlic rolls for sure. Thank you so much for sharing this recipes; I will definitely be using it again!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:04:39 +0000

This recipe was amazing. I only used the meat ball part (and substituted 1 pound of beef and 1 pound of pork in lieu of the 1/2 pound of veal). I combined it with your Pasta with Sausage recipe subbing in the meatballs for the sausage and it was great.

The only other twist I used was with the cheese (Mozzarella since they were out of Romano) I cut tiny, finger tip sized cubes and wrapped each meatball around it. It made for a nice surprise inside each of them.

The only difficulties I had was really with lack of sufficient sized pots for both the pasta and the sauce (another recipe than this I know) and with frying the meatballs. They splattered a lot! And the oil got dirty really fast so I had to switch it frequently (still wasn’t fast enough once and we had a bit of a smoke alarm issue).

Overall, the end result was delicious, though. I look forward to trying other ideas I see around here.

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:50:50 +0000

I just have to say, these are a staple in our house now! We make them with just the beef and pork though. I’ve only made the rolls once (and they were delicious) but the meatballs are the fallback, “what do we want for dinner tonight?” answer. Although not quite the same, they are still very yummy made with turkey and pork! And thank you for your beautiful pictures!

By: TRACY

TRACY — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:55:23 +0000

These sound so delicious, I think i am going to double the batch and put them in the freezer. Is it better to cook them first(i am going to do them in the oven) and then freeze them or put them in uncooked? also, could i just use beef and veal and leave out the pork or maybe add turkey?

By: Bridget

Bridget — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:48:31 +0000

I had some issues with the bread, so I did some experimenting. The first time I made it, I used fresh yeast and added the roasted garlic at the beginning, before the first rise. The dough didn’t seem to rise at all. The yeast was new, the water wasn’t too hot, the room was plenty warm, and I waited hours.

I tried it again using instant yeast, which I’m more familiar with working with than fresh yeast, this time adding the garlic after the first rise. I agree with you that working in the garlic at that point was a huge sticky mess. The dough was still slow to rise, but it did work out in the end.

To examine whether the fresh yeast or the garlic was the problem in the initial batch, I created three mixtures – 0.5 ounce flour, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 0.5 ounce water in each. I added 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast to one, a clove of roasted garlic plus 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast to another, and some fresh yeast (difficult to measure at such small quantities) to the last. All three rose, but the one with the fresh yeast was much slower.

I conclude that 1) roasted garlic can be added before the first rise, 2) working with fresh yeast sucks and I won’t bother anymore, and 3) the amount of yeast in the recipe is still too small. I think 1 teaspoon for 2 cups of flour is more appropriate and on par with many other bread recipes.

The meatballs and combination of everything was (eventually) absolutely delicious, and of course super cute.