Monday, June 13, 2011

Italian Meatballs - for a Big Group

With wedding, graduation, reunion, etc. season upon us, I thought these recipes for large batches of meatballs were appropriate. 

The first recipe is dated 1967 - Grandma wrote "Mary Santilli & I made these for the St. Leo's Mother's Club Smorgasboard.  They were very good".  The second recipe is noted "This is the recipe I used when I was the Chairman for the annual St. Leo's Spaghetti dinner.  They were very good" and is dated 1969 - just 2 years later.  I'd love to find a recipe for Grandma's everyday meatballs - but none has turned up and it's likely she made them from memory & "eyeballing" the ingredients (ala Rachel Ray).  She always made them very large (or so it seemed when I was a little girl) and they were very tasty!

The two recipes are really similar, if you have the opportunity to make them, please let us know how they turn out!

Italian Meatballs (1967)

18lbs. pork
54lbs. beef
3 large bunches of parsley
(14) 9 loaves of french bread
4 1/2 dozen eggs (6 dz)
5 cups of cheese (4 1/2)
garlic to taste

(approx. 1180 meat balls)

Chris' note:  My guess is that the notes in parenthesis are most likely adjustments Grandma made.

Italian Meat Balls (1969)

15lbs. pork
50lbs. ground beef
6 large bunches parsley
20 loaves dry french bread (soaked)
6 doz. eggs
7 c. cheese - Roman
3 large heads garlic
salt & pepper to taste

Chris' note: I think "Roman" cheese refers to Romano.  I'm not sure I would soak the bread (although it might be delicious soaked in vino!), I think it would work well to tear it up a bit, then pulse it in a food processor until it becomes coarse crumbs. 

Happy cooking!

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