We can understand the appeal of using ground turkey in place of beef or pork in meatballs, especially if you're trying to cut back on the amount of red meat in your diet. When we decided to develop a turkey meatball recipe, we quickly learned that we couldn't just swap in ground turkey in our Classic Meatball recipe. The results were mushy and grainy meatballs that couldn't hold their shape.
Developing this recipe forced us to reconsider many rules about making meatballs. For example, with beef or pork, you want to handle the mixture as gently as possible, since overworking can cause the meat proteins to tighten up, creating a too-springy, sausage-like consistency. Turkey is another beast altogether: Although it contains the same sticky proteins as beef and pork, it also has a higher moisture content (ground turkey contains about 71 percent moisture versus 66 and 61 percent for pork and beef, respectively). This means that even after a good amount of mixing, ground turkey remains wet and hard to work with. So we needed to find a way to absorb some of that moisture—which meant the traditional panade of bread and milk was out.
Thanks to many rounds of testing and a few test kitchen tricks, we created turkey meatballs that rival any beef or pork versions. We start with 93 or 85 percent lean turkey; the 99 percent lean type didn’t have enough fat to create a palatable meatball. Next, we add an egg and fresh bread crumbs (instead of a panade, which made the meatballs too wet) to help bind the meat. We also add a small amount of unflavored gelatin, which mitigates graininess by trapping moisture and giving the meatballs a juicy mouthfeel. To boost meaty flavor, we add glutamate-rich ingredients such as Parmesan cheese, anchovies, tomato paste, and rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms.
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