To Give Meatballs The Perfect Crust, Ditch The Frying Pan And Open Your Oven

Cook

Cooking

To Give Meatballs The Perfect Crust, Ditch The Frying Pan And Open Your Oven By Joe Hoeffner Oct. 8, 2025 4:20 pm EST

What makes a good meatball? There's the meat, of course, whether you're using beef alone or some combination of beef, pork, and veal. There's the level of moistness, which you can adjust by soaking your breadcrumbs in milk and forming a panade before mixing and forming your meatballs. And then, of course, there's the crust: that beautiful brown surface along the outside of the meatball that not only locks in juices thanks to the Maillard reaction, which kicks in when you brown meat , but also adds a deep, roasty flavor of its own. You can get it from shallow frying the meatballs in a pan, if you're the sort of person who's willing to risk oil spa