Add flour and eggs, the meat filling should not be too dry. Coating the outside with bread crumbs or dry flour can prevent moisture loss.

When frying, it needs to be fried twice, the first time to set the shape, and the second time to mature and color.

1. Selection of ingredients

In order to ensure the quality of meatball dishes, it is very important to select ingredients. Fish should be fresh, with high meat yield and strong water absorption, such as mullet, bar carp, toothfish, rock carp, etc.; shrimp should be white shrimp or fresh prawn meat; lean livestock meat should be Choose lean meat without fascia, and choose fat meat that is thick and free of blood stains; some raw materials such as eggs and vegetables must be fresh.

2. Preliminary processing

1. Preliminary processing of fish: after cleaning the fish, cut the knife from the back of the fish, and remove two complete pieces of clean fish from head to tail. , then put the skin flat on the vegetable pile, first chop the fish meat with the back of the knife, and then gently scrape the fish meat along the lines of the fish meat with the tip of the knife. Note: scrape until the veins are visible, then chop into pieces carefully. When chopping, the knife should be light, and the finer the chop, the better. Chop until the fish meat turns white and becomes sticky.

2. Preliminary processing of clean lean pork, clean chicken breast, clean shrimp and mutton: When processing these meats, the method of coarse and fine chop should be adopted. When the muscle fibers of this type of meat are destroyed, the protein contained in it will be released, thus forming a more viscous sol, which is the easiest to absorb water. However, the initial processing of some meatball dishes does not need to be too delicate, such as making croquettes, Sixi meatballs, Yangzhou lion heads, etc. If it is too fine, the taste will be poor.

3. For some raw materials with thick muscle fibers and older meat, such as beef, they are carefully chopped and made into meatball dishes, which are not only tender in the mouth, but also because the muscle fibers are chopped during production. , enlarging the heating surface and shortening the cooking time.

4. Chopping green vegetables and vegetable meatballs does not need to be so complicated. You only need to chop them evenly according to the characteristics of the dishes.

5. There are also some raw materials for making meatball dishes that do not need to be chopped, such as yams, potatoes, tofu, etc. They only need to be cooked first and then pressed into puree with a knife.

3. Semi-finished product of meatballs - Nizi

Nizi: namely velvet puree, is a semi-finished product for making meatball dishes. It can be divided into three types: soft mud, hard mud and coarse mud. Let’s talk about the modulation techniques of the three kinds of mud separately.

1. Preparation of soft clay

The sizing technology of soft clay is relatively high. The mud before and after mud is completely different. The mud after sizing is milky white, has strong viscosity and fine texture, and the mud that has been sized expands much more than the mud that has not been sized. For example, from 200 grams of fish paste, more than 40 balls smaller than table tennis balls can be squeezed out. The secret here lies in the mixing and sizing. When stirring and sizing, the clay should be mechanically moved in one direction, which forces the clay to draft. Since the arrangement of water molecules is directional, the mixing should be in one direction. Do not stir back and forth or stop stirring. It must be done in one go.

Scientific addition of water, salt, oil and egg white is the key to ensuring the quality of the slime. You have to decide how much water to use based on the quality of the puree and the standard of the dish. Taking 500 grams of fish paste as an example, the general draft is about 400 grams. Of course, this is not absolute, and it also depends on the type of fish, the temperature, and the condition of the fish meat. The addition of salt needs to be combined with water. My experience is that mixing water and salt for sizing is a more scientific mixing and sizing method. Mixing salt and water for sizing can be done step by step from the outside to the inside, and the slurry can be formed according to the draft of the mud. Generally, the amount of salt used per 500 grams of mud can be between 3 and 4 grams. When the puree is fully beaten, add the beaten egg batter and white oil and mix well.

The main purpose of adding egg paste is to use the property of egg white to denature into a solid when heated to consciously increase the viscosity of the mud and make the mud white and soft. In addition, adding white oil at the end can make the meatballs soft and tender in the mouth, and has the effect of increasing flavor.

2. Preparation of hard mud

Hard mud is the raw material for meatball dishes that are usually fried, fried, roasted and stewed. Its initial processing methods are different. In soft mud. Because the meatball dishes made from hard mud are dry and crispy, charred on the outside and tender on the inside, do not add too much water when preparing the hard mud. If too much water is added, it will puff up during frying, but it will shrink back to softness after being removed from the oil and left to cool. The proportion of fat and lean meat in the hard mud must be moderate, and fat must not be omitted. Because the fat meat can make the meatballs soft and flavor them during the frying process.

The above method is also applicable to the production of hard mud such as beef and chicken, but the production method of hard mud made from fish and shrimp is slightly different.

First of all, in order to prevent the meatballs from dying in the mouth, an appropriate amount of egg white and bread crumbs can be added to the hard mud of fish and shrimp, because this can puff and shape the meatballs. Secondly, since the hard mud of fish and shrimp does not require too much water, the amount of starch must be correct. Because starch has strong water absorption, if too much starch is added, the outside of the meatballs will form a hard shell after heating, and the inside will become sticky, which will affect the taste of the meatballs. Of course, it’s not enough to add too little starch, as that will make the meatballs loose and lose their proper flavor.

3. Preparation of coarse mud

Thick mud is more commonly used in meatball dishes and is also one of the easier ones to prepare. Thick mud is usually made from seasonal green vegetables chopped into fillings, and then added with flour, tofu, vermicelli and condiments. The meatballs fried with coarse mud can be served as a stand-alone dish or as a match with other dishes, such as fried cabbage balls, radish balls, vermicelli and tofu balls, etc. They can be combined with other raw materials to make dishes, or stewed, roasted, or fried, and are applicable to a wide range of applications. What should be emphasized here is that when chopping coarse mud, you don’t have to chop it too finely, and you don’t need to use too much water.

4. Forming of meatballs

No matter which cooking method is used to make meatballs, they should be shaped by hand first. Some people do not squeeze the meatballs with their hands, but scoop them with a spoon or pull them with their hands. The meatballs produced in this way have different sizes, not only have an unsightly appearance, but also have an uneven surface. In fact, there is nothing too difficult about making meatballs by hand. The simple method is: grab a handful of mixed mud with your left hand and squeeze the mud out between your index finger and thumb. When squeezing, don't use all your strength, but use both weak and solid strength. Bend your index finger and slide your thumb back and forth to make the meatballs smooth. Of course, the other three fingers must also cooperate to squeeze out the mud, and take advantage of the situation to scoop the squeezed out mud into a pot of slightly boiling water or oil.

However, not all meatballs are squeezed out by hand. For example, Yangzhou lion head is made using the dumpling technique. That is to say, use your left and right hands to roll the mud back and forth to make it round, smooth and shaped. In addition, the meatballs can also be squeezed into oval shapes, orange petal shapes, jade pendant shapes, etc.

5. Control the heat and color of cooking meatballs

When cooking meatballs, there are many heating methods, but only boiling and frying are often used. It should be known that any cooking method has an optimal heat, and of course this will also change with the change of raw materials. Taking fish balls as an example, I think using Xiangbian water to cook fish balls is the best temperature. If you use a cold water pot to make fish balls, the internal and external temperatures of the meatballs will be balanced after they are put into the pot. After heating, the water and nutrients inside the fishballs will move outward. Since the water is gradually heated, the pressure of external heat will push the fishballs outward. The umami inside is exchanged and dissolved in the water, causing the fish balls to lose their umami. However, it is not possible to put fish balls in a boiling water pot. Because the fish balls are delicate and cannot withstand the impact of boiling water, it will affect the formation of the fish balls. From a nutritional point of view, the purpose of heating is to mature the fish balls, denature and decompose the nutrients, which is beneficial to the body's absorption. When the fish balls are put into the pot, they will shrink immediately when exposed to heat, and the nutrients inside will not be easily lost into the soup. When making fish balls, if the soup pot boils, you should add a little cold water in time to prevent the water from boiling. After all the fish balls have been added and they surface, take them out and put them into cold water, and they can be used for cooking. Ready to serve. The above method can also be used to make meatballs made from other raw materials.

The main thing for frying meatballs is to control the temperature of the oil pan. In addition, you must also pay attention to the color of the frying oil and the color of the meatballs themselves. The heat and color of meatball dishes require conscious control by the chef. For example, after the fish is processed into meatballs, the color of the finished dish can be changed by changing the cooking method.

Although meatball dishes vary greatly, once you master the secrets of their production, you can draw inferences and create more and better meatball dishes