My Take on Schweddy Balls

• 3 cups coarsely torn bread (sourdoh! tastes best)
• 2 1/4 cups whole milk
• 6 lbs. of ground beef (80/20 but you could add some fresh ground brisket or boneless short ribs, yum)
• 4 eggs
• 2 1/4 cups grated parmesan
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup fresh minced onion
• 8-16 minced garlic cloves (I tend to go hard on garlic but you decide)
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 6 Tbsp of chopped fresh basil
• 6 Tbsp of chopped fresh oregano
• 3/4 tsp crushed red pepper

This recipe is a for approximately 150-200 – 1″ diameter balls but it’s easy to cut recipe in 1/4’s for 1-1/2 lbs. of balls.

You could do a low broil on these balls , turning as needed to gain browning but I like browning them in batches in a saute pan with 1/2″ or so of vegetable oil. I found using a non-stick pan worked the best. I tried cast iron but balls tended to stick to pan even in oil. You only need to brown the outsides because you will be simmering balls in sauce in slow cooker.

Put bread in a bowl and pour milk over and let it drink up that milkiness. Squeeze out excess milk and discard milk, making sure all the bread is mushy. Scramble the eggs. If doing the full 6 lbs. of balls, I layer 2 pounds of meat, 1/3 of garlic, onions, herbs, egg, seasonings, parm, bread mixture into the bowl and repeat 2 more times. This enables a better incorporation of ingredients and you can avoid over mixing. Once all is in the bowl, mix and turn with your hand, making sure you have a nice homogeneous mixture. You can do this ahead and refrigerate for a couple hours or even overnight. It will be easier to roll dem balls if they are cold.

When doing the full 6 lbs batch, I would roll about 50 and place in a sheet tray and fry them up about 10-12 at a time keeping oil temp close to 350 throughout, in my case had stove set at medium.

Have your sauce on high in the slow cooker and plop the fresh balls in as you finish a batch, and roll some more and repeat.