Frozen meatballs from Sam’s — thoughts?

(Susan) #1

Husband bought a jumbo bag of frozen Italian-style meatballs last year; I was craving something meaty yesterday (and wanted to try out a jar of Rao’s marinara sauce I’d bought a few weeks ago). Warmed the meatballs up in the air fryer and then put them in a pan with the sauce; sprinkled (a lot) of shredded Parmesan on top and enjoyed a tasty meal. But the meatballs didn’t taste entirely like meat, texture was a little weird; when I read the ingredients saw “soy” yuck — can’t tolerate much of that and some other ingredients that were suspect. So need to make my own meatballs (I prefer all beef anyway) and the next time it will be an even tastier experience…will finish up what we have since they’re not terribly carby. Guess it’s not possible to find pre-made meatballs with minimal ingredients, I’m not much of a cook but guess I’ll start learning. At least having these kept me from craving my usual fast food fix - it’s still my favorite- guess I was raised on it and it always tastes good to me.

Oh — and I thought the Rao’s was quite good!

(Laurie) #2

I did find a local chain brand that has minimal filler. But they haven’t had them in recent weeks.

I consulted several keto recipes using parmesan, and they all followed the same basic formula:

1 pound meat
1/4 cup parmesan
1 egg

Plus whatever seasonings you like.

I found them a bit light textured fo my taste, although I suppose most would consider that a good thing. I kind of prefer the little hard pellets from the frozen section.

Anyway, always read the nutrition facts and ingredients. Kind of hard when someone else is doing the shopping. I suppose nowadays people can send photos from their cell phone and get approval from home.

(Susan) #3

Sounds like a good recipe…wonder if a little almond flour would give you the texture you like?

(Laurie) #4

Thanks, but I don’t use almond flour. Anyway, I hope the store gets the meatballs in at some point. Making meatballs from scratch isn’t something I really want to do!

#5

Good luck finding any food service meatball that doesn’t have Soy in it! I worked in a sub shop as a teen (90s) and they were more Soy than meat back then! They were good as hell though.

(Robin) #6

Sams Italian meatballs was the only reason I kept a membership for years! I’ve thought of them recently and guessed they have a lot of filler that I don’t need.
But dang, they were tasty.
I’m gonna go with @islandlight Laurie and try to make my own with oregano etc.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #7

You can make your own by using the following ingredients:

Beef Water, Textured Soy Flour, Onions, Defatted Soy Flour, Contains Less Than 2% Of The Following: Salt, Maltodextrin, Soy Protein Concentrate, Corn Syrup Solids, Dehydrated Onions, Pecorino Romano Cheese Made From Sheep’s Milk (Pasteurized Part-Skim Sheep’s Milk Salt, Enzymes) Spices, Sugar, Sodium Polyphosphate, Color Added, Dehydrated Garlic, Black Pepper, White Pepper, Canola Oil, Natural Flavors, Parsley Flakes, Dried Red Bell Peppers, Grill Flavor (From Sunflower Oil), Yeast Extract, Turmeric Oleoresin Color.

Not sure where to find beef water, however. Not to mention textured soy flour and de-fatted soy flour. I’ll pass on the turmeric oleoresin colour.

#8

Wait, what?

I mean, I am not exactly shooketh to learn they didn’t use essence of actual grill… but, uh, how does that work? o_O

(You’re right, I probably don’t want to know)

#9

And why they put color into everything including things where it’s unneeded (at least if the ingredients are right… well yeah, soy probably doesn’t give the right color)…?

I never saw meatballs in stores ever so I don’t know those :slight_smile: I make everything I easily can myself since ages anyway. Meatballs aren’t hard to make and I put into them whatever I want so it’s a no-brainer to me. Of course we all have different priorities and blacklists. I am not particularly choosy but that list still contains a few problematic items - and the number of ingredients aren’t so appealing either…

I don’t even know what is grill flavor… And what that has to do with sunflower oil… :flushed: But me, ingredients list and confusion is a familiar combo…

#10

There was controversy/banning in the EU about certain “grill flavors” and the ingredients used in them (safety). So, companies have been coming up with alternatives using approved ingredients and in this case, sunflower oil.

#11

"heat-treated high oleic sunflower oil and intended to be used as a food flavoring with charbroiled or grilled aroma"

There is nothing about that which sounds a good idea.

#12

Yeah. That’s a NOPE from me. Grim.

(Susan) #13

I know! Have done it before years ago (for my husband’s spaghetti) and it wasn’t hard, just seemed so time consuming…and they were delicious.

(Susan) #14

:smile:

(Susan) #15

Yes, wish they’d call them something else instead of “meatballs”…I always think of a ball made of meat, not all the other junk they put in them.

#16

Meatballs require some sort of binder to have the texture we generally associate with them. I prefer to use ground beef, ground pork and some sausage and I use crushed pork rinds as the binder as I tried them with almond flour with poor results. Of course I added eggs, chopped onions, parmesan cheese, a variety of spices and a touch of heavy cream to get the texture right. Trust me, you can make awesome meatballs with very low carbs if you try. They also make a high protein high fat snack that is delicioso.