I have always heard of porcupine meatballs but never actually had them. I had always been intrigued by them–uncooked rice in meatballs? But neither my husband or I grew up eating them and I can’t say it is something that occurred to me when planning meals.
When I saw this recipe in the Alcatraz Women’s Club Cook Book and saw my chance to finally make them.
It is a simple recipe but we took a few steps to make sure the rice actually cooked through–that seemed like a major concern in most recipes I found online or in other books. I didn’t want to use canned soup (seemed sweet and bland) and wanted to up the sauce’s flavor with some more seasoning. Instead we made a simple sauce inspired by how we made tomato sauce for pizza–uncooked and mixed in the blender. The thought was if we cooked the sauce first, too much liquid would evaporate and the meatballs wouldn’t get enough moisture.
Another trick I thought of was to grate an onion into the meatballs. It added a lot of moisture and flavor which also helped the rice cook.
Finally, I made a larger batch than what the recipe yielded–if I’m going through the effort to make meatballs I want plenty of leftovers for at least a second meal and maybe even some for the freezer. Or to serve a crowd. Halving this recipe should work but I haven’t tried it myself.
Porcupine Meatballs
Ingredients
for the meatballs:
- 2 ¼ lb 96% lean ground beef
- ⅔ cup uncooked basmati rice
- 1 onion grated, with its juice grate it whole!
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons granulated garlic
- ⅓ cup chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 2-3 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped
- 2-3 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped
- 1-2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1-2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
for the sauce:
- 1 quarter of an onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- ¼ loose cup Italian parsley
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 28 oz can whole tomatoes with juices
- 2 8- oz cans of plain tomato sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking dish and set aside. (We actually ended up with a few overflow meatballs and baked them in a greased loaf pan so be prepared)
- In a large bowl, mix together all of the meatball ingredients until a uniform mixture forms. Roll them into about 1 1/2-2 inch balls and place in the baking dish about 3/4 inch apart in rows.
- Place the sauce ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour over the meatballs.
- Create a tight lid with foil and bake for 1 hour, hour 15 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through and the rice is tender. Keep an eye on the meatballs during the last 15 minutes and flip any meatballs that look to be drying out.
- Serve hot.
- We had it over some cabbage-spiked mashed potatoes but I've seen them served as-is, in sandwiches, over noodles, and even over more rice. I can see them being a fun appetizer as well.
Notes
This was adapted and updated from Liv O’Connell’s recipe for Porcupines appearing in the Alcatraz Women’s Club Cook Book, Collected Recipes from Alcatraz Island, California 1952
