When making meatballs, do you have to check each one to see if they're fully cookied?
I recently got into making meatballs (turkey meatballs, specifically) and it might be a dumb question, but do you check the internal temperature of every one to see if they're fully cooked? Tonight I made turkey meatballs but only checked two of them (including the biggest one--I didn't have a cookie scoop to make them uniform) and they were above 165.
What if the others weren't cooked all the way through? Did I make a mistake by not checking all of them?
2 Comments
NancyMay 28, 2021
Funnily enough, I had the same problem yesterday with some ground beef in small portions (not exactly meatballs) which I was roasting in the oven before adding to an already made soup.
My reaction was similar to yours.
I think I cooked almost all of them till done, but was willing to stop before everything was totally brown (for fear of drying out, not wanting the tedium of testing every small piece). I also knew I would finish cooking the soup/stew just before serving, and relied on that to finish the job.
For more info, here are two pieces - one from quora, on thekitchn on the same issue.
https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-figure-out-if-meatballs-are-done-all-the-way-through-without-breaking-one-open#:~:text=The%20easiest%20way%20to%20tell,is%20at%20about%20165*F.
https://theinfinitekitchen.com/faq/often-asked-how-long-do-meatballs-take-to-bake/
My reaction was similar to yours.
I think I cooked almost all of them till done, but was willing to stop before everything was totally brown (for fear of drying out, not wanting the tedium of testing every small piece). I also knew I would finish cooking the soup/stew just before serving, and relied on that to finish the job.
For more info, here are two pieces - one from quora, on thekitchn on the same issue.
https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-figure-out-if-meatballs-are-done-all-the-way-through-without-breaking-one-open#:~:text=The%20easiest%20way%20to%20tell,is%20at%20about%20165*F.
https://theinfinitekitchen.com/faq/often-asked-how-long-do-meatballs-take-to-bake/
NancyMay 28, 2021
But yes, I think you were right to check a few of the meatballs with the thermometer. As I was to check my chunks of ground beef by color and touch.
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