We're on the same wave length. I made a bunch of meatballs last week and froze half of them. I'm looking forward to the comments and recipes others will chime in with. I'm particularly interested in an Asian-style meatball.

My biggest helpful hint is regarding baking meatballs. Years ago I cut out a basic meatball recipe that called for baking the meatballs at 400 for about 25 minutes. The unusual part was covering the bottom of the pan with 1 cup of beef broth. The meatballs don't dry out as much but still get browned on top. And then the broth can be added to whatever sauce or gravy they will be served in.

I mostly make Chinese meatballs; I make Italian meatloaf and then cut it into meatball size for adding to sauce.

Chinese Meatballs

You can use pork or turkey for this, or a combination of
both.

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dry sherry, sake, or dry Vermouth
2 tsp sesame oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp Chinese chili paste
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 green onions, chopped
2 tsp cornstarch
2/3 cups breadcrumbs or Panko
1-1/4 pound pork or turkey or combination

Mix all the ingredients together, except for the
meat, and then add the meat. Form into
small (1-1/4” diameter) meatballs, and sauté covered at medium heat for about
8 minutes on one side and then turn over and cook another 7-8 minutes on the
other side. They can also be steamed
instead for about 7-8 minutes on a side.

Serve
with Yaki Soba noodles or rice and stir fried vegetables. They can also be added to soup.

I make a traditional meatball - just a bit smaller than a cue ball - chopped chuck, mild Italian sausage removed from the casing, bread crumbs, garlic, oregano, pepper flakes. Cook in a large skillet until brown.

I saw one of the meatball shows mentioned above this past weekend on the Travel Channel. All of the meatballs shown were made with grated cheese in the mixture, something I've never tried, but I will next time.

Hmmmm meatballs....never a "recipe" unless i am making more than 5 pounds. Meat of choice...beef...beef and pork...sometimes add veal...sometimes beef and lamb...sometimes beef and ham, sometimes pork and beef and ham....well you get the idea!
Always an egg at least per pound of meat...always "filler"...bread crumbs, panko, oatmeal, cracker crumbs. Always onion and/or garlic....some time other veggies as well.....liquid? broth, milk, cream, wine, tomato juice...flavorings, mustard...all kinds...sauces like worchestershire, or oyster sauce or soy or terayaki.
Sometimes I make baseballs, sometimes large marbles, but usually ping pong balls....bake and put into the dish or soup of choice....or just serve on top of noodles.
I put a bit of the "mix" into the micro and cook for 30 seconds or so to test for seasonings.

Linda, forgot to mention that every chef puts a bit of their mix into a saute pan and cooked it to a nice crisp to test for seasoning...i always try to follow that advice. Test it before moving forward making 5 dozen of anything...!!!

Thanks for the reminder...

Even a pro will test for an odd something a bit off. (like that skunk bitter celery 2 years ago i have not forgotten).

Lars, the Chinese meatballs sound yummy. Thanks for posting the recipe.

Lou's recipe was a good one for me even though I only made it once. Made it into small meatballs and DH really liked it. He was a picky eater in his prime so that was really something. Think I may have to make a scaled down version for just me and freeze some.

I used to fry up a bit for testing for taste....but since the advent of the micro ( Lo....these 30 or so years!) I find it easier to put a dab into a custard cup and zap it...doesn't get browned....but I can know if it needs salt or "something".....But it took me 20 years with a micro to figure out that use!

I like bite-sized meat balls. And fried. I also love chicken/herby ones but I don't have a recipe.

I mostly make Italian meatballs. Delicious, soft, savory. Yum!

Thanks for the Asian Meatball recipe above. I'm going to give those a try and add to soup.

Martha made some the size of softballs. Softballs come in three sizes--11", 12", or 16" softball?

Sorry, couldn't help the question, my world is softball. Tampa Mustangs

I bake my meatballs too - less fussy, less messy & I can do them all @ once; they bake in 25 minutes (I make smaller ones as well - about 2 1/2 bites).

I have a 'recipe' of my own devising that I cribbed from epicurious.com (tho I cannot find the inspiration one I used on their website now). It is a combination of my style bulk Italian sausage seasonings (fresh marjoram, garlic, S&P, paprika, red pepper/cayenne) plus egg, nutmeg, parsley, onion & fine dry breadcrumbs (I use seasoned stuffing mix, ground up in the blender). I don't have it typed up, tho, just handwritten on a stained & worn scrap of paper...

The technique is so easy: roll balls in breadcrumbs, place on shallow pan, drizzle w/ a little olive & bake @ 350F for 25 minutes, then simmer 20 minutes in sauce before serving. Hubby & I eat them w/o sauce, mostly, tho.

Since I got 1 of those springloaded cookie scoops, making meatballs is a breeze!

P.S. I've been to Buca Di Beppo & their meatballs are ginormous like that.

Decided on the small ones to be the spicy Asian style. Cooked up a bit of millet and cracked bulgar. Should be good in brothy soups like miso with greens. Or a toothpick app.

Golfball size more Italian...soaking some bread in milk, will add parm and sausage type of spices.

Test in the microwave before baking, ; )

Worth the work. A good couple of batches. Both varieties were probably the best i've made. It's been a year but remembered that they do best on a rack on top of a sheet pan. Even cooking with lots of air flow. They were very wet and juicy so the final roll in a bit of panko quickly held them together.

I had a half dozen left that would not fit properly on the sheet pan so i popped them in a cast iron and into the oven. They started to fall apart a bit with higher sides and no grate, so that proved that. I used those on our dinner over a French lentil soup/stew.

Confident i could use this method for vegetarian or gluten-free. Lots of options for both using mushrooms and/or different grains. I used fetta in the ginger spicy and parm in the Italian.

I made the Chinese meatballs last week-end also, and they do come out a bit wet, but that is not a problem when cooking them in a frying pan. I used a "green" non-stick pan and ended up with 24 meatballs, which I cooked in three batches because the pan is very small. I had thought about adding a bit more Panko, but I've made this recipe many times (although so much recently), and so I held off. I made some package Chow Mein from a Japanese market to go with it. The package has a Japanese label but I believe it was made in the USA.

I almost always add mushrooms to my Italian meatloaf that I use as meatballs, and I use a mixture of dried and fresh.

Meatballs are a treat in my book. They're a little more effort than meatloaf but worth it. I really should make them more often. I don't really use a recipe for them, depends on the mood and what I have. I too like to mix meats, ground beef and some sausage and I usually like to mix some pepperoni in them. I was looking at some YouTube recipes and one was a little different. It was a pretty basic meatball but they'd flatten them into little patties and line them up on edge in a pan with potato slices in between them and some bell pepper between the rows, then bake them. Drizzled a little sauce over the top. Sounded very interesting and I'd think the patties would cook a little quicker. And if you baked them normally it probably would get more of the crust on them which I happen to like.

I make them with 1/3 ground pork or Italian sausage and 2/3 chuck. Minced onion, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, thyme, red pepper, egg and rolled oats. I make them just to fit the palm of my hand in size and brown them in the oven, then put into the sauce. I have used bread crumbs in the past but don't use them often enough to buy and don't always have the right bread to make them but I always have rolled oats on hand and that's what I grew up with in meatballs and meatloaf. I have used grated cheese in them but don't prefer it.