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There is a meatball to fit every mood. There are the classics like Italian-style spaghetti and meatballs and slow cooker grape jelly meatballs, and new recipes like coq au vin meatballs for dinner-party vibes on a weeknight schedule. The seasonings and sauces can change, but the thing that makes a great meatball dinner stays the same? Meatballs that are tender, juicy, and full of flavor. For that, every meatball begins with the same three ingredients: ground meat, egg, and a filler. Breadcrumbs were my go-to filler for years, but I’ve recently changed course to a new, more flavorful ingredient. Buttery Ritz crackers are the best thing to happen to my meatballs, and they can do wonders for yours too.
Why You Should Add Ritz Crackers (Not Breadcrumbs) to Meatballs
I have a love-hate relationship with store-bought breadcrumbs. The canisters of crumbs are more convenient than making fresh breadcrumbs, and they last practically forever in the pantry, but that’s where the benefits end. These breadcrumbs fail to add flavor to recipes. In meatballs, the fine crumbs are often mixed with milk into a panade, and act as a binder to hold the mixture together as it cooks. But sometimes breadcrumbs leave behind a gluey texture or, worse, claylike lumps within a meatball.
I’ve tried panko breadcrumbs, but they aren’t the best choice for meatballs either. Panko breadcrumbs’ raison d’être is to add a light and crispy texture to whatever they touch, so it would be a waste to mash this ingredient into a meatball mixture.
Thrifty cooks have been coming up with breadcrumb alternatives for their meatball and meatloaf recipes for years. Maybe they ran out of store-bought crumbs or didn’t have time to make them from scratch. It’s possible that they were stretching their budgets by using what they had on hand, like a bright red box of buttery crackers. Crushed Ritz crackers are the best binder for meatballs that I’ve tried. Ritz crackers are crisp, buttery, and salty. They add rich, seasoned flavor to the meat mixture, and are easy to crush into crumbs with your hands or a rolling pin.
I’ve started using crushed Ritz crackers in every meatball recipe I make, and my family noticed the difference. They loved how flavorful and juicy the meatballs were, even when they were digging into leftovers the second day! If your recipe still calls for breadcrumbs, remember to use crushed Ritz crackers instead. It’s so easy because the finely ground cracker crumbs can be substituted one-for-one with breadcrumbs. The next time you’re faced with meatballs on the menu, reach into your snack cabinet for an instant upgrade.
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Credit: Photo: Ryan Liebe; Food Styling: Spencer Richards
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