Porcupine meatballs

Porcupine meatballs are an American dish of ground beef and rice meatballs cooked in tomato sauce. They were a staple during the Great Depression requiring only a few basic ingredients: ground beef, uncooked long-grain rice, onion, and canned tomato soup.[1] The name comes from the appearance of the meatballs, which appear prickly when the rice pokes out of them as they cook, resembling a porcupine.[2]

Porcupine meatballs

Porcupine meatballs can be made in the slow cooker or baked.[3] They can be served with relish such as red cabbage or radish and mashed potatoes. Leftovers can be made into sandwiches.

History

To make the dish the rice meatballs were pan-seared and slowly simmered in canned tomato soup. The dish continued to be popular into the 1970s.[4] The recipe appears as "rice meat balls" in the 1918 cookbook "Conservation Recipes".[5]

Other ingredients could be added to the meatballs like green pepper, mustard, celery, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, or other seasonings. The simple tomato sauce made with canned soup could be enriched with molasses and seasoned with chili powder and cumin. A later recipe from 1969 for "Porcupine meatballs paprika" replaces tomato soup with cream of mushroom, and adds other ingredients like mustard, or sour cream and paprika.[6][7] "Porcupine meatballs Chinois" was a variation influenced by Chinese cooking techniques and ingredients. Served with peach sauce, he Chinois meatballs are made with ground pork, shrimp, rice and green onion, seasoned with soy sauce and sherry, and steamed instead of being cooked in sauce.[8]

References
  1. "Depression-era recipes can teach us a lesson in frugality". The Times-News.
  2. "Saucy Porcupine Meatballs". WebMD.
  3. Porcupine meatball dish has accent on economy
  4. "The Depression-era dish that inspired my family's favorite Thanksgiving recipe". Salon.com.
  5. "Image 87 of Conservation recipes". Library of Congress.
  6. Porcupine meatballs are satisfactory for pot luck dinners
  7. The Food Factor
  8. Great Chinese (Lunar) New Year With Porcupine Meatball Chinois
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