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Porcupine Meatballs

Porcupine Meatballs (1930s)

Porcupine Meatballs is a cheap, customizable comfort food recipe that derives its name from the rice included in the meatball mixture, which can poke out of the meatballs like the quills of a porcupine. While the first known recipe for porcupine meatballs dates all the way back to 1918, they became immensely popular during the Great Depression as a way to stretch more expensive beef with cheaper rice, onion and breadcrumb fillers. They remained massively popular through the 70s and are still a common meal today.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours 20 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Servings 4 people

Equipment

  • Normal Kitchen Utensils
  • Crock Pot or Instant Pot (Optional)

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Lb Ground Beef (or Turkey, Pork or Chicken)
  • 3/4 C Rice Cooked
  • 1 C Crumbs Bread or Cracker
  • 2 C Water
  • 1 Can Tomato Sauce 15 oz.
  • 1 Small Onion Chopped
  • 1 Clove Garlic Minced
  • 2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 tsp Cayenne Powder (Optional)
  • 2 tsp Poultry Seasoning (Optional)
  • Salt and Pepper to Taste

Instructions
 

  • Combine ground beef, rice, bread crumbs, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne (optional) and poultry seasoning (optional) and form into 2 inch meatballs (roughly 20).
    1 Lb Ground Beef, 1 C Crumbs, 1 Small Onion, 1 Clove Garlic, 1 tsp Cayenne Powder, 2 tsp Poultry Seasoning, Salt and Pepper to Taste, 3/4 C Rice
  • The next step depends on your method of cooking:
  • If baking, place the meatballs in a 9x13 baking dish. Mix the water, tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce and pour over the meatballs. Cover with foil and bake one hour at 350. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes.
  • If cooking on stovetop, place the meatballs into a wide bottomed pot and brown on one side. You can attempt to turn them and brown on multiple sides, but they really like to fall apart. Mix the water, tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce and pour over the meatballs. Simmer, uncovered, for at least thirty minutes until the sauce is thickened and the meatballs are cooked through. Add more water if the sauce gets too thick.
    1 Can Tomato Sauce, 2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce, 2 C Water
  • If cooking in a crockpot or instant pot, place the meatballs in the pot. Mix the water, tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce and pour over the meatballs. Slow cook on high for at least two hours. Four preferred.
  • Once cooked or baked, add salt and pepper to the sauce as desired.
    Salt and Pepper to Taste
  • Serve five meatballs per person over rice.

Notes

  • The large amount of onion, rice and bread crumbs in these meatballs can make them really crumbly. That being said, it is nice to brown them before cooking in the sauce, but turning them on multiple sides is a gamble. Handle with care. 
  • Another way to help the meatballs set better is to reduce the onion by half, grate the onion or add a raw egg as a binding agent. 
  • I honestly do not add the optional ingredients because they are not how I am used to my family making porcupine meatballs. But, they are in the original recipe from 1918, so I wanted to include them as an option. 
  • Worcestershire sauce is not an original recipe item, but is the ingredient that turned me onto porcupine meatballs in the first place. It really changes the flavor. 
Keyword 1930s, Cheap, Comfort, Meatball, Porcupine, Recipe, Rice, Tomato