Beef meatball

Meatballs are restructured meat products which can be made from any meat that can be minced. Common meatball which are found easily in the market are chicken ball, fish ball, and beef ball. Beef meatballs are prepared with ground beef mixed with various spices and herbs depending on cultural preferences.

Usually, it consist of 53% lean beef, 17% fat and some other ingredients such as phosphate, salt, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and 30% ice cubes to prevent the increase of batter temperature during grounding and mixing, sometimes starches are added.

Fat is one of the key factors to ensure juicy meatballs. Egg is used as a binding agent when mixing several ingredients together to form such items as meatloaf. The egg binder helps to hold the ingredient mixture in the prescribed shape. The meatball batter are formed into marble of pingpong ball size or smaller/bigger, and boiled until well cook

Spices and herbs such as onion, garlic, parsley, black pepper, and cumin are commonly used to give special favor to these products.

Other ingredients can be used including:
*Italian Fennel seeds and grated parmesan cheese
*Greek Dried oregano and cinnamon
*Spanish Smoked paprika
*Moroccan Cumin seeds and chopped fresh coriander

The shelf life of ready-to-cook meatballs is limited by microbial spoilage as they can easily be contaminated by microorganisms from raw materials (ground beef and spices), equipments, and employees.
Beef meatball

Extruder-Texturized Product: Meat extenders

Meat is considered the highest quality protein source not only due to its nutritional characteristics but also for its appreciated taste.

The use of extenders in the elaboration of food products is on the rise because the latter presents the advantage of minimizing product cost and improving or at least maintaining nutritional and sensory qualities of the final products.

A meat extender is a mixture that substitutes a percentage of raw material present in the formula of a meat product for various reasons; one of which is cost reduction, facilitating the acquisition of quality food for populations with few resources.

Meat extenders are made from defatted soy flour and soy protein concentrate, extruded at low moisture contents (20–35%), whereas meat analogues are obtained by extrusion at high moisture contents (50–70%) of soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate, legume proteins including common beans and peas, or wheat proteins.

Meat extenders have been extruded from some cottonseed protein products. In addition to the above-mentioned raw materials sources, sunflower, peanut, sesame, pea, and bean proteins have also been used in the extrusion process for texturization.

Protein levels, protein quality, oil levels, fiber levels, sugar levels, sugar types, and particle size are most important features for the selected raw materials.

Functional properties of extenders are those physical and chemical properties which affect the behavior of the ingredients in meat emulsions during processing, storage, preparation and consumption.

Extrusion processing destroys the enzymes present in soybeans, including a urease that reduces the shelf-life, a lipoxidase that causes off-flavors by oxidation of soya oil and also a trypsin inhibitor that reduces protein digestibility. This improves the acceptability, digestibility and shelf-life of the product.

Meat extenders are available in flaked form (more than 2 mm), in minced form (less than 2 mm), and in chunk form (15 to 20 mm), and they can absorb 2.5 to 5 times their original weight in water.
Extruder-Texturized Product: Meat extenders 

Beef stock for cooking

Beef stocks also known as broth or bouillon. The gradual heating of the liquid is of the highest importance for the clarity as well as for the flavorfulness of the stock.

Beef stocks is not very versatile and is best suited for use in beef dishes. Stocks are vital ingredients in many sauces, soups and other foods, and no-store-bought variety can compare with a well-tended homemade version.

Stocks are best made with meat from older animals and mature vegetables cooked slowly for a long time to extract every vestige of flavor. It is the rich, flavorful liquid left from simmering bones, vegetables and seasonings in water for a long period over low heat.

The ingredients are slowly browned to intensify the final flavor. Many beef stocks are made only with bones. The bones add body and richness to the broth that cannot get with just meat. Neck, back and shank bones provide collagen, a protein found in connective tissues that dissolve whole summering in the stock.

Long simmering converts the collagen into gelatin. When a stock is boiled down and concentrated, it will have a jellylike consistency when cool. The stock is done when it tastes rich and beefy.
Beef stock for cooking