Christoph's Smoked Meatballs

Method

1. Preheat your smoker to 99°C (210°F), set up for indirect heat with your wood of choice.
2. In a large bowl, combine the meat, eggs, potato starch, rosemary, thyme, smoked paprika, garlic powder, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Mix with your hands just until evenly combined; overworking it makes the meatballs dense and tough.
3. Shape into 4 cm balls, about 60 g each. If stuffing with cheese, flatten a portion of meat in your palm, press a cube of mozzarella into the centre, and wrap the meat fully around it, sealing the seam.
4. Arrange the meatballs on a wire rack or directly on the smoker grate, leaving space between each for smoke to circulate.
5. Smoke at 99°C for 45 to 50 minutes, until the surface has taken on good colour and a light bark.
6. Raise the smoker temperature to 163°C (325°F). Continue cooking for 10 to 15 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 71°C.
7. Rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

• This recipe works with beef, pork, or a mix of the two, pick based on what you want from the meatball, not a fixed rule. All-beef, from chuck or a similar 80/20 blend, gives the deepest, most straightforwardly beefy flavour and holds its shape well on the smoker. All-pork, from shoulder, is sweeter and more forgiving of the long cook since pork shoulder carries more intramuscular fat. A 50/50 mix is the classic choice for a reason: the beef gives structure and depth, the pork adds moisture and a rounder flavour, and it’s hard to go wrong with it.
• No breadcrumbs here, on purpose. A classic milk-soaked breadcrumb panade makes for a lighter meatball, but it’s also more fragile, and fragile doesn’t survive a long smoke on a grate well. Potato starch and egg alone give a firmer, denser structure that holds together through both stages of the cook.
• The cheese cube is optional and worth trying once you’ve made the plain version. A 1 cm cube of mozzarella pressed into the centre before sealing gives a molten, pulling centre when the meatball is cut into; a firmer melting cheese like a young Gouda holds its shape a little better through the smoke if you want less oozing and more of a distinct pocket.
• Don’t skip the two-stage temperature. Smoking the whole way through at a high temperature never gives the meat the chance to take on real smoke flavour before the surface sets; finishing low the whole way through never builds the browned, slightly bark-like exterior that makes a smoked meatball taste different from an oven-baked one.

Ingredient substitutions

• Any wood you’d use for beef or pork works here, hickory and oak are reliable; fruit woods like apple or cherry give a milder, sweeter smoke that pairs well with the brown sugar in the mix.
• A splash of Worcestershire sauce, mixed in with the meat, deepens the savoury base.
• Serve over pasta, on a sub roll, or on their own with a dipping sauce, this recipe is built to be a base you build a meal around, not a single fixed dish.