When baking meatballs for a soup, do I have to bake until the meat is fully cooked?

I'm making Italian Wedding Soup, and my recipe calls for oven-baking the meatballs for 7-9 minutes before adding them to the soup and boil/simmer for 5 minutes.

Maybe I made the meatballs a bit too big, but it's taking 2-3x the suggested oven time for them to reach 160 degrees (they were only about 110 after the first 8 minutes).

Could I rely on the boil-in-soup step to fully cook the meatballs instead? Would I have to simmer the soup for more than 5 minutes? Is this a bad idea?

food-safety meatballs

Best Answer

It doesn't matter in which modality (banking, simmering) you bring the meatballs up to temperature, only that you do.

Normally, if you are cooking them in the oven first, it is for browning generate additional flavor. Otherwise, you could simply simmer them from the beginning, which is perfectly viable.

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Do you have to fully cook meatballs?

The meatballs are done when they're cooked through and register 165\xb0F in the middle on an instant-read thermometer.

How long does it take to oven cook meatballs?

Bake in a 400F oven until cooked through, about 20-24 minutes. The meatballs should all be evenly cooked and nicely browned on the outside.

Is it better to bake or cook meatballs?

You can bake or fry meatballs based on personal preference. Pan-frying is faster, but baking can save some calories.

Can you cook raw meatballs directly in the sauce?

Although the meatballs are not browned first, they still cook though in the sauce and it is safe to add them to the sauce raw, as long as the sauce is kept at a simmer until the meatballs are cooked through. Cooking the meatballs this way means that they stay quite tender even when cooked.

Baked Meatballs (Made with a Mind-Blowing Technique that Changes EVERYTHING)

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