Rather British Meatballs

I fancied meatballs the other day. What's more, I fancied cheese stuffed meatballs. A quick google suggested they should be stuffed with mozzarella. That sounded great, but I didn't have any and I currently have a Grocery Policy which involves not going to the supermarket until there's nothing left in my cupboards except dry crackers and a shrivelled potato.


I did have some (rather old, in need of shaving) mature cheddar. So I decided to go with it.


In my mind, meatballs generally seem Italian. Or American. Or, of course, IKEA'n. Cheddar is none of these things. So I started thinking about British meatballs. 


(If you ask Wikipedia it suggests the only British meatball is the faggot. Now... I like faggots. But they're a very different kettle of fish. Or offal.)


Anyhoodle, due to the cheese being quite old and strong I felt they needed some fairly robust seasoning. So I embraced the Britishness and added Worcestershire sauce as well.


And they were good. Very good.

Rather British Meatballs


500g beef mince (could be replaced by pork, turkey or (probably) any other mince)
1 egg
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 small onion, chopped up as small as possible
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cheddar cheese, cut into 1cm cubes


This is really very easy... Put everything except the cheese into a nice big bowl and mix until it's combined, first with a spoon then with your hands.


Once it's mixed, form into small balls in the palm of your hand and poke a square of cheese into the middle. Squidge the meatball shut around the cheese so it shouldn't be able to melt out.

I made twelve, but that will obviously depend a bit on both the size of your hands and your cheese chunks.


Brown the meatballs quickly in a hot frying pan with a tiny bit of oil to stop them sticking. I like to serve mine with tomato sauce*, in which case I drop them into a pan of sauce and let them float about for fifteen minutes to make sure they're cooked right through. If you're serving them 'dry' make sure they're cooked before the come out of the frying pan!


*My tomato sauce is just softened onions/garlic, a tin of chopped tomatoes, can-full of water, tbsp of vegetable stock powder, grated carrot, and a pinch of sugar left to simmer in a pan for as long as everything else takes to cook.


Serve with pasta or, as I did, a strange colcannon-ish mix of potato and cabbage.

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