Today we’re busting your balls. And our balls. Everybody’s balls, really. ((Intro Music)) Every chef knows there are unbreakable rules in the kitchen, but what happens when you actually break those rules? Do the ball Gods rain fiery balls upon your balls, or are they just arbitrary myths peddled from chef to chef just waiting to be busted? To find out, we’ve assembled this highly trained team of serious culinary professionals. To put them to the test. Because this is Myth! ((Static)) ((Upbeat Music)) MythMunchers! Do you wanna see my sword collection? – No. – Yeah! Kinda. Well. Thanks for being supportive. Today we’re busting spaghetti and meatball myths. Now, we’ve busted spaghetti myths before, and some would say today we’re only really busting meatball myths. But we’re eating it on top of spaghetti. You ready to get to it? I’m ready! Alright, who likes balls? I love balls! Balls, balls, balls, balls, balls, balls, balls, balls, I’m juggling. Okay. First up though, we gotta talk about my pitch. I know we’ve been thinking like Mythical Kitchen. Why don’t we have a hot sauce? Why don’t we have a spice blend? No, no, here’s what we’re gonna start marketing. Soup ice! Soup ice. They’re gonna be at every 7-Eleven across America. We’ve already inked the deal, I, well I wrote it down on a napkin and sent it to 7-Eleven corporate. They haven’t responded but, soup ice, what’s the biggest problem with soup? – It’s sometimes too hot. – It’s a liquid. That’s right, it’s liquid. It’s sometimes too hot. So we’re solving both of those problems. Because we’re putting soup into ice cube containers and that way the soup gets cold and then you can add that to hot soup and it cools down your soup without diluting it, preventing many soup based scaldings. across America. Oh, can we shape them like balls? We can shape them like balls. In fact, we’re going to do clarified soup ice for the fancy cocktailiers out there. Anyways. This idea sucks. This idea is good. Mark Cuban said it was good. He hasn’t responded, but I think he’s going to say it’s good. All right, so, meatball myths. First up, we’re going to test the old Italian no nut trick, right? This is, you take fresh bread, you soak it in milk, then you mash that in your meatball mixture. They call it a panade, or in Mythical Kitchen parlance, “panad”. Versus breadcrumbs soaked in milk, see if it can get you halfway there, versus just breadcrumbs and no milk, which is the way that I had always made meatballs for a long time. Then, they say that you gotta deftly mix the meatballs, like the soft hands of an old Strega Nona looking lady, right? Kinda folding it in there to prevent overmixing it. We’re gonna see what happens if you do a little two minute deft mix versus a five minute mash. You gotta mash those balls. Versus what happens when you really put those balls in the spin cycle and you’re getting them, whippity whipped and scrambled around to see if we really can’t over mix a meatball. Then, cookery. We’re gonna see if you actually got a serum, get a little bit of that Maillard reaction, that browning, before you put them in the sauce. Versus just cooking them in the oven, which is what I do because I’m lazy, and I only make them five pounds at a time. I’m really making like probably 200 meatballs a month just for personal consumption. – What? – That’s insane. Do you split them with your fiancée? I don’t, what? Do you split the balls with your fiancée? Yeah, but I split them, I eat double what she does, so I get, it’s a two to one. Despite the fact that we share an equal grocery bill. Seems pretty messed up now that I think about it. Next, we’re gonna find out how long you gotta cook the meatballs in the sauce. A lot of people, myself included, say you gotta really let it simmer in there. I go for about 90 minutes if I have the time to get all the meatball flavor and cheese in the sauce, and vice versa, get them nice and tender, versus a little 15 minute quick sauté, or you do not even gotta sauce your balls. You’re going dry balls right into the spaghet. We’re gonna see what happens with that. Lily, you look mean. You look like you wanna hit me. This is serious meatball. ((Laughing)) Molto bene, signora! Alright, y’all, you ready to get to it? Yeah. Let’s get it. Wait, can you do like an Italian Lil Jon? Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! That’s just Mario, alright. Yeah! Sounds like Mario. Write down your guesses. Not all Italians are plumbers who ride on dinosaurs. That is a stereotype. They’re all Tony Soprano. We, write down, what do we do? We write down our guesses. The loser has to juggle saucy meatballs. We’ve been here before. Sorry, the loser gets to juggle saucy meatballs. Let’s get into it. ((Static)) ((Upbeat Music)) ((Static)) ((Classical Music)) That’s a spicy meatball. That’s a spicy. A spicy meatball. Who is this supposed to be? – What? – Who are you, like, emulating? It’s the guy from The Sopranos who comes from Italy to then join Tony in New Jersey. It’s like season three. I’ve never seen The Sopranos. You’ve never seen The Sopranos? No, I told you I was watching Oz first to get a feel for HBO, like, series. You don’t have to warm up for The Sopranos with Oz. Oh, honey. You eat so much deli meat out of the fridge in a bathrobe. Hi, welcome to MythMunchers. We’re trying to see if the breadcrumbs vs. Soaked in slices of bread and milk A.K.A. a “panad” actually makes a difference. It’s a really interesting concept pan. Meaning. Bread and I’m guessing the “ade” means like silky smooth. Silky smooth bread, that is literally what it translates to. No, I had actually never seen this technique until I moved in with some Italians when I was like 20 years old, and they saw me making polpette. Go, go, go, go, go, and I was making meatballs and they’re like, you gotta soak the bread in milk. They said it much more Italian-ly than that. But that was the first time I’d seen that and I started doing that. But, problem is, I ain’t generally got bread laying around and I do have, breadcrumbs. And so I started soaking my breadcrumbs in milk. I just, like, don’t buy, like, sandwich bread like. And so, I started soaking breadcrumbs in milk. So, I’m really curious to see if this one has a chance. Yeah, I mean, Lily and I in our 2v2 made some really banged up meatballs because of the “panad”. “Panad”. You think the “panad’s” the key? You think it’s gonna win? For sure. Ever since I was a little girl, when I was, what? This a Miss America pageant? ((Laughing)) Yeah, should it be? Ever since I was a little girl. Such as, a woman, I would watch the Food Network, and such, they would use bread, soaked in milk, and, solving the world wars through soaked bread. Is that good? I was going to do that one because I’m wearing two gloves, and I was going to be all ambidextrous with it. Well, I can, I don’t, listen, I’m just getting the raw meat in the raw meat. I don’t need to wear gloves. I’ll go over here. The raw meat’s going to get inside my bracelet though. The raw meat’s going to get inside the bracelets, but then I’ll just suck it off. I’ll suck out the bracelet. I get a lot of raw meat underneath my nails, but fashion precedes like healthiness. I love that. Yeah. Look at these, look at these. There is actually, what is, is it called a Deadpool? A pool of people who think they’re gonna die? Yeah, you like, take a pool on who’s gonna die first. Point is, one of us is gonna get E. coli in the Mythical Kitchen, and you can guess who. Me! Oh, I was gonna say, I’m Miss E. coli 2024. The interesting thing with the fresh bread soaked in milk, you’re getting a lot more moisture, because you think about breadcrumbs versus bread. It’s so much wetter. Look, it’s like glossier than the. Breadcrumbs are just bread minus water. And then when you soak it in milk, you’re adding more water into the equation, which means you could get a juicier ball. What I’m worried about though, is this sort of falling apart and becoming too crumbly, right? Sure. Where’s the line between tenderness and mushiness? And we’re gonna walk that today. Speaking of walking the line, look at our fabulous aprons that you can purchase at mythical.com What do they say? Life’s too short. To. Cook. On. Medium. Buy them, they’re really cute. And look, they do this cool thing. Can I show you this cool thing that they do? It’s really cool. ((Laughing)) It’s pretty cool, right? I thought that was really cool. And life is too short to cook on medium, Nicole. I put a half eaten apple there to take out and eat as a bit. To show that this can hold an apple. And I didn’t have any fruit this morning. ((Cat Meow)) So, like, what’s your vibe today? What? What’s the vibe? Like, you know how like when you get ready for work, like what was your vibe for like the fit? Oh, well I was thinking I’m going to cover my nether regions with pant. And then I wore closed toed shoes because you yelled at me for wearing open toed shoes in the kitchen. Yeah. And then I thought shirt, right? Because, here’s the thing, nipples, don’t want them on camera, shirt covers them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mine was like 70s, Italian, disco babe. Are you feeling it? ((Groovy Music)) Yeah? Yeah, no, I am feeling it. I’m just not as enthusiastically moving my body as you but I am on the inside I’m doing the same exact. Okay, that’s so nice to hear. You do look nice. I think the denim jumpsuit is really cool. Do you want to eat? Yeah, you kind of look like. You can say it. There is a Canadian dominatrix, you know. You know. Got the denim. That’s what they do up there. They like the denim. These are all vastly different looking balls. Yeah. What are you seeing from the appearance? These look denser. So, denser? They look more meatier. It’s like meatier probably because there’s milk in there. Yeah, it looks like a meteor. That looks like. Oh, like a meteor. Meteor. I know you’re saying meteor but you that could be like meatier. Meteor. Or meteor. It’s both. Like something that has come down from the sky. Yeah, but also with meat. Okay, it’s a meatier meteor. So, this looks, this looks too dry. That looks too wet to me. This looks like my Goldilocks ball. You know? That’s what I want. Let’s just slice all, no, no, slice them all in the middle. Because I want to see what they look like in the middle, Josh. Any difference? This actually held its shape more. The one with breadcrumbs and no milk. Because you’re getting less moisture, right? Something’s drier, it’s gonna hold its shape better. It still looks really juicy though. We cooked these to like, what, 160 in the middle? 155. 155, let it carry over to 160. This is looking juicy. Hold that one up. Squeeze that ball to the camera. The ball, a nice squeeze. Speaking of Canadian dominatrix. Sorry. Which one should we try first? – [Nicole] I think we should try this one first. I feel like we should go dry to wet. Okay, cool. And if I had an opinion, I should have just said that out loud instead of, baiting you. It’s fine, you do that a lot, but I don’t think it’s bad, I just think it’s a personality trait. Cheers! Yeah, personality traits can be bad. Oh, delicious. Perfectly fine ball. You know, not bad. It’s doing its job. Meaty, garlicky, well salted. Happy. Beefy, happy balls. Okay. Immediately better. Immediately. Immediately better. So much more unctuous, so much more well developed. Man, I don’t, now I’m looking at, oh, now I’m looking at these slopping wet bean bags over here. And I’m getting really excited. I’m the Canadian dominatrix? Okay. Do you know a female aviator is called an aviatrix? Yes, you tell me things and I remember them. You know, when you speak to me, I remember everything you say. I’m eating my balls over here. It would be nice if it was reciprocal. I mean, no, no, tell me, tell me a thing that you said in the past and I’ll tell you if you said it in the past. ((Laughing)) Wow, tender, beautiful, the expression of all the herbs. The softness, but it’s still, it does still hold its shape though. It’s a little bit like, it’s a little bit, you know, but it’s still really good. Like, I feel like I could just like suckle on it, you know what I mean? Yeah, I just did it. It’s, like, wet. You literally, as you go from dry to wet. I’m shedding. – I’m shedding. – Put that in the meatballs. Ew no, I’m shedding. This sucks. I’ve eaten so many of your hairs throughout the years. Sorry. This myth munched us! ((Static)) ((Upbeat Music)) ((Static)) We got some meat to beat. Oh, yeah we do. “Panad” won the last round. So we have some “panad” meatballs. Yes, all the bowls. And we have a 2 minute, a 5 minute, and 15 minutes. Good luck on that. Oh, I’m ready. Let’s just start now because we’re gonna be here for a while. Okay. Okay. Oh, yeah. Okay. That’s nice and soft having my hands on two ball mixtures it feels, yeah. – [Vee] You’re beating your meat. – [Lily] It’s a lot of sensation What did you vote for? I actually voted for two minutes because I don’t think you should over mix your meat, I think it can get like super tough and kind of like, what’s the word I’m looking for, springy and it’s almost if you over mix it, you’re turning it into a sausage. Yeah, I want like a, I want a meatball that has structure, but soft and tender, you know? I still want it juicy, like, I mean, that’s why we use the 80/20 meat, right? Like, it still stays tender. Yeah, exactly. It has so much fat. I voted for the five minute one, I think there is some value into like mixing it, and there’s, yeah we are using the 80/20 beef, and I think getting that fat homogenized into the mixture is gonna make the meatball like cook a little more evenly, so I think you should mix your meatball, but. I’m just gonna like do so many different techniques to get this 15 minute deal, I know you’re, you’re. So, it’s gonna be a lot of this. Okay, you know what? What? What? I’m trying to mix my meat. I feel like we’re not mixing it right. What do you mean? How else do you mix meat? I think that we’re not Italian enough. Okay, we are going to continue to mix the meat. Now I mix my meatball for still about ten minutes. I still have a lot of meat to mix. I was going to explain some more science and stuff, but I’m going to go back to my regular voice because that’s going to take a long time with all the “ahs” at the end. I think that meat is kind of like dough, where, okay, I’m done, I’m done, I’m done! My mustache is falling off. I think that meat is like mixing dough. Where you want to mix it because you’re trying to like break down the proteins, think about like beating your other meats kind of like chicken if you’re tenderizing it and like beating the shit out of it. Yeah. It’s you know, it’s making it like a little more tenderized. So, I don’t know if, I don’t know if you can over mix it. I don’t know, my arm’s on fire, but we’re just gonna keep going. Say the word that Josh told us to say. Myosin. Myosin. Myosin. Myosin. Myosin! This feels warm in my hands, and it was cold at first, but I think the fats are really getting, you know, fatty on the meatballs. Your accent is changing. That meatball. What’s happening? Alexa! How much time do I have left? Oh my God! Am I done? So, working that meat is really going to bring out that myosin, activate the myosin, myosin. Myosin! That gives like sausage that snappy structure. Right. And we’re just gonna put that to the test! Okay, I’m done! We’re gonna, we’ll. I gotta keep going! I’m gonna go on my break, Vee’s gonna be here, I’m mixing meat, and we’ll be back at 15 minutes. You’re leaving me? – [Lily] Yep. ((Timer Ticking)) ((Timer Ringing)) We are back with our meatball a mix. My, uh, thank you. That’s a soft-ah. The other side. Oh, okay, yeah. Oh, yours is makeup? Mine’s a real-ah Oh, is it? Interesting. Oh, you said it was real. I have been growing this, for a hundred years-ah Oh. Okay, so you’ve mixed your meatballs for 15 minutes. – [Vee] What a crazy difference. My arm is on fire and I’m probably buff now. Just one arm. I think we should swatch these, like, makeup. Swatch it? Okay. Wow. Dang, look at us, TikTokers now. This one is, like, gray colored. Yeah, this one’s super gray. Wait, what was the? Okay. Are you, are you plating now? No, I’m doing, like, a little swatch, like, makeup tutorial. – [Vee] Oh, I see what you’re saying. Okay. – [Lily] Yeah, okay. This is obviously like worked a lot. Yeah, it’s like really gray, it’s like very elastic and stretchy. Initially as you just feel like this. Yeah. This is softer it feels like hot dog filling. This. Hot dog. Is cold because it wasn’t mixed as much and. It’s a little tougher. It feels tougher. Right. But does that mean that it’s going to be a more tender meatball? Let’s find out and cook them. Yeah. See you in a second. I realized I was adopted through spaghetti and meatballs. What? Not because my mom was white with bleach blonde hair, but I would always just eat it for leftovers. And everyone’s like, what’s wrong with that girl? And I was like, I was adopted from Vietnam. Anyway. – [Josh] Why did you eat spaghetti and meatballs? It’s the closest thing I had. My brother was like, chicken nuggets, and my sister was like, chicken nuggets, and I was like, cold fish in the morning? ((Laughing)) I predicted two, so let’s go over here. Okay. Okay, initially. Did you hear that? Yeah, and these, okay, this has more liquid on the plate. Right. And it does, it decreases. As the minutes go up. Oh snap! This is. Oh my God. It’s so juicy. It’s juicy. And tender. It’s the “panad” too. Yeah it is. Okay. Not as much liquid. No. Okay, wait. Still juicy sounds when I cut it. I want to break in. I think this, like, if you feel the difference. Let me see. I actually do feel like it is tougher. This one feels tougher. This one feels tougher. Does it eat tougher? Maybe. Yeah, it does. It does have more of a chew. It feels more like compact. Fifteen minutes-ah. Fifteen, where’s my mustache? Give me my mustache. Okay. Okay. You gotta be Italian for this. Okay, I’ll eat my meatballs. I just, I just. Wait, what are you doing? I’m feeling the like, I’m feeling just like pinch. You keep getting out of character. Pinch. It is tough. I mean, it feels tougher. Does it feel tougher in your mouth? Yeah. I don’t really like that one. It almost feels too tough. Like it’s not. Yeah. Okay. It reminds me too much of a sausage. Yeah, it does. I don’t know if I like that. I want it to be, still like, the meatball essence. Yeah, it’s not as tender, what you want a meatball to be. So, if you, if you. Between these two. Yeah, which one wins? This one? I like this one too. I like this one. I like this one. I think it’s for the two minutes. So, you can over mix your meat, people. You can. Don’t over mix your meat. Yeah, do two minutes. That means, no, we do it in an Italian accent. Okay, okay. That means this myth munched us! ((Static)) ((Upbeat Music)) ((Static)) Hey, those two girls were wild and crazy, right? Those two Italian guys that were mashing up the meat? Oh, I thought they were girls. No, no, didn’t you see those big masculine mustaches? Oh, yeah. That was crazy out there. You know who has my favorite mustache? The lead singer of Le Tigre, JD Samson. My favorite mustache of all time. What are your other five favorite mustaches? My father-in-law has a really nice mustache. He does. My husband needs to work on his. Yeah. My own, and TBD for number five. I’m not ready for it. Just keep holding the meatballs. Hold it for two seconds. Okay. I’ll hold it. Fine. I’m gonna put, so what are we testing? What are we talking about in this myth? Welcome back to MythMunchers. Today we’re testing the best way to cook a meatball. So, Nicole’s goes in the oven. Lazy man’s method. That’s what I always do. I feel like most Italian cooks would tell you to sear them. This actually could, Nicole, burn your mustache off! Get it down in there! I basically did, I basically did! Most Italian cooks would tell you to sear your meatballs first. You’re getting the Maillard reaction, which is to say brown food tastes good. Something about proteins or glutamates, I don’t really know. Smart. So, we’re gonna do that, and then I’m gonna throw that in the oven to finish it. Nicole, tell them about that. Yeah, so, whenever we were coming up with this, with this myth, I was like, let’s do something a little unorthodox. So, just throwing the balls raw in the sauce came to mind. You’re crazy. Because when you think about it, a lot of times people cook the balls in the sauce once, but once they’re seared or once they’re ovened, and I’m like, you know what, maybe poaching them like this might impart like a really delicious flavor. It might make them really, really soft. Maybe it doesn’t need that Maillard reaction. I am excited to try that, because here’s the thing, I do, this is, this is. That’s so much oil! Dude, I’m searing them up, I want to get a freaking browning on them, what do you want me to do? I’ll bail out some oil, I’ll bail out some oil. Okay, you’re shallow frying. Okay, I’m not shallow frying, here, oils, no, then it’s going to light on fire. Okay, okay, whatever. Do you think it looks like we don’t like each other whenever we pick on each other? A lot of people say, I don’t understand, I have raw meat Okay, whatever. No, I think this is, I don’t blame it on the Judaism. Blame it on the ju-ju-Judaism. The balls look really good. Oh, I think I was going to say, this sounds really dirty, but this is just true. Like, I do love sopping wet balls. Like really, I think people don’t eat enough wet food. I think people are too concerned with the wrong things. I think poaching them in sauce, that’s a lot, that’s a lot of heat on there though. Okay, I’ll turn it down. I actually think that could be really good. That could be a fun wild card. They’re gonna be ultra tender. If you want tender balls, Nicole, tell them how tender the balls are. I don’t know yet. We’re testing it. I need to wait until they’re cooked. I can’t just say something and like I care about them. Just lie to the people. No, I lie to them enough. I don’t want to lie to them more. What do you lie about? What’s the biggest lie you’ve told on here? Oh, God. She doesn’t actually have a husband. I’ve told, so. She says that to keep the feet pic requests out of her DMs. I do have a husband. Baby, who should I talk to? You? David, baby, I love you so much. ((Laughing)) You mean the world to me, and I know you’re watching. Ow! We’re good. We’re so good. Those look really good. Thank you! I’m sorry that I said, that it was too much oil. No, I mean, if you’re gonna play, if you’re gonna cook with oil, cook with oil, you know? Because we’re gonna eventually sauté these in the sauce. It was a lot of oil. I’m not gonna BS you. I don’t know what happened. I just kept squirting at it. You know what I mean? Yeah. But we’re getting a really nice sear. We’re getting some really good crust. So like, as it stands now, these are super crusty, but we’re going to finish them in the sauce just a little bit. So, the sauce should kind of absorb in that crust. That crust should impart a lot of nice flavor within that sauce. You get some of the fat leaching out of it. It’s going to be nice. Yeah, and they’re finally going to see us eat the spaghetti part of the spaghetti and meatballs. I totally forgot we put that in the title. I don’t even know why, because we already busted spaghet myths. – Yeah. – You know? Don’t forget about the spaghet, that’s what we said. We. Yeah, but what’s the pasta that we used in the episode? I don’t remember. Spaghet, dude. Oh. Yeah, yeah. Because we did the Filipino spaghet thing. It’s been so long. I don’t remember much. Father, I won’t know the way home. What? What? Is it, is it the one where the little? You gotta go follow the stars, William. Is it the one where the little kid is in the ballet? No, no, no. I’ll give you another hint. Okay. It’s called a lance, hello. Oh, A Knight’s Tale? Yeah! Yeah! Shannyn’s awesome and so hot. Better a silly girl with a flower than a silly boy on a horse with a stick. Oh, kill me. Love it. Okay, so we’re just going to let these all cook. She’s a drummer for Warpaint. I know! Yeah. You told me! I remember! You love Warpaint. Everything you say! The meatballs are nice and seared. We’re going to finish those in the sauce. They’re probably a little undercooked in there. We’re waiting on those to poach. Yeah. Ovens? Oven in? Ovens exist. Yeah. Benjamin Franklin invented them. Can someone Google that? I don’t believe you. No, I feel like he did invent the oven. No way. No way. He invented electricity. He was the first president of the United States. ((Timer Ticking)) ((Timer Ringing)) Parmigiano, per signora? Sì. Sì? Just a little bit more. Parmigiano. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Parmigiano. You notice what I’m drinking? Sì. Do you like these? Sì. Do you want? Yo preferisco, Coca-Cola. I took Italian in college. – I dropped out of Italian too. – Next. What do you mean next? That’s not enough parm. – [Nicole] Of course that was enough parm. Okay, next. This is great. Yeah, what’d you get, a Diet Coke deal, or what’s going on? I’m just thirsty. You’re on a diet soda train now? I don’t like it. No, I don’t like it. Nobody likes it. It tastes like poison. We drink it because we have to. What’s going on here? Well, we seared the balls. We oven cooked the balls. And then we added the balls to the sauce raw. And now, they have all come to temp. They have all been hanging out in some delicious red sauce. Homemade. I winked cause it’s Rao’s. Are you eating the ball? Can you hold this? No. Oh, God. It’s like a burrito. You got to hot sauce the bites individually. Thank you. I was gonna airplane it. Okay, you’re a mess. Okay. Nice color on this. I’m Josh, I’m so funny. ((Laughing)) Good impression. The sauce, steaming hot. Yeah. That awakened something feral inside of me. That awakened something primal. That’s really delicious. Oh my, God. That’s quite delicious. Quite perfect. Oh my. What an excellent ball. Yeah. Wow, the sear on the outside, like, you get that brown meat flavor that you would from like a pot roast, oh, with the spaghet, this. And any Italians that are like, we don’t actually eat that in Italy, well, we’re in America, we got Sbarro, and we do! Okay, the oven one, it’s got a very uniform cook. Yeah, it’s really delicious, but the contrast and textures and flavors with the seared is like, next level. I enjoy it. Umami! Ooh, umami! Umami! Umami! Ooh, umami! No, but actually, the Maillard reaction is giving you umami in the sauce that this isn’t. Yeah. Now, sopping wet balls. This is, this is the outlier. It is much tougher, I will say that. Why’d it get tougher? Did it just cook hotter and faster because it was in boiling liquid? It’s so good. Oh my gosh, so good. There’s something like, underdeveloped about it. This is like the balut of meatball. I love it. There’s like a flavor that never, came to. You know what I mean? Okay, so, we tried all three of them. ((Loud Slurping)) So the seared meatball had a really delicious umami flavor. I thought it was really eclectic with all of the textures and all of the beautiful, you’re so, you’re so ugly. ((Laughing)) You’re distractingly ugly when you eat pasta. I think I’m really sexy. Okay, I’m so sorry. Okay, so the seared was really delicious. I think it was, again, the different textures and the umami really, really lend itself to the whole dish. The oven, Josh, is correct. It was definitely more uniform. But I do think that, I also noticed that in the seared the, the like oil leached into the sauce which made it a lot more silkier, a lot more smoother. With the oven it was more uniform. It made me feel like I was at a grandma’s house when I was eating, the oven, which isn’t a bad thing. This one felt more restaurant style, so I know, and we’re trying to get to the upper echelon of like the best meatballs. Added sauce to raw, now. It was okay. It was, it was just fine. It was an experiment and we tried it. It was comforting and it almost felt like soup. Like a meatball you find in a soup. You know what I mean? That’s the vibe that I got from added sauce to raw. Soft. Very soft. ((Belch)) You’re just, you’re so disgusting. When you drink soda and burp. That was the first time I burped on camera! Big time for Nicole! ((Cheers)) Ain’t no bad balls in this whole bunch. Not a single bad ball. Any ball is a good ball. You know what I mean? And sometimes they’re shaped different. Sometimes one’s bigger than the other one. And there’s nothing wrong about that. Nope. All balls are beautiful. But yeah, the seared one wins for sure, right? – [Nicole] For sure. That means. This myth munched us. ((Static)) ((Upbeat Music)) ((Static)) You look like Katinka from the Dodgeball movie. Thank you. Alright y’all, to reiterate, we have found out that the “panad” is best. You soak the bread in milk, and then we found out that you mix it only for two minutes, and then you sear them, so that’s what we got on all these balls. Now the last variable to test is how long you gotta cook it in the sauce. Do you just dry ball it and add the sauce on top? You simmer it. About 15 minutes, let it hang out, or do you let it really run for 90 full minutes? There you go, dry ball, dry ball it. I’m gonna get them wet though. Yeah, or. I’m gonna make a nest. Should I cheese it? Cheese it up, man. Cheese it! ((Belch)) Sorry, I’m so effing sorry. Alright, what do you guys got any predictions? Looks sad, that looks lonely. I put zero. Why? Because. I don’t know, I kind of like my meatballs just quick. I want it quick, yeah. I want it separate, I want it quick and easy. Like, I’m not waiting 90 minutes, I got things to do. I got nothing man, I got no friends. – [Lily] I said 15 minute, you know why? Why? Because I wanted to still taste the meatball and I felt like 90 minute would just make it just taste like sauce and meatball and I want to taste the difference of the meatball and the sauce. Sorry, I’m sorry. I like how none of us grabbed spaghetti. Yeah, okay, this and this very similar. The sauce cooks it on the outside of the meatball a little bit, but it’s not that much of a difference. Are you guys feeling that? Not much of a difference. Yeah. The only thing this does, it might overcook the ball a little bit if you’re actually like temping your balls, which you should. This is maybe even better than that. I agree. I agree. I like this. This is still nice and tender and juicy. It’s gonna be between this and this. Yeah. Like, you’re not really getting anything out of just letting it sit there for 15 minutes. Let’s see about 90. Oh, God, it’s hot. It sort of braises that in there. That’s still hot. Taste the sauce. The sauce is lovely. You know what it is? The sauce got so meaty and so intensely beefy that it almost doesn’t taste like a tomato sauce anymore. I like that though. That’s what I want. Just like a nice gravy. I like the difference between the brightness of the sauce, the Maillard of the balls. And the pasta. I kind of love the zero minute. I do too. – [Vee] I third it. And then this is just a slightly overcooked version of that. You don’t get the meat flavor leaching into that. I do enjoy the sauce here, but. This one. You don’t gotta wait. Zero minutes is the winner. – [Vee] Zero, baby! Pretty damn spectacular. Pretty damn spectacular. I guess, why don’t we talk about the myth? Did we myth the? Oh, we mythed this munch! We spaghett the meatballs. You guys figure it out, I’m eating spaghet. We are munches, Ice Spice. That’s right. – [Crew Member] That myth’s been. That myth’s been munched! Today we busted spaghetti and meatball myths, but except only meatball myths. We found out that if you soak fresh bread in milk, you make a “panad”, in Italian, it makes your meatballs super moist and delicious. That was a great find. I’m gonna keep, I’m gonna do that now. We found out that you really should gently mix your meatballs. We did it for two minutes, found out it was nice and tender. Versus 15 minutes, it got that sausage-y snap to it. Not ideal for balls. We found out that if you serum, that Maillard reaction really does carry through just enough into the sauce to give you some fun flavor and textural contrast. Shoutout to the sopping wet balls added to the sauce though. That wasn’t bad, I’m glad we did that. Then we found out that you really don’t need to cook your balls in the sauce. If you do it for 15 minutes, they just get a little bit overcooked and dry. If you do it for 90 minutes, the sauce does get really meaty, but you kind of like the brightness of the tomatoes versus all that Maillard beefiness from the balls with the zero minute cook. So, how many did you get right? These are my predictions for the meatball, okay? These are breadcrumbs with milk, two minutes, seared, and zero minutes. I got a three. Pretty good, 75%, a little C average. How many did you get right? I said “panad”, 5 minutes, seared, and 15 minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got 2 right. Boo, that was bad. D. Nicole, how many did you get right? I guessed milk plus bread, doesn’t matter, seared, and 0 minutes. I got three. Smart, smart, smart. Now, somebody ask me. Josh, how many did you get? Crumb milk, two minute mix, seared, 90 minute cook. I tried to draw the Italian flag, but only had a green marker, so now it’s Nigeria. Shoutout to all the Nigeria homies out there. Lily, you and me are as dumb as each other. Congratulations, I got two. Is that a compliment? Stupid! Well you know what that means, Lily. We gotta juggle saucy meatballs, cause someone said it, and now it’s the thing we have to do. Balls! Balls! Balls! Balls! Balls! Balls! Well, someone bring out the saucy balls! Balls! Balls! Well, while Lily and I get our ball juggling muscles nice and warmed up. You all out there, thanks for stopping by MythMunchers. Thanks for clicking on that video, and as they say, tell them what they say. In Italy. Italy, please don’t cancel us. This was done out of love. Except for Lily. She really doesn’t like y’all. See y’all next time. ((Static)) Hey Annaliese, you know how when you played JV basketball back in high school, Coach Ennis would say that if Tim makes the half court shot, that you wouldn’t have to do conditioning? Except Tim was not very good at making the half court shots, but still, you always had belief in him that he’d make the half court shot, so you didn’t have to do conditioning? – [Annaliese] Yeah. So if, so if Lily throws the meatball really high up in the air and I catch it in my mouth, can we not have to juggle them? I get three tries? Do I get three tries? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Toss it, toss it. High, high? Give me something I can catch, okay? Okay. Alright, yeah. Something you can catch? Yeah, but like, but high. Okay. Okay, go. That’s so high, holy. Oh! That was so. ((Laughing)) That’s so high, I got. I didn’t realize how high. Okay, yeah, yeah, it’s gotta bruise my lip. You ready? Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Okay, one more try. I’m not good at sports, okay? Okay, okay, give me something reasonable. Okay, okay. Wait, I need to like. Okay. Yep. Ah, God dang it! – [Josh] Life’s too short to cook on medium, or whatever Ratatouille said. Shop the new Hot Stuff Apron now at mythical.com