From 14 yuan to 82 yuan, among the 17 types of hot pot meatballs, which one has the highest meat content and tastes better?

Chewy and smooth, soft and juicy!

Hot pot, oden, malatang, spicy hot pot... Among these delicacies, which one can be missing - hot pot meatballs, a food partner that is available all year round.

After the actual test results of lamb skewers were a huge disappointment, people’s calls for hot pot meatball reviews have become increasingly louder.

In order to let everyone eat meatballs with peace of mind during the New Year, the friends at Dad Review worked overtime and made arrangements for everyone before the New Year.

What’s even more outrageous is that some beef balls don’t contain any beef at all!

In order to satisfy everyone's curiosity, the technical lady specially restored the entire process of making hot pot meatballs, which lasted for 2 hours. You can feel the professional feel through the screen.

Based on fans' comments and company votes, we selected 17 types of meatballs, represented by beef meatballs and pork meatballs, and conducted a comprehensive evaluation based on microorganisms, meat content, starch content, additives, and real-person tasting.

Eleven of them are pre-packaged products purchased from the online flagship store, and the other six are from supermarkets, spicy hot pot restaurants, and wet markets.

Sample fee 1824 yuan + testing fee 37550 yuan = 39588 yuan, here are the 17 hot pot meatballs family portraits:

During the offline purchasing process, technicians found that in order to facilitate customers' selection, the colorful hot pot meatballs in many supermarket refrigerators had "intimate" contact with the outside air and bacteria.

The meatballs in a community vegetable market had been covered in dust for a long time and were surrounded by piles of flour bags.

So the question is: Are these hot pot meatballs that look "unhygienic" clean and hygienic?

In order to answer the questions of the majority of foodies, we conducted microbial tests on 6 types of loose meatballs purchased from supermarkets, community vegetable markets and spicy hot pot restaurants, including coliform bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella.

The results showed that all the microorganisms tested in the 6 types of pills were qualified (breathe a sigh of relief).

It is said that supermarkets and farmers' markets are places where people gather. Although the results of this microbial test are qualified, we still hope that offline stores will strengthen the cleaning of the food display environment so that everyone can eat happily and at ease~

Next is the important review that cost a huge amount of money - the meat content!

Wow, the price of hot pot meatballs is just like the fluctuating weather in Hangzhou. The most expensive one is over 80 yuan per pound, while the cheapest one is only a dozen yuan.

How big can the difference in meat content be between meatballs of different prices? Are some meatballs that are cheaper than meat high cost-effective, or are they sold as "chicken" under the guise of "beef"?

In order to protect everyone's wallets and let you eat "real meatballs", technicians packed 17 types of hot pot meatballs and sent them to the laboratory to test their lean meat content based on the ingredient list.

The test results were so shocking that we wanted to single out the loose-meat balls for discussion!

There is no beef in the Sancheng beef balls, and similarly, there is no pork in the Sancheng tribute balls! The little lean meat in these balls is chicken!

Behind the low price, it turns out that the loose-weight meatballs do not have any “real ingredients”!

Moreover, many individually-produced meatballs have entered malatang and hotpot restaurants, and their value has increased exponentially. This wave of losses is really a loss!

Hold back your sadness and take a look at these 7 pre-packaged beef meatballs you can buy online:

Testing found that the beef content of No. 1 AnJ Chaoshan Flavor Beef Balls is as high as 60% (excluding beef tendon and beef fat), and it only contains beef!

Some of the flavored balls did not contain any lean beef, but were made up entirely of chicken.

In addition, the beef content of No. 3 Gui G Explosive Beef Balls and No. 11 Four H Hand-beaten Beef Tendon Balls is between 35% and 40%, and the pork content is around 40% to 50%, with the highest total meat content; the meat content of the other models is mainly pork and chicken.

Compared to beef meatballs, we found that the performance of the four pre-packaged meatballs was not bad:

Except for No. 9 Xide J Mushroom Meatballs, the other 3 types only contain pork, and the pork content exceeds 75%.

After an internal vote within the company, everyone still cares about the chewy and bouncy texture of the meatballs. If it's all starch when you bite into it, that would be too uncomfortable.

Generally speaking, the higher the starch content, the harder the meatballs will be, lacking in elasticity, and having a noticeable "crushy" feeling when chewing.

Comparing the test results, overall, branded pre-packaged meatballs have less starch content than loose meatballs.

Generally speaking, the starch content requirement of premium meatballs in SB/T 10610-2011 "Meatball Industry Standard" is ≤6%. In other words, all 11 pre-packaged meatballs meet this requirement.

In addition, samples with starch content ≤3% include No. 4, No. 11, No. 2 and No. 1, which are even comparable to the starch content of Shantou beef balls.

Therefore, it is definitely not reliable to say that "hot pot meatballs are made of starch", but if you pursue the taste, you should choose branded pre-packaged meatballs~

Many people are still afraid of additives. Why do some hot pot meatballs taste delicious even though they don't have much meat? Do they contain a lot of flavors and additives?

In order to dispel everyone's doubts and understand how the "real body" of the meatballs is made, the technical lady (formerly a R&D engineer for a big-name hot pot meatball brand) used more than ten kinds of materials to restore the "factory process" of fish balls.

In fact, the meatballs that we eat in one bite have to go through more than ten processes, and the amount of each ingredient added is also very particular.

During the production process, although the experimental girl added additives, the proportion was basically limited to a few thousandths of the total weight.

After trying it, many foodies said that the taste is almost the same as that of a certain famous brand of fish balls on the market.

After all, everyone likes to eat chewy meatballs. Thickeners like carrageenan and baking soda can make the meatballs elastic, while emulsifiers and stabilizers can make the frozen meatballs still maintain a good taste.

In fact, the appropriate amount of additives is added to enhance the color, aroma and taste of food (excluding inferior food). There is no big problem as long as it is used within a reasonable range.

Here, Dad Wei also tried to make various fish balls by hand. Although they were not round enough, he was happy enough!

Although meatballs are delicious, you should not be greedy. After all, compared with pure lean meat, a meatball is not only low in protein, but also high in fat and sodium.

You should know that the sodium content of 5-6 beef balls basically accounts for half of the daily sodium requirement of an adult.

By the way, since the taste of the meatballs is also very important to everyone, we cooked 17 types of hot pot meatballs and gave them to 20 colleagues in the company for tasting. They (after eating and drinking their fill) carefully wrote tasting reports.

I have to say that everyone’s mouth is still very reliable.

Well, in response to this review of the “colorful, fragrant and delicious” hot pot meatballs, we have also compiled a hot pot meatball selection guide for you.

As the New Year of 2022 is approaching, we hope that you will not only have enough food and clothing, but also hope that after reading this article, you will:

Sitting at the steaming hot dinner table, there is less pursuit of "zero additives" and less entanglement with "safety issues".

The more careful you are in choosing and the more self-discipline you are in eating, the healthier and safer you will be. Finally, all the staff of Dad Review would like to wish you a happy new year in advance~

Editor | SuSu

Design | Sour

Source: Dad Review