I recently discovered pork panko. I know you can grind pork rinds in your food processor, but there always seem to be a few hard bits that don’t grind, and the panko is fluffier. Yes, it’s a tad expensive, but I’m only going to use a couple cups once or twice a month at most.
But then I discovered the Italian ones! This is the thing, the basic meatball/meatloaf/burger mix I grew up with was 2 lb burger, 2 eggs, 2 cups Progresso Italian bread crumbs, 1/2 cup Parmesan.
They can be fancied up by adding diced bell pepper and onion or whatnot, meatballs can be cooked in broth (Italian wedding soup) or fried, but that’s the basic mix. Back then, no one sold frozen burger patties, so we even used this mix for burgers.
So I got some off of Amazon, as the ingredients were just: Pork Rinds (Cooked in Pork Fat), Salt, Spices, Parsley Flakes, Dehydrated Garlic.
My package of ground beef was 2 1/2 lbs, and I added a diced onion and 2 cups mozzarella to the basic recipe. But once everything was mixed up, it was too much to fit in a meatloaf pan.
It occurred to me that the cast iron skillet sitting on my stove that I’d just used to cook bacon was big enough to form an oversized loaf in and since the ground beef was pretty lean (90%), cooking it in bacon grease might be good.
Ohmigawd, this was totally awesome! The seasoning was perfect. The bacon grease infused it with a wonderful mix of bacon/beef flavor.
Next time, I think I’ll make meatballs and freeze raw so I can make a meal at a time in the air fryer.
HIGHLY recommend this panko (affiliate). I’ve got it on subscribe and save!