How many meatballs do you serve per person?

[Tessellation]

DC think they should have 6 meatballs per person. I think 3 is sufficient. DH says the number is 5.

I usually try to make mine but when I buy them they come in packs of 12 - what does that mean? 12 for a family of 4?

How many do you serve?

But the ones we often get come in 16’s, then it’s 8 each for adults and 4 for DD and a spare portion for her. They are slightly smaller but the portion is better.

Magic... or a 24 pack?

We could easily eat six but I don’t really think anyone needs to eat more than 3 or 4 unless they do a lot of physical exercise

I usually have three with pasta

i have 4 meatballs but i guess it depends on the size i think 4 is enough and maybe 6 for a man

My DS has 12 meatballs when he has them.

Depends entirely on the size. My homemade ones are huge and not just meat so 2 is sufficient for me, 3 for DP and 1 each for the kids. IKEA ones then like 10

How many meatballs can you actually make out of a chicken 🤔

Tesco do a 20 pack of slightly smaller meatballs. I tend to buy these, 6 for DH, 5 for me, 3 each for the kids (DS3, DD6). The spare get saved for lunch the next day.

6 (roughly ping pong ball size) from 12+.

Toddler, 1 or 2. In between, what they wanted, 3 or 4.

I make my own which are about ping pong ball sized.

Minced beef.
Sausage meat.
Breadcrumbs.
Parmesan.
Egg.
Dried red chili flakes.
Fresh parsley.
Salt and pepper.

Delicious.

I have two, and DH would easily demolish 5 or 6.

To be fair, I do have a big appetite but prefer a smaller amount of meat and then lots of cheese on top, if having with pasta.

I typically serve them either in a tomato and mushroom sauce with pasta and cheese; or with pepper sauce, mashed potato, and broccoli.

@Tessellation

16 meatballs?!??!?!?! And no meat sweats???

Yes have teens. I bulk out with veggies yes.

So I'm not mean, I do give them more than 3, especially when I make them, but yes my default portion would be 3. And then I noticed that the shop bought ones usually come in packs of 12 and wondered whether that meant the norm was 3? It feels excessive to buy two packs for a family of 4, but reading the responses maybe not so much?

Those packs tend to be 300 grams. 150 grams of meat per person seems fine. 300 grams split among 4 people seems tight as fuck and mean.

I make my own and it is a Jamie Oliver recipe from years ago but I use 450g mince, an egg, 100g breadcrumbs, mustard, rosemary and oregano. I believe they work out at around 20g each and it makes 36 ish.

I think it depends on how old the children are and their appetite. My sons are 18 and 15 plus Dh and I so we just have 8 each with pasta and a hidden veg sauce that I always batch make and freeze.

Jamie says 400g of penne, we have slightly less and he makes giant meatballs whereas because I have made these since the children were little and I oven cook them.

If I buy meatballs ( in pack of 12 ) I half them all… make them that size if I make from
Scratch so my dd (10) gets 5 (so about 2.5 meatballs as brought) I have 6 and my bf has 10.

Umm…we get the Iceland Swedish ones in the large pack…and cook the lot, between 2 adults, 2 teens and a younger child. In fairness there’s often 10 ish leftover but I don’t scrimp on meatballs.

If someone served me up less than 6 I’d assume they were taking the Micky

16 year old twins 6 each. I'd have 3

I get the packs of 24 from Asda and serve myself either 4 as a portion with mash and veg, or 6 with spaghetti and tomato sauce.
I don't do ludicrous "bulking out", meals.
I eat many naturally cheap meals anyway, bulking this and that just means that the nicer things aren't as nice, I don't include the meatballs in a "nicer", meal either btw, just a standard meal, but doesn't need bulking with anything.

They are actually quite dense though, aren't they?
So, although 3 looks a bit miserly, once you start eating, that's actually a reasonable size portion of meat.

For us, it depends how many of us are eating that night if we have a pack of 12, we'll tend to eat them between us. As it happens, tonight we had 3 each, another night it will be 4. Then sometimes there'll be mushrooms in the pasta and sometimes not Sometimes there'll be garlic bread alongside. Sometimes there might be a pudding or crumble to fill people up afterwards and sometimes it is just the main course. Sometimes we'll have had a bigger lunch or might be eating early on another day.
So many variants - it really doesn't matter if someone else distributes their meatballs differently from you.

Five here. Mine are veggie.

@ShirleyPhallus

My god the greed on this thread!! 2 for an adult and 1 for a child is absolutely sufficient, especially when served with 8-10 grams of pasta and a massive salad

No wonder there is an obesity crisis

You must have very large meatballs

About 4 each maybe 5. Dh probably has 6. I'm confused by 12 pack too! My 7 year old would eat 3 but it isn't enough for adult portion.

Can anyone recommend a veggie meatball? We used to like the Quorn swedish ones but they don't make them anymore.

Can anyone recommend a veggie meatball? We used to like the Quorn swedish ones but they don't make them anymore.

I have some of those in my freezer bought from Asda the other day! Sainsburys frozen plant pioneers ones are nice.

I usually have two, DS11 two, DH and DS13 have more. We cook 12 and they get finished up.

@Whadda - what are your measurements for your recipe?

@SpoonWhereArtThou - just a teaspoon of mustard, oregano and rosemary?

Thanks.

Just one for me.

I'm confused by 12 pack too!

It's 3, or two large, servings. Not everything sold is supposed to feed four. What's confusing about that?