Albóndigas de ternera o de otra carne

(Meatballs of veal or other meat)
by
Martino da Como
recipe no. 18 from the “Libro de Arte Culinaria” ca. 1450-60

Note: Instructions in normal letters are pretty clear in the original. My interpretations are in italics.

Ingredients:

clean meat of veal or other kind, from the thigh, minced
salt
fennel, crushed
parsley, finely chopped
marjoram, finely chopped
bacon
“good spices” (black pepper?)

To make it:

Mix all the ingredients well minced and shape the meatballs.
Cook them in a pot without letting them dry-up too much with the fire. As cooking meatballs is a rather unusual thing, and because Martino specifies that we should not allow them to dry-up “too much”, I suppose (in today’s terms) that they must be fried or roasted. Any opinions for or against?

My experiences

In November 99 I prepared some of these meatballs for a few friends. I never told them that it was an old recipe and they did not seem overly surprised. In fact, the meatballs were a great success, even though in retrospect I would have preferred to add more herbs. I used the following amounts for 4 people, accompanied by other dishes:

860 g (1.9 pounds) nice minced lean beef
½ flat teaspoon of fennel, crushed
some flat-leaved parsley (approximately a handful, of the tasty variety), chopped finely
some marjoram – my plants were still small so I had to use dried leaves in part – the fresh one smelled much nicer. Substitute for oregano if you have none.
1 spoonful of lard, melted

I mixed all in a bowl. I made balls of about the size of a walnut with the mix and fried them in olive oil, with the level of oil around half the height of the balls. ¡They were really nice! And a good addition to a menu (so that not everything is completely new and different to modern tastes).

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