Daily Kitchen Note
Home meatballs and meatloaf often turn out dry and crumbly instead of tender and moist. Mixing a simple panade of milk-soaked bread into the ground meat helps retain moisture and prevents a dense texture.
How to Mix a bread-and-milk panade
- Use the bread and milk amounts specified by a tested meatball or meatloaf recipe.
- Let the crumbs absorb the milk, then mash them into a soft paste.
- Gently fold the panade into the ground meat without overmixing.
- Shape and cook, verifying the applicable safe internal temperature.
Why it works
The bread starches absorb the liquid to form a gel that coats the meat proteins, limiting how tightly they can bind together and preventing moisture loss during cooking.
Source
America's Test Kitchen: Making Panade with Dry Panko Bread Crumbs
