This is the recipe for the meatballs my great aunt Hazel makes with ketchup and brown sugar. The finest meatballs ever, hands down!
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 40 meatballs |
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 small onion, minced
- 2 pounds ground beef
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cracker crumbs
- 1 ½ cups ketchup
- ¼ cup prepared yellow mustard
- ½ cup distilled white vinegar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Beat eggs in a mixing bowl. Add onion, beef, milk, and salt; mix well. Sprinkle in cracker crumbs and mix until evenly combined. Form mixture into 40 meatballs and place into a 9×13-inch baking dish; set aside. Whisk ketchup, mustard, vinegar, and sugar in a bowl; pour over meatballs.
- Bake in the preheated oven until meatballs are no longer pink in the center, about 1 hour.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 417 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 45 g |
| Cholesterol | 119 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 24 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 980 mg |
| Sugars | 32 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Tastes like meatloaf
I loved it! It was interesting having meatballs with a sweet and savory sauce. I also like my baked beans sweet and the ingredients for the sauce are the same I use-for my baked beans. If you don’t think you will like sweet sauce I recommend cutting the brown sugar in half.
Made this exactly like the recipe says and my wife and 1.5 yr loved this so much I could barely keep it on their plates. We serviced this over a bed of rice and steamed broccoli
Aunt Hazel did a great job! They were AWESOME. Served them with white rice.
Made these for an elderly lady and she love them, soft enough for her to enjoy and not too spicy!
I thought it was fine but my husband and daughter (who normally lives ketchup which is why I made it) did not care for it – the sauce was too sweet.
My husband loves anything with gravy and he enjoyed this dish very much. a bit too sweet for me. I must have done something wrong but it all got eaten, lol.
This has become a favorite staple in my house. The kids love this meal. These taste like little meat loafs (but better). I use dried onion instead of fresh because we like the flavor but not the chunks. …I know it’s a little unorthodox, but my husband and l love these topped with a chili paste and soy sauce blend. Yum!!
Very Yummy! Used 3 1/2 pounds ground beef (80/20) and made about 35 meatballs. I cooked the meatballs about 30 min drained the fat then added the sauce (made a bit more sauce because I used more ground beef). Served overv
This is one of my husband’s favorites so I have made this several times! It’s always a hit at our house! Also, I have put the marinade on pre-made meatballs (homemade are better, but I was in a pinch!) and brought it to parties…I got many compliments!
This has been a family favorite for years. (sorry, it took me so long to write a review). As busy as our family is now, I now make the meatballs ahead and freeze. To prepare, we toss them in the crockpot in the morning. By the afternoon, (whomever is home) drains them and adds the sauce and lets it cook until everyone else is home.
My family loved this recipe! I didn’t have distilled white vinegar on hand so I substituted with lime juice. The kids asked during dinner for leftovers.
Made this for the first time tonight and the hubby loved it 😉 Thought it was a bit too sweet but I thought it was perfect!
I made this and my husband LOVED it and said I need to make it once a week. I may try using half the amount of brown sugar for health reasons, but it’s delicious just the way it is!
Delicious!!!! 🙂 it is just so satisfying and good, my husband loved them!
I made the meatballs half sausage and ground beef. When i read the recipe I too thought maybe too much ketchup for my tastes but a great easy base to adjust. I halved the ketchup and mustard, added 2-5 hard shakes(tsp) of worcester sauce (to make it more sweet and sour tasting) and minced garlic to taste. I kept the rest the same. I brushed the sauce on instead, during the last 20 minutes so it would caramelize a little each time. Thank you so much for sharing! A new taste on a traditional dish to change up the monotony of the work week meals!
I only made the meatballs, so my rating is based on the meatballs. The only change I made was to the meat by substituting with 1/2 of Italian bulk sausage and 1/2 ground beef. Based on other reviews I also used plain breadcrumbs and baked in the oven. Added meatballs to my own spaghetti sauce. Excellent and the flavor did not compete with my sauce. I will be using this recipe in the future. Thanks for posting!!fUPDATED REVIEW: I made this receipe again today including the sauce. Followed to a tee except, after 45 minutes in the oven I drained the grease from the meatballs on paper towels and made the sauce in a separate pot on my cooktop. I did add 1 tbls. Worcestershire to the sauce. After draining the meatballs I put them in my 3 qt cast iron Dutch oven and poured the sauce over the meatballs and simmered on the cooktop. It was really tasty and tangy. Next time I will cut back on both the ketchup and the white vinegar to better suit my taste. I served with a simple rice pilaf with fresh green beans. Cannot wait to see how these taste as leftovers for lunch tomorrow!!! Really tangy kinda like sweet/sour meat balls. Something different!!! My husband really liked them
Added some fresh parsley. Grated the onion, and added worchestershire sauce.
I really like these, but think it would be best with mashed potatoes. Going to try that next time!
These were easy and tasty. My 16 yr old had a meatball sandwich, I had them over rice and my husband ate them solo. Everyone wanted seconds so that tells me they loved them. Loved the sweet and sour tang!
Simple yet totally delicious. The sauce made too much, we preferred to just drizzle it over the meatballs. Highly recommend!