Any brands out there that stand out on taste and value?
Fontanini makes a good meatball if i remember. if i recall, its a 10lb box and sold for around 20 bucks. who knows what the cost is today.
I find that making them homemade, they taste alot better. With the ingredients and chopmeat, it costs me about $22 to get around 60 meatballs.
Hope this helps.
I use a GFS Italian meatball that is good.
Make your own, & let everyone know that you’re doing it - it will actually cost you more than buying premade, but I tried a bunch at the Pizza Expo & I could tell that they had to be about 1/2 breadcrumbs & 1/2 meat. I’d rather charge a little more & keep the quality as high as possible.
NY,I don’t know what your putting in your balls that cost more than frozen but that sounds like your getting robbed! 20 llbs ground meat only cost 32-38.00 plus some fresh garlic,grted.chses and eggs.This will give you about 250 -300 meatballs.
NiccademoI get some good meatballs from USFoods for $23 for 10 pounds cooked weight. The ones I make are superior in flavor, but these are really well liked by customers. Figuring raw ingredients, labor, and fat cook-off, these are cheaper, figuring $35 for meat +garlic+cheese+dairy+egg+breadcrumb+herbs (not counting labor to make, bake, cool and package
I will spend the extra few bucks making my own in the future, but since I can order in half ounce, ounce and 2 ounce sizes, I am very happy with these Roseli brand meatballs.
Actually, that’s in line with what I’m spending for 80/20 ground beef - but factor in the shrinkage during cooking & it puts you over $2/ pound before adding spices and factoring in labor. We make a 3 oz meatball (approx cooked weight) - guess I just like to be told that my balls are really big 
Of course, that last little pun will probably cause another blocked word on the forum … LOL
we use the fontanini meatball. one ounce precooked and it comes in a 10 pound bag for 26.95. we fry them in our fryer and people love them
15thStreetPizzaandPub, do you fry them from frozen or are you thawing them out? And why are you frying? Doesn’t it give the fryer oil a different flavor?
My experience is that frying your balls when they are frozen leads to cold centers and overcooked edges, especially the 1-ounce size.
At our shop, we thaw in cooler and keep a stash of our 1/2 ounce meatballs thawed for pasta, pizza topping and sandwiches. We heat in a microwave at 70% for 4 minutes. If frozen, we thaw at 40% for 3 min and extra 30 stints until thawed.
Fried, we can do the 1/2 ounce okay, but sauteed in a skillet with the onion/pepper/mushroom gives the sandwich deep flavor . . . microwaved correctly, they are great as well.
we defost a certain par per day so we always have defrosted meatballs. we are frying for the ease. We are tight on space and 2:45 in the fryer makes it real easy and quick. As for the oil tasting different…I never had a complaint. We filter every other night and change the oil every Saturday. Been working for 4 years here!