At first I assumed it was an italian dish. But a show on The Food Network mentioned that meatballs are an american addition to spaghetti (first done by Chef Boyardi… I hope I got that spelling right). Now I read on wikipedia that the oldest meatball-like recipe was found in an ancient Roman cookbook. Now I'm a bit confused. Where in the heck did meatballs come from?

I'm still pretty sure that spaghetti with meatballs are an American dish… There's an article that claims that the dish originated from Italy, but I find that in dispute because that same cookbook had American style recipes added to it when it was translated for sale in America.

Great…. now I've got the urge to go out and buy some pasta, ground beef, spaghetti sauce and other stuff so I can make it myself.

And I bet someone's gonna insert some male gonad jokes in this thread…

My undies. ;)

———–

I dunno. I've heard of “Swedish meatballs”. And then there's Rissoles.

Lonnehart
And I bet someone's gonna insert some male gonad jokes in this thread…

Well, I was going to. But then you had to go and be all metacognitive about your query, which takes all of the fun out of it.

My underwear.

humorman
My underwear.

That's not as good, coming from you.

What if I'd say the joke? Would it be funny again?

My briefs.

There! I said it. Are we done beating the dead horse or should we pummel it some more?

According to professor Wikipedia, the oldest Meatball recipes exist in Roman cook books. Regardless if it's true or not, I bet it's been around for longer then that. The idea of grinding up meat and mixing it with stuff doesn't sounds such a wild idea. It probably got invented lots of times, independently, all over the world, like the glasses and the bow and arrow.

I have no evidence to support it, but I'd like to bet faggots date back to pre-history:

Product Placement
According to professor Wikipedia, the oldest Meatball recipes exist in Roman cook books. Regardless if it's true or not, I bet it's been around for longer then that. The idea of grinding up meat and mixing it with stuff doesn't sounds such a wild idea. It probably got invented lots of times, independently, all over the world, like the glasses and the bow and arrow.

I read that same article. I wonder how they ground their beef back then? I mean… I've got a hand crank meat grinder in storage right now ('til I need it again) that I couldn't do the job without…

Y'know? It's nice to know that Chef Boyardee (Ettore “Hector” Boiardi) was a real person just as Colonel Sanders was, and not as fictional as Betty Crocker or Aunt Jemima. :)

Youtube Video: Chef Boy-Ar-Dee commercial - 1953

I think meatballs originated in the stoneage, some caveman didn't know how to fit his steak into his mouth and just started smashing it. after several hours of bashing the steak was spread across the room in little pieces. the wife of said caveman gathered all the fragments and tried putting it back together, inventing the favorite dish of what would soon be known as america.

that or it originated from the Netherlands because we are briljant.

And while we are beating dead horses;

Mijn onderbroek

Tough meat!

The meatballs are coming from inside the house!

It kind of makes sense that meatballs were an American addition to spaghetti. We have a lot of cows and stuff here in America :). If I recall, I think my mother had an authentic mediterranean cook book and their pasta recipes called for seafood like oysters and clams. None of the recipes had meatballs or tomatoes in them o_o. So idk :s.

Yeah. Meatballs are pretty universal, but having them of spaghetti isn't. That probably is American.

According to recent research. This documentary (which i was well informed was 100% accurate) showed them coming from the sky.

same
According to recent research. This documentary (which i was well informed was 100% accurate) showed them coming from the sky.

Believe in science!

Red Slayer

same
According to recent research. This documentary (which i was well informed was 100% accurate) showed them coming from the sky.

Believe in science!

The nintoaster is the main reason.

From meat.

That's where they come from.

humorman
My underwear.

You sir do not deserve your username.

ozoneocean
Yeah. Meatballs are pretty universal, but having them of spaghetti isn't. That probably is American.

The wiki article credits Chef Boyardee for that…

I do miss those the spaghetti that I had back then from that guy. Not the canned stuff… eww… I actually did have some of that stuff you had to prepare from the box in the earlier video link that I posed. That was good stuff. :)

waitaminute…. I sense deja vu…

Meatballs come from Meat…usually beef
before meatballs I think people used to mix beef into the tomato sauce and call it “meat sauce” (that's what my dad does) but then they discovered meat can be molded into ball form to create meat shaped like a sphere end presto! there came the ever great meatball

i don't know really that's just my guess

It seems to me that shaping a mound of hamburger into little spheres is something that you can't credit to one solitary individual. Hell, you probably can't even give it to an entire culture or society.

Meatballs entered the collective consciousness of the human race en masse. It bubbled up in the force of a zeitgeist.

…

Undies.

Meatballs aren't an American invention, nor are they foreign to Italy. I think you misunderstood Alton Brown (assuming you heard it on “Good Eats”) in which I'm pretty sure I remember hearing him say that while Italy has Spaghetti and they also have meatballs, they don't combine the two, as adding meatballs to spaghetti was popularized in the states.

hmm… Well we Italians stole the idea of pasta from the asians….
I can see us stealing meatballs from somewhere too.

Jobo
hmm… Well we Italians stole the idea of pasta from the asians….
I can see us stealing meatballs from somewhere too.

MARCO!

Randal
MARCO!

Polo?

Jobo
hmm… Well we Italians stole the idea of pasta from the asians….
I can see us stealing meatballs from somewhere too.

Poor Farinelli :(

Still, voice of an angel, they say.

On top of Spaghetti….!!!!!

All covered with cheese…..

I lost my poor meeeaaattballlll….

When somebody sneeezed. D':

The people in the stoneage were such badasses that when they wanted food they would just walk outside, wrestle a cow down the ground with their bare hands and beat it to a bloody pulp. When that was accomplished they would bend the laws of reality with a mere thought and cause the ground up beef to collapse into globular formations via miniature quantum singularities. The balls of meat would then heat up from the radiation bleed and cook themselves!

dere ya go.

Jobo



On top of Spaghetti….!!!!!

All covered with cheese…..

I lost my poor meeeaaattballlll….

When somebody sneeezed. D':

Dude, stop, that song use to make me cry. Poor meatball…

Too late, I'm already getting misty…

Old song… now how did it go again?

“On top of spaghetti
all covered with cheese.
I lost my poor meatball
when somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table
and onto the floor.
Before I could catch it…
it rolled out the door.

And then it did something
that's truly bizarre…
It went to my garage
and blew up my car…”

sorry… bad memory neurons in my braenz…

did someone say “balls”?

I can believe its origin being American.
Nothing says healthy more than wads of meat!