Help! why do my meat balls and fish cakes always collapse when i cook them? I have just begun to fry some pork balls and they are going all squidgy.Any suggestions would be greatly received.

i dont know what ingredients that u r suing in your recipes , but it does sound to me as if there may be too much liquid in there..most fish cake recipes ask for mash, but with out the milk/cream, just cooked seasoned potato that is broken down with a fork mayb. as for the meatballs / pork balls, what i would suggest is what i do do is, put the meat through a food processor till it is churned up a bit more, then season with whatever flavours u wish and bring together. i never use egg or breadcrumbs to bind, personally and they alweays seem to hold together. as i said meat blended a little more, season. then i blend all the other things, ie: onion, herbs , spices etc together till paste like and add this to the meat, form into shape and should hold together... works for me...

Thank you snoozy, yes i do add milk to the mash and bread and an egg to meatballs so this would appear to be the problem.

Hi Pam,

A quick tip is to boil the potatoes whole in thier skin, this keeps the potatoes from taking on to much water. Also once you've mashed the potatoes add 1/2 tsp of corn flour for every 2 medium potatoes, this will give the cakes a nice crispy texture.

I do use an egg when making meatballs, but I also chill them for at least an hour before cooking. Like snoozy I use a food processor if the mince is not very fine.

Reshma