500g minced beef, not the really lean stuff (that’s the equivalent to ground beef. You can use half beef half pork)
300g breadcrumbs (Soft white. I buy these ready made as I can never break them up small enough)
salt, pepper, parmesan cheese, milk, hot water

*Lay the meet out flat in a dish that you can mix in and add salt and pepper,
*pour about a quater of the breadcrumbs over the beef, add a good splash of milk and mix gently. Keep on doing this – the final time, add a splash of hot water and a good thick layer of grated parmesan
*Make into balls – I make about 20 and freeze half to eat in a week or so.

Then I don’t fry them, I just pop them into the sauce, which I have ready in a large pan and I simmer really gently for about an hour, stirring very gently occassionally. Really soft, delicious meatballs. With lashings of sauce too and I usually put in fresh chilli for a kick. Delicious!

I used:

About 1 lb or 450g of beef mince – good quality, mince, not the horrible fatty kind.
one WHOLE egg
oregano
garlic
about 1/2 small onion finely chopped
salt+pepper
About 50-100g of finely grated Jarlsberg cheese. (Im in Norway atm, but I would think a medium cheddar would do)

And finally, I used crushed up crackers (about 5-10 whizzed up in blender/food processor) instead of bread.

I squeezed them quite hard from hard to hand to form the balls, about the size of walnuts. I would think if you made them too big they would fall apart more easily. Also if the onion or cheese is too coarsely grated I imagine that would also cause them to break up.

Few more tips: why not make your mixture, make one meatball and try frying that to see if it falls apart before you make the rest. Add more crushed crackers/bread if the mixture is too moist add a little more egg if too dry.

Hope this helps.

(I had some left over, delicious cold too! Polished them off just now!)