Recipe: Porcupines (Meat Balls with Rice)

Porcupines!

I tinkered with Dorothy Crum’s very plain recipe in the Phi Beta Phi cookbook by adding the ingredients marked with a *. Makes six porcupines.

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
½ c uncooked rice
½ chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped*
1/2 t ground cumin*
1/2 t dried oregano*
1/2 t Kosher salt*
1/4 t ground black pepper*
1 14-oz can condensed tomato soup

Method: Reconstitute the soup by mixing it with a can of water and bring to a simmer. Mix all the other ingredients and shape into six meatballs. Placed in a buttered 8″ square baking dish and pour the tomato soup over the top. Bake 2 hours in a 350 degree oven, turning the porcupines every half hour so all sides get equal time in the liquid. Serve porcupines with their sauce, which will have cooked down considerably.

• my additions. The original recipe did not call for salt, possibly because canned soup had a much higher salt content in Mrs. Crum’s time.