Welcome to Kitchen Queries, where the nigella.com team will answer your cooking or food related questions.  We’d love you to submit some of your recipe problems, dilemmas or queries for us to get our teeth into!

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• Pork Instead of Turkey in Meatballs

  The Turkey Meatball recipe in the Kitchen book says that you can freeze the leftovers. Can you do this if you use pork instead of turkey? (I've always thought you have to be careful about re-heating pork?). Thanks.

  Posted by Vics. Answered on 16th Apr 2011 at 12.00

  From the nigella team:

  You can use minced or ground pork instead of turkey in the meatballs. As pork is a lean meat it doesn't always reheat very well as it can become dry, however minced pork will contain some fat and as the meatballs are simmered in the tomato sauce and reheated in this sauce they should not dry out as much as a simple cut of pork.

  For freezing and reheating pork meatballs we would suggest that you follow the same guidelines as for freezing and reheating all stews and meatballs. Cool and refrigerate the dish as quickly as possible (within 2 hours of cooking) and when completely cold pack portions into resealable containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost the meatballs overnight in the refrigerator and reheat gently until the sauce and meatballs are piping hot all the way through.

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