What Lion's Head Meatballs Are Actually Made Of

It seems like most countries around the world have a meatball dish in their cuisine. It makes sense — meatballs are a versatile food item that can stand alone or elevate an existing dish. As Serious Eats notes, Middle Eastern cultures have kufta, while Polish people enjoy a steamed veal meatball known as pulpety. Residents of the Netherlands eat Bitterballen, a beef meatball coated in breadcrumbs and then deep-fried. There's also the Italian-American meatball, simmered in tomato sauce, the beloved Swedish meatballs, and Italy's classic roasted polpette. While Chinese cuisine differs from region to region, each area has a meatball. The lion's head meatball is arguably the most famous. 

According to The Woks of Life, Lion's head meatballs originated in the Jiangsu Province. The pillowy meatballs are often steamed, braised, or simmered in soup, adding textural interest to special dishes. Also called shīzitóu, the meatballs can be served year-round, but they most often appear during special celebration meals. More often than not, when Lion's head meatballs are made, Napa cabbage is cooked to go along with it. But what, exactly, are these Chinese meatballs made of? We have the answer.

Lion's head meatballs might have an interesting shape, but their ingredient list is pretty basic and easily sourced. The meatballs consist of ground meat, a few vegetables, and plenty of spices to ensure the savory sphere is packed with flavor. Per The Woks of Life, traditional lion's head meatballs are made with ground pork. They contain ginger, scallions, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, mushrooms, water chestnuts, and various spices.

The Woks of Life advises cooks to ensure the ground pork they use for lion's head meatballs is especially fatty. The publication suggests using meat that has a fat content of at least 30% fat, noting that some traditional methods use as much as 50% fat. While you can purchase ground pork with a high fat content at most Asian grocers, sausage-grade ground pork from most American grocery stores will work, too. According to Bon Appetit, sausage-grade pork contains between 25 and 30% fat.

Unlike ground beef or turkey labels, which often list fat content on the front of the package, ground pork packages don't list fat content as prominently. That's because there is less differentiation from package to package. Most ground pork products contain about 15% fat, per Bon Appetit. If you're making Lion's head meatballs, you can always ask the store's butcher for high-fat content ground pork if you have difficulty finding it or if you are unsure of the fat content in the ground pork package you've selected.