Mind Reader Magic Meatball Maker, Makes Perfect Same Size Round and Even Meat Balls, 9" x 9", Clear

It was hard to find videos on this and even Googling, there wasn't much on this particular meatball maker. And I don't know why that is. But this tool is a game changer for me in making meatballs. I absolutely HATE shaping the meat into meatballs, though I can. I really cannot understand why someone would give this anything less than a 5 star. So very glad I found this tool and I can't remember where I saw this and glad Amazon sells this. Walmart did sell this, but by the time I wanted to by it, they were out-of-stock. ebay has it for a lot more.Anyway, the surface that you use does make a difference when making the meatballs as well as the texture of your meat. So here's what I've learned, but I've only had this Magic Meatball Maker for a few days.1. Meat must be in the consistency where you can actually roll it into a meatball by hand. Just in case this doesn't make sense to you, If it's too wet and you cannot reasonably roll the meat into a meatball by hand, then you won't be able to use this Magic Meatball Maker to make your meatballs. Why? Because it will be too sticky and the meat won't release from the meatball maker. Imagine trying to roll sticky taffy. You can't. So you have to make your meat less sticky or wet.2. If your meat is too loose (not sticky or wet enough), you won't be able to form the meatball with the Magic Meatball Maker. So if you're having trouble rolling the meat into a ball because it's not wet enough, then you won't be able to make meatballs with the Meatball Maker.3. Meat must be in the consistency to roll by hand easily - not too wet, not too dry. See #1 or #2.4. The surface which you need to put your meat on should NOT be abrasive, but smooth, preferably the countertop or a big cutting board that has a very smooth surface. Some cutting boards are a little abrasive. These will not work as your meat will stick to the surface making making the meatballs very difficult. A very smooth, clean countertop works best, as when you move the Magic Meatball Maker, the surface will not move. If you're using a smooth cutting board (like I did the first time), you will need one hand to keep the cutting board in place and the other hand to create small circular motions with the Magic Meatball Maker. Do not place the meat sheet you will create on plastic wrap, wax paper or parchment paper or aluminum foil or such as all these things WILL TEAR when you're moving the Magic Meatball Maker to form the meatballs. And if you want even easier release, apply a very light coating of oil on your surface before placed the meat on it. This will help you not need to use as much force in forming the meatballs when you do so.5. It would've been nice if this tool came with some instructions, but I'm not going to knock any stars off for this because I absolutely LOVE this tool and I'm writing these instructions here. Making meatballs now will be so easy.6. If you want bigger meatballs, make the sheet THICKER. If you want smaller meatballs, make the sheet THINNER.7. You can use a rolling pin to flatten the meat, but you can also do this by hand or with another rectangular flat surface. But note that if the sheet of meat is uneven in thickness, you will get varying sized meatballs. I did mine by hand and the first time I used it, I had quite a few different sized meatballs even though originally it looked like the sheet of meat was even.8. In order to not have wasted meat mixture, try to make sure all the meat is contained within the squares. If you have excess, you can put them into the squares that might not have enough meat (just remove the Meatball Maker and flatten the meat for that square, and then replace exactly back over the meat - you'll see the lines).9. You do not need to make 16 meatballs at a time, but this is the max meatballs you CAN make at one time with the Meatball Maker.10. I tried making protein balls with this Magic Meatball Maker, and with the recipes I had for the 2 different types, the dough of one was too wet and sticky and the dough of the other was too sticky that it just stayed as flat squares (dried fruit). Much more force would've been needed that I was not going to do. I ended up pressing the doughs of both into silicon molds and refrigerating instead.11. There might be some doughs that you can use the Magic Meatball Maker with to form balls, but I haven't found the right recipe that I could do this with, but you probably could with some dough times. I just don't know what types yet. Will update my review when I figure this out.12. Lastly, if you follow all my suggestions on the consistency of your meat, it took me less than a minute to make the meatballs with the Magic Meatball Maker. You want to hold the Meatball Maker down with kind of like a pressing bear claw force and make small pressing down circular motions in one direction. What is happening is the meat dislodges and hits the different sides of the squares (sort of like a slow-motion centrifugal force). When you do this repeatedly, pressing down circular motions in one direction, a ball is eventually formed.I hope this has been helpful for anyone buying this tool.Update: 6/16/2021Today I made 139 meatballs with the Magic Meatball Maker and it was quite easy. Cleanup was longer than it took to make the meatballs. What I did different this time was rolling out the meat sheet. I used an adjustable thickness rings rolling pin. This allowed me to make the sheet one exact thickness instead of pressing it by hand. I bought a metal rolling pin and this worked out well. It helps to lightly spray the pin with oil, but I had made nearly 9 batches so I only sprayed it with the first batch.While rolling out the meat to be one uniform thickness, this really makes rolling the meatballs really easy. I didn't even grease my countertop. And, I probably only did 5-8 circle motions with the Magic Meatball Maker before they were formed into meatballs and this did not take a lot of force. In the past, I would hand press the meat onto the countertop to form the sheet. The rolling pin made a huge difference. I bought a metal Rolling Pin with Adjustable Thickness Rings. This turned out much better than my wooden rolling pins.I still LOVE this magic meatball maker!!!

I tried this meatball maker twice. It doesn't work at all. Maybe my meatballs aren't greasy enough to roll around ? I just end up with a square . Yes I did watch the video and it didn't help. I think it's a complete waste of money.

Received my meatball maker today and I'm excited to try it. Sadly, the unit has a crack in the plastic outer wall. I'm hoping it doesn't affect function or life of the product. Since the packaging (while minimal) did not appear to be damaged, I can only assume that the crack was created before shipping.

This product does exactly what it says it will do! Very happy I purchased.

Didn’t work! Ended up making 65 meatballs without it and having to wash raw meat contamination off from my counter, my rolling pin, and this piece of junk.

This thing is amazing to make homemade meatballs!!

Total waste of money. Don't waste your time or money on this. All it did was cut the meat into squares and make a messy counter.

This works. I didn’t expect it to, but truly, it works! And there is no other tool that makes 16 ROUND meatballs at a time. Have fun!

not really working