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A 200-pound meatball in Concord? Maybe.
Nonni’s makes Guinness Record attempt
By Linda A. Thompson-Odum food@hippopress.com
On Sunday, Nov. 1, Nonni’s Italian Eatery in Concord will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest meatball. The current record is 198.6 pounds. Nonni’s owner-chef Mathew Mitnitsky is up to the challenge.
“You know me. I take something small and see what I can do to make it bigger,” Mitnitsky said. “This all started when we were reviewing sales from our three restaurant locations. Our meatballs came out on top at every location. So I thought, let’s create a family event around the meatball.”
When Mitnitsky first decided to try for the record, the record was just 109 pounds, set by the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Cancun, Mexico. Just after he created his first test meatball (130 pounds), he learned that the Jimmy Kimmel Live show planned to bring the record back to the United States — which it did in September. So Mitnitsky upped the ante. He plans to start with 270 to 280 pounds of meat, provided by the Meat House, which should bring the finished meatball in at about 230 pounds.
How do you cook such a large meatball? Mitnitsky plans to keep the details a secret until after the record is obtained, but he said, “Everyone else that does this makes the meatball in two halves and then puts the two together. Ours will be cooked as one meatball. It takes three days to cook. And it’s a Nonni’s meatball — totally edible.”
The record attempt is not the only meatball event scheduled for the day. There will also be a Meatball Challenge to see who can consume the most in 15 minutes. Or if you like things spicy, try the Mama Mia Spicy Meatball Challenge. Contestants will be given five meatballs, each one spicier than the previous one. Work your way through them all and you win. Prizes will be given for each contest.
Families can also guess the final weight of the world-record meatball to win a Nonni’s family meatball dinner for four once a month for a year. Entries will be accepted at the event or online at www.goodeatsnh.com. And kids can participate in the meatball ladle run, where teams of two will run meatballs across the room and place them into a pot of sauce.
Admission is free. The fun begins at noon with music plus dance and karate demonstrations. T-shirts will be given to the first 100 attendees. The kids’ ladle run will take place throughout the afternoon, and the eating competitions begin at 1:30 p.m. There will also be popcorn and cotton candy to munch.
The main event will happen at 2 p.m., when Mitnitsky and his team will roll out the world’s largest meatball for the official weigh-in, cheered on by a squad of 25 local cheerleaders. Guinness World Records will have a person at the event to authenticate the attempt. The rules are very exact: The meatball must be completely edible and contain classic meatball ingredients. The recipe itself has to contain both pounds and metric measurements, with the final weigh-in performed by state-approved weights and measures personnel to ensure accuracy. Once the record is official, the meatball will be donated to the Friendly Kitchen in Concord to feed the hungry.
Mitnitsky posted a blog to the Jimmy Kimmel folks: “We told them they might have brought the record back to the U.S., but we were going to bring it back to the East Coast where it belongs.”
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