Swedish Meatballs

[Sharyn J]

Does anyone have an authentic recipe for Swedish Meatballs? Mom used to make them from a recipe used by her Swedish auntie, and I don't have her instructions.

I found a lot of recipes on the internet, but I know that my mom never used canned or packaged soups. I remember that she used a little nutmeg or maybe it was allspice and I think she added heavy cream or sour cream to the gravy. She used part ground chuck and part ground pork.

The internet seems to be full of "I wanna be chefs" with all kinds of weird combinations. I just wanna make meatballs like mom made! Please share if you have a recipe!

[Iris Girl]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

I don't have an authentic recipe but I do make a nice swedish meatball recipe. I make very plain meatballs and bake them first. For the sauce I cheat and use cream of chicken soup mixed with 1/2 can water. Heat that up and add some nutmeg. when its all toasty warm I add the already cooked meatballs and a container of sour cream along with the cooked egg noodles. Mix it all together and that is my recipe.

[Carlie Wolf]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

Interesting. After years I just made swedish meatballs last night. Did enough so I could freeze some for later meals. I had it with wide egg noodles. It came from one of the old McCalls Cooking school binders from back in 84'. I thought it turned out pretty good. I did not use varied ground meats but used my new ground lamb instead.

Ingredients.

Meatballs -
1/2 C fresh white bread crumbs
3/4 C milk
Soak for about 5 minutes
1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 lb ground veal
1/4 lb ground pork
1 egg slightly beaten
3T chopped fine onion
1 1/2 t salt
1/4 t white pepper
1/4 t ground allspice

Blend the above together. Make into loaf that's flattened to about an inch, cut into 30 equal pieces and make into meatballs.

Brown meatballs in butter in two batches. Take out and set aside.

Sauce:
2T flour
1 beef bouillon cube
1/4 C boiling water
1/2 C half and half
1/2 C milk

Blend flour with pan drippings, stir till smooth. Add bouillon cube and water, stirring and scrapping up dripping scraps. This is on medium heat, when smooth add cream and milk, bring to simmer stirring contantly, cook 3 minutes. Add meatballs, turning to cover. Remove from heat, garnish with dill. Serves 4 to 6

[jjkaiser]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

I don't have a recipe but I thought Swedish Meatballs always had sour cream in the gravy and mushrooms in the meatballs. In fact I think my mom used to make it with cream of mushroom soup. I don't make it bc I don't like sour cream or mushrooms, but i would try your recipe! I see it doesn't have either one.

[Sharyn J]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

April, thank you. I often use cream of chic soup plus some water for sauces. Mom always served her meatballs over egg noodles, or sometimes, we beat her to the pot and gobbled them all down like appetizers! You know, like fried bacon: by the time you get to the skillet, it's mostly gone!

Carlie: I think your recipe most resembles moms. In those days, she used milk or cream in her coffee, so she probably used that in her sauce as well.

[Carolnnc]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

I have my grannie's 1941 "Joy of Cooking" and it has the recipe she used which is really close to Carlie Wolfs. The spices are a little different: 3 TB. parsley, 1 1/4 tea. salt, 1/4 tea. paprika, 1/2 tea. grated lemon rind, 1 tea. lemon juice, 1 tea. Worcestershire Sauce, grating of nutmeg. I loved when she made these because she would let me grate the lemon rind. I don't think I've had meatballs as good as hers!

[Swedish leo]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

Hi

I believe that Carlies recipe is very good.
I only want to add that I usually fry my onion first before I put it in the meat mixture.

Hm.. now I got hungry.

[kensington]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

I would make the basic "veal, beef, pork" meatballs... I bake till almost done. While baking, make a basic white sauce... butter, flour, milk, to a med consistency, add a dash of dried mustard, a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch of allspice... add meatballs back into sauce and let simmer very low, (not to thicken sauce) to let sauce soak in meatballs for a few minutes... then just before serving, stir in 1 heaping Tablespoon of sour cream.

Serve with noodles, rice or (we like them) on mashed potatoes. Yum! This is how my Godmother made them. She was Swedish. She taught me her "Swedish Pancakes" too. My kids and grandkids love the "Thin pancakes".. rolled up with butter and powdered sugar.

[Carlie Wolf]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

Once in a while I'll see pork ground meat but it's been years since I've seen veal ground at the market. Actually I never see any veal at the markets. I use to love veal in all forms and raised my own each year. I miss the good ole days!

[Sharyn J]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

Meatball success! I used Carli's recipe and Anilka's tip to saute the onions before adding to the meat mixture.

In all fairness, I'm a "wing it" cook and improvise. I had to use only ground beef as no ground pork in the house. I increased the flour and added a can of low sodium beef broth and left out the 1/4 c water. I added a dash of Gravy Master to darken the gravy a bit. They turned out delicious! Now, I need to improvise for the noodles...........looks like I only have a little egg noodles left in the package, so I'll use Fettuchini noodles! Lol Next time, I'll get the proper ingredients.

Thanks to all for posting your recipes.

[cv quilter]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

Meatball success! I used Carli's recipe and Anilka's tip to saute the onions before adding to the meat mixture.

In all fairness, I'm a "wing it" cook and improvise. I had to use only ground beef as no ground pork in the house. I increased the flour and added a can of low sodium beef broth and left out the 1/4 c water. I added a dash of Gravy Master to darken the gravy a bit. They turned out delicious! Now, I need to improvise for the noodles...........looks like I only have a little egg noodles left in the package, so I'll use Fettuchini noodles! Lol Next time, I'll get the proper ingredients.

Thanks to all for posting your recipes.

Actually, this sounds pretty good!! I keep some "homemade noodles" from the frozen food section in the freezer, JIC something like this comes up. You never know when these will be just the right thing needed for a recipe.

[bubba]

Re: Swedish Meatballs

This happened to pop up on my fb feed today.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/almost-famous-swedish-meatballs-recipe.html?soc=socialfnvideo