Swedish Meatball Recipe | All Things Mamma (2024)

FAQs

What is Swedish meatball sauce made of? ›

The sauce for Swedish Meatballs is a creamy gravy that is made with butter, beef broth/stock, thickened with flour and made creamy with cream. But the most important flavour for the a really good creamy gravy is the pan drippings after searing the meatballs.

While both varieties include ingredients such as grated onion and panade (milk-soaked bread) or bread crumbs, plus the usual salt and pepper, Swedish meatballs traditionally use spices like allspice, nutmeg, white pepper, and sometimes ground ginger as flavoring.

Add a lightly beaten egg, but not too much. Egg acts as a binder for the ingredients, but you only need a small amount. One small egg will do for one pound of minced meat. Alternatively, if you're following an egg-free diet, you could soak fresh bread in milk, squeezing out any excess milk, to use as a binder.

Czech authorities alerted the discount furniture maker that they had found horsemeat in a sample of meatballs, and Ikea subsequently pulled the product from stores in 14 countries.

Iconic Swedish cream sauce: Melt 40g of butter in a pan. Whisk in 40g of plain flour and stir for 2 mins. Add 300ml of bouillon (or consommé) and continue to stir. Add 150ml double cream, 2 tsp of soy sauce and 1 tsp of (Dijon) mustard.

When it comes to the Swedish meatball it is thought that it was brought to Sweden by King Charles XII when he returned from Istanbul in 1713. The first recipe for meatballs in print was in the Cajsa Warg Cookbook in 1754.

The pork in the meatballs lends saltiness and moisture while the beef is where that hardy flavor and uniform texture comes from. Following that are onions, water, egg, salt, pepper, allspice, and potato starch - and the last two are those 'secret' ingredients.

I have done them with panko, crusty bread, crushed Ritz crackers, and once a few packages of Cheese sandwich crackers because I didn't have anything else that night. All of them add different characteristics to the end product but all came out good and unique. Try both and see how you like it.

STOCKHOLM - Swedish furniture giant Ikea became entangled in Europe's widening meat scandal Monday, forced to withdraw meatballs from stores across Europe amid suspicions that they contained horse meat. Stores in the U.S. and Canada were not affected, Ikea said.

The Czech State Veterinary Administration said it tested two batches of Ikea meatballs and only one of them contained horsemeat. It did not say how much. An advertising billboard for IKEA meatballs at a parking lot of an IKEA store in Stockholm.

What not to do when making meatballs? ›

Bread crumbs are another popular binder for meatballs that can become problematic if used incorrectly. Adding too many bread crumbs to the mix will cause your meatballs to become loose and fall apart. The same applies to flour.

Egg and breadcrumbs are common mix-ins to add moisture and tenderness. Another binder option that people swear by is a panade, which is fresh or dry breadcrumbs that have been soaked in milk. “The soaked breadcrumbs help keep the proteins in the meat from shrinking,” as food writer Tara Holland explained in the Kitchn.

It's All About the Sauce

Flavored with nutmeg and cardamom, these little beef-and-pork meatballs are best served with a Swedish meatball sauce—a rich roux-based and beef stock gravy, spiked with sour cream and a little lingonberry jelly.

How to Thicken Swedish Meatball Sauce. The all-purpose flour in this recipe should do the trick to thicken your Swedish meatball sauce to the right consistency. But if it doesn't, you can add a cornstarch slurry (1 tablespoon of cornstarch to 2 tablespoons of water) to thicken it up.

Traditional Swedish way: Do not make the cream sauce at all. Serve meatballs over plain or stewed macaroni, plain or mashed potatoes, and lingenberry jam (optional)