Ingredients for 80 meatballs 1 kg (2 lb) Minced meat, 50/50 to 30/70 beef and pork
2 eggs
1 cup cream,
1 cup, milk, meat broth or water.
2 cups fine breadcrumbs.
Salt to taste (1 1/2 teaspoons suggested)
Allspice (2 teaspoons suggested)
1 large onion, finely chopped or preferrable grounded
Mix breadcrumbs and all liquid ingredients, stir, and let the bread crumps soak for a few minutes. Add the meat, spices and stir into a mixture that is stiff enough so that it lends itself to rolling into balls, around 2,5 cm (1 inch) in diameter.
Shaping the meatballs.
You can use a tablespoon to help shape the meatballs against the palm of your hand. If the dough is not too soft, shaping is made easier.
Raw meatballs ready for the pan.
Once you have the meatballs all lined up, gently roll them into the hot frying pan. We’ve used a cast iron frying pan because it distributes heat fairly evenly. Use a generous helping of butter for frying.
Rolling the meatballs gently into the buttered frying pan.
Fry the meatballs until they turn a deep golden brown at medium heat. Keep the temperature at an even medium heat. Too low a temperature will result in boiled meatballs rather than crisp fried ones and too high a temperature will risk turning the onion content in the meatballs black.
The meatballs sitting pretty…
… in some cast iron frying pans. Meatballs freeze well and it pays to make a large batch for storing when you are at it.
The meatballs are usually served with a light brown sauce, and for that you’ll need:
Brown sauce
2 tbs butter
2 tbs wheat flour
4 dl of milk (option: add some cream)
1 meat cube
1 tbs brown soy sauce
½ tsp white pepper.
The brown sauce begins by frying the wheat flour with the melted butter in the pot. Add the meat cube and stir till it melts. Then pour in the milk and cream and blend. Some soya sauce and peppar to taste.
Swedish meatballs are a traditional everyday dish and is usually served with boiled potatoes, although mashed potatoes is a popular variation today. On the side, usually lingonberry jam, but we’ve decided to go with red currant jelly for a twist. Pickled cucumber is also a traditional addition.
A few details: you can try not to use a mixer for chopping up the onions because the steel blades tend to give a bitter taste to the onions. If you want chopped onions, do so finely by hand, but grounded onion works best for this recipe. For the brown sauce, you might find that a dash of white pepper is the key to create just the right old time genuine flavour.
