Swedish Meatballs Recipe

Ingredients **See options below

Meatballs:

1 large yellow or white onion, peeled, grated (through a cheese grater) or ground in a grinder or minced very finely. I prefer the grinder. (less

2 Tbsps. butter

2/3 cup milk

4-5 slices of good Italian or French bread, dried for a day in open air cut into pieces. You may remove the crusts, I don’t.

2 eggs

1 pound ground pork and 1 ¾ pounds ground beef ground together with a fine blade.

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg (optional, you can use less)

1 teaspoon ground cardamom (again optional, you can use less)

2 teaspoons black pepper (freshly ground please)

Sauce:**

6 Tbsps. butter

1/3 cup flour

1 quart beef stock

1/2 to 3/4 cup sour cream

Salt to taste

Method

1. Place meat in a bowl and allow to warm for 30 minutes. This allows for easier mixing of the meatballs

2 In a medium bowl, mix the bread pieces with the milk. Set aside for 15-20 minutes, or until the bread soaks up all the milk, then pulverizing the bread in a food processor and pour it into a large bowl.

3 Add the onions to the bowl of milk and bread. Add the rest of the meatball ingredients—eggs, ground pork, ground beef, salt, nutmeg, cardamom, pepper to the meat bowl. Using your (clean) hands, mix well for about 2 minutes until the ingredients are well combined.

4 Use a tablespoon to measure out the meat for the meatballs. As you form the meatballs, set each one aside on a sheet pan or plate. You should get 40 to 50 meatballs.

5 Heat 6 tablespoons of butter for the sauce in a large sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, reduce the heat to medium and add some of the meatballs. Do not crowd the pan. Work in batches, browning them slowly on all sides. Be gentle when you turn them so they don’t break apart. Do not cook the meatballs all the way through; only brown them at this stage. Once browned, use a slotted spoon to remove them from the pan, setting them aside so you can make the sauce with the remaining pan butter.

6 Start the sauce. (Check the pan butter to see if it has burned . If the butter tastes burnt, discard the butter and replace with new 6 tablespoons.) Heat the pan butter on medium until hot. Slowly whisk in the flour. Stirring often, let the flour cook until it is the color of coffee-with-cream; this is a classic roux.

7 As the roux is cooking, heat the beef stock in another pot until it simmers. When the roux has cooked until the color of coffee-with-cream, slowly add the hot beef stock a little at a time. Everything will sputter at first, and the sauce will seize up and solidify. Keep stirring and adding stock slowly, and it will loosen up and become silky.

8 Add the meatballs to the sauce and turn the heat down to low. Cover the pot and cook on low heat for 10 minutes. You might need to do this in batches.

9 To finish, move the meatballs to a serving dish. Add the sour cream and mix well.

Yield: Serves 4 Swedish lumberjacks, or 8-10 regular people.

Options: You can use any good canned cream soup in place of making your own gravy, or add to the gravy in the recipe for a new and unique twist. I prefer the cream of celery; it contains no MSG as some people are allergic to this product. You can use Cream of mushroom, chicken, potato (why?) Broccoli or asparagus. These products may contain MSG, read the ingredients if you have to be sure. You can also add sautéed mushrooms to the sauce as you finish it. Serve with or over wide egg noodles, or with mashed or boiled potatoes and a vegetable. Enjoy.

Serving Suggestion: