Swedish Meatballs
Eating Groovy
When I was a kid my parents entertained fairly often having dinner parties and cocktail parties. For a while they had a big garden party (not that we had what's usually meant by "garden") every summer and would invite as many as 50 guests.
With big parties the popular serving style of the era was the smorgasbord -- a buffet where people would serve themselves and eat from trays on their laps. This was the time when aspic and crescent rolls were featured on every menu. It was also the time when Swedish Meatballs swimming in a wine sauce and served in a chafing dish were considered the last word in elegance.
I haven't had a Swedish meatball since those days and never had more than one or two at a time back then (they were "for the guests"). So are they as good as I remembered? Or were my memories a fiction of a child's palate and imagined elegance?
When I was a kid my parents entertained fairly often having dinner parties and cocktail parties. For a while they had a big garden party (not that we had what's usually meant by "garden") every summer and would invite as many as 50 guests.
With big parties the popular serving style of the era was the smorgasbord -- a buffet where people would serve themselves and eat from trays on their laps. This was the time when aspic and crescent rolls were featured on every menu. It was also the time when Swedish Meatballs swimming in a wine sauce and served in a chafing dish were considered the last word in elegance.
I haven't had a Swedish meatball since those days and never had more than one or two at a time back then (they were "for the guests"). So are they as good as I remembered? Or were my memories a fiction of a child's palate and imagined elegance?
Swedish Meatballs
****Meatballs****
1 1/2 lb ground chuck
1/2 lb ground pork
1 sm onion -- minced
2 tsp oil
1 c fresh bread crumbs
2 egg -- lightly beaten
1/2 c beef broth
2 tbsp minced fresh dill
2 tbsp fresh thyme
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
****Sauce****
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 c beef stock
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1/3 c red wine
salt and pepper to taste
Heat oven to 450F/ Sweat onion in oil until translucent. Mix all meatball ingredients together. Form mixture into 1" - 1.5" balls and arrange on a foil-covered baking sheet.
Bake for 12 - 15 minutes.
Melt butter in a 10" skillet over medium low heat. Whisk in flour and cook for five minutes, stirring frequently. Add beef stock and thyme and increase heat to medium. Continue stirring until sauce thickens. Stir in wine and salt and pepper to taste.
Reduce heat to medium low, add meatballs, and warm thoroughly.
Serve meatballs over buttered egg noodles seasoned with minced fresh dill.
8 Comments:
I've actually never had Swedish Meatballs (we had our own meatball recipe...something like albondigas)and have always wondered what they were like. So, did they live up to your childhood memories? :-)
[lamejoke]
What do they called Swedish Meatballs in Sweden?
Meatballs! *ba-boom*
[/lamejoke]
Thanks, I’ll be in town all week.
That's an interesting take on Swedish meatballs. (Two kinds of meat?! We usually use pure beef in our version.)
Must've been really good from the looks of it.
Joey,
They weren't bad -- but not as magical as what I remembered.
Ben,
"Thanks, I’ll be in town all week."
Thanks for the warning.
Midge,
I found a number of recipes using beef and pork or beef and veal.
Kevin
I guess everyone has a "Swedish" meatball recipe. Mine is from my cousin's wife who really does come from Sweden. I don't make it often - like your mom, it's mostly for buffet suppers.
Thanks for sharing the story and reicpe.
Those meatballs look great. Sadly in Malaysia, we only get swedish ones at the IKEA cafe!
To my taste, the magic in swedish meatballs (as I grew up on them)is nutmeg. Yup, nutmeg.
Make a meatball, use any good meatball recipe and instead of other herbs add a skinch of nutmeg. It gives it that softness. Then make a nice gravy with some sort of dairy added to it and voila! That's french for what ever the swedish word is for the english phrase, "yummy childhood memory".
Ben (and all):
In Sweden, "Swedish meatballs" are sold in the frozen department of every single grocery store. They are called "Svensk Kottbullar," which translates directly into Swedish meatballs.
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