A plate of homemade Swedish Meatballs – Köttbullar served with gravy, mashed potatoes, lingonberries, and pickled cucumber is my ultimate comfort food. There’s nothing quite like indulging in juicy homemade Swedish meatballs.
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When I moved into my first apartment, I decided to prepare this dish, which took around 1.5 hours to cook. However, once it was ready, I devoured it in less than 10 minutes. The effort was absolutely worth it. Now, I’ve discovered a time-saving technique of baking the meatballs before frying them, allowing me to cook them much faster without compromising on flavor.
Beef and pork
Let’s begin with the meatballs. The key ingredient is a combination of minced beef and pork, ensuring that some pork is mixed in with the beef. By incorporating pork, the meatballs gain added fat, resulting in juiciness. Instead of directly frying the meatballs in butter, they are first baked in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Afterwards, they are fried or browned in butter (apologies, no olive oil in this case). This two-step process helps preserve the meatballs’ juiciness.
When shaping the meatballs, it is advisable to keep a small bowl of cold water nearby. The meat mixture tends to be sticky, so wetting your hands periodically while rolling the meatballs is recommended. If the mixture becomes too sticky, simply wet your hands again to make the process smoother.
Sauce
The sauce consists of milk, heavy cream (whipping cream), chicken stock, cornstarch, and soy sauce. When adding the soy sauce, exercise caution and add it gradually to avoid making the sauce overly salty.
Lingonberries
If it’s challenging to find lingonberries* in your country, there are alternative options available. Firstly, if you can find frozen lingonberries, simply mix them with sugar and stir occasionally until the lingonberries thaw and the sugar dissolves. Secondly, you can conveniently find lingonberry jam at IKEA. Lastly, cranberry sauce can be used as an alternative, although it may not precisely replicate the flavor of lingonberries, it can provide a similar sweet-sour taste.
So, roll up your sleeves and let’s make some juicy homemade Swedish meatballs.
If you liked Swedish Meatballs, you may also like:
Beetroot salad – Rödbetssallad
Swedish Meatballs
Ingredients
- 700 g Beef (1.5lb) Minced
- 300 g Pork (10.5oz) Minced
- 1 Onion
- 2 Eggs
- 150 ml Milk (5 fl.oz)
- 150 ml Whipping cream(5 fl.oz)
- 80 g Bread crumbs (2.8 oz)
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 Stock cube beef
- 50 ml Water (1.7 fl.oz) (¼ cup) boiled
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven 225°C (437℉)
- Dissolve the stock cube in 50 ml (¼ cup) of hot water.
- Combine bread crumbs, milk, whipping cream, eggs, pepper, and the dissolved stock cube in a bowl. Mix everything together and allow it to soak for 10 minutes.
- Grate the onion and combine it with minced meat, Dijon mustard, and the bread crumb/egg mixture. Use a wooden spoon or clean hands to stir everything together until well combined.
- Before shaping all the meatballs, fry a small portion of the mixture and taste it to determine if you need to add more salt or pepper. This allows you to adjust the seasoning according to your preference before proceeding.
- Moisten your hands with cold water and shape the meat mixture into tablespoon-sized meatballs.
- Put the meatballs on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.
- Bake the meatballs for 6 to 8 minutes.
- Remove the meatballs from the oven and transfer them to a frying pan. Fry the meatballs in butter until they are nicely browned.
Notes
Sauce for Swedish meatballs
Ingredients
- 250 ml Whipping cream (8.5 fl.oz) (1 cup)
- 250 ml Milk (8.5 fl.oz) (1 cup)
- 1 Chicken Stock cube
- 2 tsp Soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Corn starch Maizena
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk constantly until the sauce thickens.
Notes
Βon appétit
Best!! Swwdish meatballs to die for!
Glad you liked it😃