Swedish Meatballs

Today, we are bringing Ikea into our home!

Swedish Meatballs 4 eggs 2 cups milk 1 cup breadcrumbs 1 cup finely chopped onion ½ cup butter 2½ pounds lean beef* 3 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon each nutmeg, allspice, and cardamom 4 tablespoons flour 3 cups beef stock or bouillon 3 cups half-and-half or cream salt and pepper to taste 1 teaspoon dill weed, crushed if fresh In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Add breadcrumbs. Cook onion in 2 tablespoons of the butter until soft. Mix into bread crumb mixture. Add salt, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom and beef. Mix everything thoroughly. (The mixture is very soft.) Let chill for an hour or so for flavors to blend. Shape into 1-inch balls. Refrigerate for a few hours so they firm up. Brown the meatballs slowly in remaining butter, turning them carefully to prevent squishing them. Select a large casserole or Dutch oven with a lid, and put it next to the stovetop. Place the meatballs in it as they come of the frying pan. Add the flour to the pan drippings and cook until lightly browned. Slowly pour in the beef stock, stirring vigorously to prevent lumps. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce comes to a boil and is thickened. Add cream, salt, pepper, and dill. The sauce will be very thin. Pour the sauce over the meatballs. (If desired, pour it through a strainer.) Place the casserole on the stove, cover it, and simmer 30-40 minutes. Or, bake covered at 325° for 30-40 minutes. You can freeze the leftovers in their sauce, and either microwave them or reheat them in a 325° oven. *You really want to use lean meat for this recipe. The extra fat has nowhere to drain off to. Note: As always, we at A Book of Cookrye make no promises about whether this recipe is "authentic" or not. We are but ignorant Americans. Source: California Beef Council via Old Recipes on Reddit

For the longest time, I thought that Ikea invented Swedish meatballs because I have never seen them anywhere else. Of course, my inner cheapskate never let me buy them. This recipe came across Reddit a while ago, and I decided that I would finally try Swedish meatballs if I have to make them myself.

The recipe calls for "finely chopped" onions. This was a perfect time to use this knife thing I got a couple of Christmases ago. I was able to mince these before they had a chance to thaw.

Next, the recipe calls for "¼ teaspoon each" of the spices, and then says two of them are "optional." Would these still be Swedish without them, or would they just be meatballs? I tripled the spices instead of omitting them.

At this point, it looked like making meatloaf. Here I made the first of two big mistakes: I used 80% beef. If you read the directions, you will see that the future drippings would have nowhere to go as everything cooks.

A few refrigerated hours later, the time had arrived to put the meatballs in a lot more butter than I thought was necessary. 

Every recipe teaches you something new, whether you're prepared to learn or not. This recipe taught me that if you refrigerate meatballs for a few hours, it is so much easier to sear them without squishing them. See? Every single meatball is still meatball-shaped!

Meanwhile, we were supposed to turn the pan drippings into a gravy, at which point I made my second big mistake. I decided that our white sauce looked too runny. I know the directions say "Sauce is very thin," but this was practically water. And so, I added more flour. It was rich, creamy, and soon proved utterly wrong for the recipe. It's supposed to seep between the meatballs, but instead it sat on top. To salvage what I had nearly ruined, I cheated and poured water into the pan, hoping things would magically resolve themselves in the oven.

As the meatballs cooked, I found out why I should not have used 80% beef. You know how I said the drippings had nowhere to go? Well here is the fat, floating on top of everything in yellow puddles! 

On a happier note, our gravy and water fixed itself as the meatballs baked. It had started bubbling fairly early in the baking time. By the magic of convection, it mixed itself into a really nice creamy sauce. You just had to look past the puddles of grease before you could appreciate it.

The meatballs are sharing a plate with another recipe that will appear soon.

This recipe was a lot better than I thought it'd be. The meatballs tasted like a really good breakfast sausage without all the extra grease. (Well of course the meatballs weren't greasy. All the fat was floating on top.) I would never have thought to put dill and nutmeg in the same dish, but it is an inspired combination. 

I think they were a lot better the next day, if only because I carefully put the leftovers in the fridge without disturbing the grease, thus allowing me to pluck the fat out of the pan after it hardened. I mixed them with egg noodles, adding an extra-large spoonful of gravy. It was amazing.

So in conclusion, these are really good. But you definitely want to use extra-lean meat for this recipe. Also, I'm going to try putting nutmeg and dill together more often now that I've learned about it.