Swedish Meatballs Recipe (2024)

Never pour brandy (or any other alcohol directly into a hot pan. That's a recipe for disaster. If the alcohol vapors ignite inside the bottle, glass will fly all over the kitchen. It's called a homemade Molotov co*cktail.

Ok, I will admit that I am prejudiced. I married a real live Finn. And she called Phooie! on this recipe. Not just because it is a Swedish recipe. But because I eat her meatballs several times a year. There is one HUGE difference between this recipe and my wife's. Namely, there is no bread in her recipe. She always uses mushrooms instead. The result is tastier, moister and less dense.

As a swede with my great-grandma's recipe, which calls for the same amount of the same spices, I always triple the quantity. At least a teaspoon. 1/4 teaspoon (as this calls for) of ginger will do nothing against 2 pounds of meat and all that cream.

Gently simmering meatballs for 20 minutes in well-seasoned homemade chicken stock with a bouquet Garni, enough so you can easily drop the meatballs in one at a time & they will float freely, is how my neighbor, 5th generation Swedish, taught me to make them. Remove meatballs with slotted spoon and use the sauce described in the recipe. She refrigerated the simmering broth for fabulous chicken soup the next day. The meatballs practically melt in your mouth & they are just cooked through.

KÖTTBULLAR
My Farmor (grandmother)'s version: 3 parts beef to 1 part pork mixed with some breadcrumbs, quite a bit of water, eggs, salt and pepper. The water creates a wonderful soft texture. Formed into balls, the kottbullar are sautéed lightly in butter. A little flour added to the pan drippings and some cream makes the sauce into which the meatballs are simmered slowly for a half hour. This is certainly not a modern approach but it is definitely authentic and worth trying.

I use this method all the time. It makes less of a mess. No stove to clean, and yes I turn them one by one. You would need to do that in a frying pan. I portion things out by patting the seasoned meat into a rectangle about 1 in thick, and then cut it into the number of meat balls I want. I then roll each portion into the meatballs, and they are even sized. It's much quicker that way.

I'm still looking for my late mother's recipe (hers were sensational), but I remembered them having sour cream for the gravy. Am I crazy?

My great aunt left me an envelope when she died, inside it said 1/4 tsp nutmeg. This was the missing ingredient in the Swedish meatball recipe she had given me. Oh, and with nutmeg a little goes a long way.

I always add sour cream to the gravy.

I don't care if this is authentic or not. It was fabulous. I made it following the recipe exactly grinding my own meat and spices (except the ginger). I couldn't find lingonberries so I used cranberry chutney. Definitely one to put on repeat. Thank you!

Do not worry Abby, contrary to what Stu is saying there is absolutely no risk for that to happen, the alcohol will eventually ignite but only the vapours and the part in the actual pan THERE IS NO RISK FOR THE BOTTLE.

And you'd get glass in your tongue cleaning it up.

My mother was a Swede and had a special twist on her fabulous meatballs. One time -- when my brother was very young -- she was out of breadcrumbs. She did, however, have Zwieback teething biscuits which she rolled into crumbs. The cinnamon and nutmeg were great additions. She used these crumbs for meany decades afterwards.

I use grated onions (much better than diced) and I add three slices of lemon when I make the gravy.

just came home from a vacation in Northern Sweden and Stockholm.
Everywhere we had swedish meatballs they told us they used potatoes in the meatballs and not breadcrumbs (we had someone with us who was celiac)

These meatballs are fantastic! I had 8 leftover meatballs. I strategically placed them in the Amanda Hesser “The Best Mac n Cheese” recipe. It turned out so good. Twice enjoyed. Thank you! ~ Mrs. K. Lee

I followed one of the comments recommendations to bump up the spice ratios and it worked well. I went with beef stock and included the dijon mustard. This was delicious and worth the trip to Ikea to get the jam.

Bake meatballs 20’ x 400F

I followed the recipe exactly. It's very good. The one adjustment I'll make in the future is to NOT soak the panko. We finds distinct panko pockets despite a vigilant effort to break them up. Instead, (just now) we added the panko to the meat, eggs, spices and milk. Mixed thoroughly and let the meat rest to absorb the panko and marry spices. Which is our meatloaf process so we feel it will work beautifully. Fingers crossed.

Don’t forget to serve with peas and lingonberry jam on the side! Delicious recipe!

used all beef, sour cream for heavy cream and left out the brandy bc that's what was available. used the full quantity of seasoning and sauce for 3/4 lb meat. served over egg noodles. it was pretty tasty and very quick. needs something to cut the richness though, like a crisp white wine or an acidic vinaigrette salad on the side

Excellent. Made for Christmas and everyone loved them. Will use this recipe again, however, I will double the spices. The balance is right but too mild. Believe me, I had a Swedish grandmother! ;-)

Did about 2.5x the spices as someone else suggested, and made 3x the gravy to have lots for a dinner party. Added all in all about 1 cup of Marsala wine (3 cups broth, 1 cup half n half). Sooo good. Also baked the meatballs in a 375 oven for 20 minutes, easier

The good -- the meatball texture was PERFECT, the best I've ever achieved with ANY meatball recipe.The so-so -- I wanted more flavor in the meatballs. Maybe increase the spices a BIT?The not-so-good -- the gravy was meh. Too much butter and cream, not enough flavor. I've seen recipes that add soy sauce, worcestershire, mustard, some of the same spices in the meatballs. I've always REALLY liked the Ikea gravy: it's not too thick, and has a seasoning to it ALMOST like curry.

This was great! I used meatloaf mix of veal, pork and beef. Perfect amount of gravy for the meatballs, if you want some for mashed potatoes I would double the gravy amounts.

Made this essentially a written, except for the execution of the meatballs. I seared them in the pan to give them some browning and then simmered them in another pan with broth as another user recommended. They turned out great, gave me flexibility on timing and I used the browning pan to make the gravy. Kept everything else as written (but made extra sauce). Delicious.

I didn’t really care for this, even doubling spices and sauce. I found it thick and bland and rich, which also often describes people who went to boarding school. The only type of gravy for my meatballs is Carmela Soprano’s

I thought I won the week with lemony shrimp and beans but for some reason I needed to make Swedish meatballs tonight. My x is recently engaged and just brought her to Europe. When we got married 27 years ago my mom thought it would be nice to make Swedish meatballs for his visiting mother, who was Danish. These Danes hate the Swedes and my husband was appalled we didn’t know this! As TS says, “I should have known…”My concern about recipe is how far I am broiling the meatballs to the broiler?

Perhaps not authentic, but I diced some carrots very fine and added to the onions. To increase the gravy/sauce, I used 4 T butter, 6 T flour, 3 c broth, 1 c cream. That made enough sauce to submerge all the meatballs, which I added after broiling to infuse the sauce with more flavor. Might cut the flour back by 1 T next time.

Excellent! The idea of sour cream is a good one that I'll try next time!