From another thread, here is the recipe for real Swedish meatballs from the big Rutiga Kokboken, which is like the bible of Swedish food.
The recipe is extremely simple and relies on having really good quality meat.
4 tsp breadcrumbs
2 dl water
400 gm ground meat (mix of pork & beef)
1 egg
Salt & pepper
Mix in a bowl, form balls, and fry by rolling them around to brown on all sides.
That’s it !
Skånska köttbullar are made entirely with ground pork, in Denmark they do the same pork only but call these frikadeller.
Tore Wretman, a famous cook in Sweden who used to run the Operakälleren restaurant, has a slightly more complicated recipe for Swedish meatballs as follows:
2 hg beef
1 hg veal
1 hg pork, gladly fatty
2 dl heavy cream
1 dl stale white bread
1 egg
1/2 onion finely chopped onion
Black Pepper
Salt
Soak bread in cream. Tore runs all the meat through a grinder 3-4 times, the last two times with the bread milk mixture. Heat the onion in a little butter until it softens. Add onion to meat mixture, season with salt and pepper.
He uses two spoons to form the balls, making them a little larger if for a meal, or a little smaller for the smorgasbord. They should be fried by rolling them around in a little butter, and then placed in a warm dish in a low oven.
The recipe above is from his book Husmanskost (classic cooking).
In any case when the meatballs are done you need to make the sauce.
When the meatballs are done add a little extra butter or fat to the pan and a tablespoon of flour. Brown the flour slightly and add the juices (sky) which collects at the bottom of dish holding the meatballs to the pan together with heavy cream or whole milk scraping up any brown bits. A little soy sauce may be added to the sauce at this stage, Tore uses Japanese, but most other Swedes use something called Colorit which is a thickened soy that helps to make the sauce brown. Cook everything together until sauce thickens.
Again, really simple and no nutmeg or allspice.
Unless these are part of a smörgåsbord, the meatballs are usually served with the sauce, either boiled or mashed potatoes, lingon berries, and a fresh cucumber salad.
Finally, meatballs are NEVER served with noodles in Sweden. Helga finds this hillarious when she sees it in the US.
