Old-School Swedish Meatballs Recipe on Food52 (2024)

Serves a Crowd

by: Corby

December13,2014

5

12 Ratings

  • Serves 6

Jump to Recipe

Author Notes

These aren't from Ikea. They contain no pre-made meatballs, onion soup mix, or cream of mushroom. They are not healthy in any way. Old-school Swedish meatballs are a hassle to make but are absolutely worth it -- even in the triple batches you will have to make to satisfy your family, friends, and yourself. Merry Christmas to all!

New-School Tips:
- When browning the meatballs, roll them frequently to maintain any semblance of roundness. Cooking chopsticks (the long ones) are a great asset for this and keep your wrists away from sputtering melted butter to boot.
- Swedish meatballs do quite well in a warm crockpot, should you find it in your heart to share them.
- Homemade, collagen-rich broth adds a lot to an already fantastic recipe. Out of distaste for store-bought broth, I once used homemade pho broth in the recipe and it complemented the spices in the meatballs nicely. —Corby

Test Kitchen Notes

WHO: Corby has been a member of the Food52 community for the past year and a half.
WHAT: Classic Swedish meatballs made painstakingly from scratch -- but worth the effort.
HOW: Combine ground pork and beef, butter, onions, egg, sugar, spices, and moistened bread into balls, then brown them in a large skillet. Place in a baking dish with broth and bake them until cooked. Add a healthy serving of gravy, made from the skillet drippings, and enjoy.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Once the meatballs, filled with a slew of spices (Ginger, Allspice, Nutmeg) have been baked in broth, they are irresistible -- as is the smell that will be emanating from your oven. Make the most of your gravy, and pair the meatballs with mashed potatoes for the ultimate comfort food combo. —The Editors

  • Test Kitchen-Approved
  • Your Best Family Recipe, Part 2 Contest Winner

What You'll Need

Ingredients
  • Swedish Meatballs
  • 2 piecesday-old white bread, crumbled
  • 1/2 cupheavy cream
  • 1 teaspoonbutter plus 1 tablespoon butter, divided
  • 1 small onion, minced
  • 2/3 poundground beef
  • 1/3 poundfinely ground pork
  • 1 tablespoonbrown sugar
  • 1 teaspoonsalt
  • 1/4 teaspoonground pepper, white if possible
  • 1/4 teaspoonground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoonground allspice
  • 1/8 teaspoonground ginger
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cupbeef stock or bone broth
  • Brown Gravy
  • 2 tablespoonsSwedish meatball pan drippings
  • 2 tablespoonsflour
  • 2 cupsbeef stock or bone broth
  • 4 ouncessour cream
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
  1. Swedish Meatballs
  2. Preheat your oven to 350º F (175º C).
  3. Place the bread and cream in a small bowl, mix, and let stand about 10 minutes until absorbed.
  4. Melt the teaspoon of butter in a large, shallow skillet and cook the onion for approximately 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer browned onion to a large mixing bowl and add the meats, brown sugar, salt, spices, and egg, then mix until nearly combined. Add the moistened bread and mix gently until combined.
  5. Melt the tablespoon of butter in the skillet over medium heat. Form meatball mixture into 1 1/2 tablespoon-sized balls and cook in batches until the outsides are evenly browned, approximately 5 minutes. The meatballs will still be pink inside. Transfer to a baking dish when browned and add more butter to the skillet as needed to cook all of the batches of meatballs.
  6. Pour 1/4 cup of broth into the baking dish, cover with foil, and bake for 40 minutes, until the meatballs are fully cooked and tender.
  7. Transfer meatballs to a serving dish and pour gravy over (recipe follows).
  1. Brown Gravy
  2. After making the Swedish meatballs, transfer their drippings to a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook until light gold in color, then slowly pour in broth or stock while whisking constantly.
  3. Simmer the gravy until thick, about 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Just before serving the meatballs, stir in the sour cream.
  5. Note: If you are not serving all of the meatballs at once, reserve gravy before adding sour cream. Reheat the meatballs and gravy separately and combine the sour cream with the gravy after heating to prevent the sauce from breaking as it is heated.

Tags:

  • Meatball
  • Swedish
  • Beef
  • Sour Cream
  • Serves a Crowd
  • Christmas
  • Winter
  • Entree
Contest Entries
  • Your Best Family Recipe, Part 2

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67 Reviews

I look forward to making these. A recipe I've made for years has cardamom as one of the spices added which I find to be a pleasantly warm comfort spice. But for this recipe I promise to stay true and not add the cardamom. Thanks.

Pat R. August 10, 2020

Looks wonderful; can’t wait to try.

Regan S. February 22, 2020

I love these meatballs! They are fabulous without the gravy. Full of flavour and they pair well with scalloped potatoes, salad too of course. ;)

Marie December 19, 2019

These are absolutely delightful! I had never tried making them from scratch before so I figured why not go big and make complicated ones in a triple batch, lol. Time consuming but perfect. There are only two of us in our household so I froze 2/3 of the meatballs after browning.

Austin B. February 14, 2019

Happy Valentine's day to one of the best recipes on this site!

Macy M. January 9, 2019

Made this tonight and loved every bit of it. Doubled it and froze half of the meatballs for quicker prep next time. Thank you for this divine recipe!

Rosemary M. December 27, 2018

These are amazing! And not difficult. This is my first ever review but I was compelled by this awesome recipe. Next time I will try an "everyday" version with milk instead of cream. The original recipe is delicious. I have celiac disease so I made it gluten-free with gluten-free white bread and GF flour. A winner! And I suspect kids would love these too.

Vicky M. February 18, 2018

Perfect Swedish Meatball recipe. I served over rice and with roasted cumin and coriander carrots on the side. Delicious.

Änneken December 25, 2017

I make these regularly and they continue to amaze me every single time. I am so in love with the seasoning and the gravy. I always have them with Marcells Hazan's mashed potatoes. A total winner!!

tosacem December 30, 2017

Can you share Marcells Hazan's mashed potato recipe?

Jennifer B. September 30, 2017

Do you add all the cream with the softened bread or just the bread?

Rob D. August 22, 2017

What a great recipe! I added some fresh dill to the meat mixture as well. I think the baking in the oven with a little broth really does it justice. They were incredibly tender and flavorful. The apartment smelled great. This is the best Swedish meatball recipe I have tried, hands down. I am an Italian-American and cook make types of meatballs and have to say this recipe is right up there. It is not difficult and try it as directed!

Salinas R. June 26, 2017

Congratulations @food52 ! this is the first recipe I try and now you have my trust. I didnt read the ingredients carefully and started cooking until I realized I didnt have sour cream so I used heavy whipping cream ( and no egg). The instructions leave room for interpretation that being said my final results were delicious. Im looking forward to trying more of your recipes.

Annika H. February 9, 2017

Sorry to say but this is not Swedish meatballs but I will try it anyway! Annika from Stockholm Sweden

valn February 9, 2017

Annika, I would love to hear how you or your friends in Sweden would make "Swedish Meatballs".

toweringinferno September 22, 2017

I made a recipe similar to this for a Midsommar gathering, and was told the flavours were on point but what differentiates Swedish meatballs is the texture. Apparently they whip the meat mixture so it becomes aerated and gets that spongy feel. Delicious either way, but for authenticity the devil's in the details!

Donna F. February 8, 2017

Question for you Corey- we wouldn't go through a big batch but I can see making a large batch at once is worth the effort. For th freezer- must they be cooked first and then frozen or do you freeze them raw? Which is preferable for best results?

Corby February 8, 2017

Since the balls are cooked in two stages- pan fried and then baked-I would pan fry them until they have enough structure to transfer to a bag, then freeze them in a single layer. They will finish cooking when they are thawed and baked in the oven. This leaves you without gravy drippings for the frozen batches, just plan accordingly.

Nancy F. December 1, 2016

I used ground veal instead of pork. I only had light cream instead of heavy. I didn't have beef stock so I had to use HERB-OX--UGH!!! But it all came out delicious. Next time, I'm going to do the crock pot. I like serving over egg noodles. Thank you!

Rhonda35 April 17, 2016

Corby, these meatballs are delicious! I didn't change much - added minced mushrooms to the onion, and added fresh dill and parsley to the meat mixture and also to the gravy. My husband, whose grandmother was 100% Swedish, said the meatballs tasted like the ones she used to make. :-) Thank you for sharing your recipe!

Kimberly M. December 24, 2015

How to change this to a crock pot recipe?

Corby October 21, 2016

I think you can transfer to a crock pot after searing the meatballs. Add the broth to the pot and cook on high until the meatballs reach 165 F

Julia C. December 19, 2015

So happy to find this recipe in time for Christmas! It seems to duplicate my mother's recipe traditionally served on Christmas Eve in our family. She began serving it after moving to Minneapolis as a newlywed and being befriended by Scandinavians. It joined a spaghetti dish taught to her by an Italian family as brand new bride during WWII on the table. You could say our Christmas Eve dinner was a symbol of her gratitude to the women who befriended a young bride by inviting her husband and and her to their family celebrations and gifted her with cherished recipes. I now honor and celebrate all their memories at my holiday table with those and other similarly given recipes.

Mike September 7, 2015

The recipe card looks exactly like my mothers! I don't know where it is, so glad to have the pic! I'll be configuring these to gluten-free now that I am older. Thanks for the post!

Horto May 6, 2015

How can we make these vegetarian

Corby June 2, 2015

Hi Horto,
I'm afraid I don't have much experience with mock meats, but my inkling is to use seitan and fully caramelize the onions. You might need to omit or reduce the sugar. For the gravy, I would favor mushroom stock over other vegetables. Let me know if you try it out, I'd love to share these with vegetarian friends.

Karyn G. February 17, 2020

Just made these using Beyond Meat. They were excellent! I'm not vegan, so I used beef broth, but I think mushroom stock would be great in this. Also, I'd probably use cashew cream instead of sour cream and cashew or soy milk instead of the heavy cream.

Old-School Swedish Meatballs Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What are traditional Swedish meatballs made of? ›

Mix ground beef, ground pork, egg, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger with onion in the mixing bowl. Lightly mix in bread crumbs and cream. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Pinch off about 1 1/2 tablespoon meat mixture per meatball; form into balls.

What is the Swedish meatball scandal? ›

Czech authorities alerted the discount furniture maker that they had found horsemeat in a sample of meatballs, and Ikea subsequently pulled the product from stores in 14 countries. Ikea is of ... By Elias Groll, an assistant editor and staff writer at Foreign Policy from 2013-2019.

What makes Swedish meatballs different from regular meatballs? ›

While both varieties include ingredients such as grated onion and panade (milk-soaked bread) or bread crumbs, plus the usual salt and pepper, Swedish meatballs traditionally use spices like allspice, nutmeg, white pepper, and sometimes ground ginger as flavoring.

Why do Swedish meatballs taste so good? ›

If you're wondering what's so special about Swedish Meatballs, or what they taste like, close your eyes and imagine this: incredibly soft meatballs, made extra juicy by using a combination of both pork and beef and soaked bread instead of breadcrumbs, lightly spiced with just a touch of nutmeg and all spice that gives ...

What is the sauce for Swedish meatballs made from? ›

Whisk together stock, cream, flour, soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon rosemary in a large saucepan over low heat until smooth. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Stir in thawed meatballs, and continue cooking until meatballs are heated through, about 5 more minutes.

Are homestyle meatballs the same as Swedish meatballs? ›

Swedish meatballs are typically smaller than the Italian style. Seasonings are different for Swedish meatballs but every recipe for them has variations on spices.

Do Ikea meatballs contain horse meat? ›

The Czech State Veterinary Administration said it tested two batches of Ikea meatballs and only one of them contained horsemeat. It did not say how much. An advertising billboard for IKEA meatballs at a parking lot of an IKEA store in Stockholm.

Do Swedish meatballs have horse meat? ›

LONDON — The furniture giant Ikea joined a growing list of brands that have been touched by Europe's food scandal on Monday and withdrew its signature Swedish meatballs from its markets and cafeterias across most of Europe after one batch was found to contain traces of horse meat.

Was there horse meat in Taco Bell? ›

The British Food Standards Agency said Taco Bell's products contained more than 1% (pdf) horse meat. “We apologize to our customers and take this matter very seriously as food quality is our highest priority,” a spokesman for the chain said.

What can you use instead of breadcrumbs in Swedish meatballs? ›

I have done them with panko, crusty bread, crushed Ritz crackers, and once a few packages of Cheese sandwich crackers because I didn't have anything else that night. All of them add different characteristics to the end product but all came out good and unique. Try both and see how you like it.

Why are my Swedish meatballs falling apart? ›

ANSWER: Usually when meatballs fall apart, it's the binder that is the problem. Most meatball recipes call for using bread crumbs and eggs. But too much bread crumbs make them too loose, and not enough bread crumbs won't help them hold together either.

Do they eat Swedish meatballs in Sweden? ›

Swedish meatballs, or köttbullar, must be prepared, above all, with love. This is why homemade meatballs are a widespread concept in Sweden, and there are many different favourite recipes – with and without meat.

How do Swedish people eat Swedish meatballs? ›

Traditional Swedish way: Do not make the cream sauce at all. Serve meatballs over plain or stewed macaroni, plain or mashed potatoes, and lingenberry jam (optional)

Is beef stroganoff and Swedish meatballs the same thing? ›

Not at all. Meatballs are made from minced meat (beef, pork or a mix of both). Beef Stroganoff is made from strips or cubes of beef cooked in a sour cream sauce.

Did Vikings eat Swedish meatballs? ›

Swedish meatballs aren't just from Ikea, they were also a popular Viking dish.

What meat are Ikea Swedish meatballs made of? ›

The standard meatballs that you might put in a spaghetti sauce or a meatball sub are usually made with ground beef. But, Swedish meatballs from IKEA are made from both pork and beef! And, of course, there is a creamy gravy rather than a red sauce when you serve it.

What is the difference between Swedish and Norwegian meatballs? ›

Norwegian recipes are made with all beef, while some Swedish recipes also use pork. Norwegian meatballs tend to be larger and flatter than their Swedish cousins.

What's the difference between Swedish and Finnish meatballs? ›

"Finnish meatballs are meatier and bigger than Swedish meatballs. They are also served with lingonberry jam and boiled/mashed potatoes, and a gravy, but they are juicier and yummier.

What is the binding ingredient in meatballs? ›

Eggs: Eggs keep the meatballs from drying out and they act as a binding agent, which means they help hold the ingredients together. Cheese: You'll need a cup of freshly grated Romano cheese.

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