The Easiest Swedish Meatballs Recipe Ever (2024)

FAQs

What is the sauce for Swedish meatballs made from? ›

The sauce for Swedish Meatballs is a creamy gravy that is made with butter, beef broth/stock, thickened with flour and made creamy with cream. But the most important flavour for the a really good creamy gravy is the pan drippings after searing the meatballs.

Not adding any moisture to the meat.

Without it, the protein content forces the meatballs to shrink as they cook, and produces a final dish with a tough texture. → Follow this tip: To ensure tender meatballs, be sure to include eggs or a binder, like bread crumbs soaked in milk, in the mix.

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.

Add a lightly beaten egg, but not too much. Egg acts as a binder for the ingredients, but you only need a small amount. One small egg will do for one pound of minced meat. Alternatively, if you're following an egg-free diet, you could soak fresh bread in milk, squeezing out any excess milk, to use as a binder.

How to Thicken Swedish Meatball Sauce. The all-purpose flour in this recipe should do the trick to thicken your Swedish meatball sauce to the right consistency. But if it doesn't, you can add a cornstarch slurry (1 tablespoon of cornstarch to 2 tablespoons of water) to thicken it up.

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)

Egg and breadcrumbs are common mix-ins to add moisture and tenderness. Another binder option that people swear by is a panade, which is fresh or dry breadcrumbs that have been soaked in milk. “The soaked breadcrumbs help keep the proteins in the meat from shrinking,” as food writer Tara Holland explained in the Kitchn.

The Key to Tender Meatballs

Here, we're soaking fresh or dried breadcrumbs in a little milk until the bread becomes soggy, then mixing that right into the meat. This binder (aka panade) helps add moisture to the meatballs and also prevents the meat proteins from shrinking and becoming tough.

These meatballs tend to be a bit smaller in size and are more savory than their Italian counterpart. They are seasoned with aromatic allspice that balances out the rich flavor of the white, gravy-like sauce they're served in.

What sides go well with Swedish meatballs? ›

Substantial Sides

Mashed potatoes are a classic choice and are perfect for sopping up every last drop of the delicious sauce. You could also serve the meatballs with simple boiled potatoes tossed with butter and maybe a handful of chopped fresh herbs. Buttered egg noodles are an easy and effortless alternative as well.

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.

Using the wrong amount of bread crumbs (or flour)

Adding too many bread crumbs to the mix will cause your meatballs to become loose and fall apart.

You only need a small amount of egg – it's there only to help the cooked meatball retain its shape, and shouldn't detract from the meat's flavour or texture. Filler ingredients like breadcrumbs or flour are important too because they stop the meatballs becoming dry.

Iconic Swedish cream sauce: Melt 40g of butter in a pan. Whisk in 40g of plain flour and stir for 2 mins. Add 300ml of bouillon (or consommé) and continue to stir. Add 150ml double cream, 2 tsp of soy sauce and 1 tsp of (Dijon) mustard.

It's All About the Sauce

Flavored with nutmeg and cardamom, these little beef-and-pork meatballs are best served with a Swedish meatball sauce—a rich roux-based and beef stock gravy, spiked with sour cream and a little lingonberry jelly.

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.

Meatballs are not a sauce, they are balls of meat. A sauce has to be runny, or at least flowing. Done correctly, a bolognese sauce isn't particularly meaty. The meat is meant to be finely ground and incorporated into a standard spaghetti sauce, and the meat so fine it should stick onto the pasta in little specks.