There’s a scandal around Swedish meatballs, which may have their origin well beyond the Scandinavian country.

The premise of any meatball is to bind ground meat together so it sticks by using the right amount of moisture and binding agents (i.e. breadcrumbs)

This concept was adapted to being used for dishes into the 20th century such as hamburgers and meatloaf.

Meatballs themselves are much, much older. There’s evidence of their existence as far back as the Roman empire, but they were likely around as far back as ancient China, so that’s a lot of meatballs over the years!

The scandal is that what we know of as a Swedish recipe,premise of using sour flavours, was actually brought to Sweden by King Charles – no, not that King Charles – from Turkey!

Swedish Meatballs

Recipe by Chef Duff

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef

• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs

• 1/4 cup parsley

• 1 small onion, minced

• 1/4 tsp. each allspice, nutmeg, garlic powder, salt, pepper

• 1 egg

• Meatball Sauce

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil

• 3 Tbs. butter

• 3 Tbsp. flour

• 2 cups beef stock

• 1 cup sour cream

• 1 tsp. Worcestershire

• 1 tsp. Dijon

• Salt, pepper to taste

Directions

• Combine ingredients together and allow to marinate.
• Roll into 30g balls.
• Sear until well browned in frying pan – add sauce and simmer until cooked through.
• Serve with buttered noodles (1pkg. egg noodles, 1/4 lb. butter, 1/4 cup parsley).
• Meatball Sauce
• Melt butter and oil together and fry garlic lightly until softened.
• Add flour and stir in to form a “roux.”
• Blend in stock gradually stirring well in between additions.
• Turn down to low simmer.
• Finish with Worcestershire, Dijon, cream and adjust seasoning
• Add meatballs and re-heat.