When I think of Swedish Meatballs, I think of Ikea. Does anybody else ever question however, why does Ikea have a cafeteria? Lets find out!
IKEA’s frugal founder, Ingvar Kamprad, was worried that too many shoppers were browsing the company’s shelves on empty stomachs. IKEAs are huge, and visitors can get fatigued after walking the floor for hours at a time. Mr. Hullberg said he was told to come up with a plan that would be thoroughly Swedish and in line with the company’s penny-pinching ways.
Odd but kind of genius. I know I can get very cranky when I am hungry which makes buying a desk much less likely for me. To add to the craziness the food division of Ikea brings in nearly $2 billion dollars in annual revenue. If you are interested in learning more about that, you can check out the article “IKEA’s Path to Selling 150 Million Meatballs”
Enough about Ikea’s meatballs, lets talk about the Swedish Meatballs, I made. These were really simple to make and delicious. I always appreciate a simple ingredient list as I had most of these ingredients at home,
- 2 slices day-old white bread, crumbled
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 1 small onion, minced
- 2/3 pound ground beef
- 1/3 pound finely ground pork
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar (optional)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, or as needed
- 2 cups beef broth, or as needed
- 1/2 (8 ounce) container sour cream
To start chop up the onion and saute it in a pan with butter. While you are working on that you can mix the breadcrumbs and the heavy cream together. Once the onions are sauteed, add all of the meat together along with the spices and mix well as show below.
After everything is mixed, form into balls and brown on both sides. I used my cast iron skillet so I could conserve the juices easier to make the gravy.
You can see the individual breadcrumb pieces in the meatballs. If I was going to make this again, I would cook the onions longer so they would be softer.
When the meatballs are browned on both sides, add to a glass baking dish and pour in the chicken broth. Place the foil on top and off they go into the oven for 40 minutes.
Next it is time to make the gravy. What you do is whisk flour into the pan until smooth. After that you continue to alternate between adding flour and beef broth. I added some additional butter to make it tastier(and fatter).
Finally when the gravy is made and the meatballs are done mix the two together and you are finished. I served this with some mashed potatoes and Ligonberry jam.
I thought these meatballs were incredible. They were so tender and the flavor was incredible. The whole apartment had a wonderful smell while these were cooking. I did however make a tiny mistake, which was I forgot to add the sour cream to the gravy. The effect of which is why these meatballs have such a dark color. They still ended up wonderful however.
Recipe for the Swedish Meatballs is here.