Swedish Meatballs

It's been a long, long time since I've had a Swedish meatball. I think my grandmother made some as a side dish for Thanksgiving or Christmas some 25 years ago. Considering I was only a kid at the time, they must had made some impact on me to remember loving them so much, so when I found this recipe in Food Network Magazine I had to give it a go.

I started off with some butter, onions and garlic sauteing in a saucepan. Season with salt, white pepper and allspice. I have two issues here...

First, white pepper, to me, smells like my old nylon sleeping bag from when I was a kid. That musty old basement smell . I generally don't like to use it unless in small quantities. This was a small quantity so it turned out okay.

Second, these meatballs ended waaaay too salty. The recipe calls for 2 tsp here, yet I would recommend using just one because damn.

Adding milk and Worcestershire sauce. Say Worcestershire Sauce 3 times really fast!

I just say Wuhstah sauce - a few years ago I worked as a temp for Talbots taking orders for their big spring catalog sale. I was taking an order from this woman from Worcester, MA, and when I read her shipping address back to her she corrected my pronunciation:

Woman: "It's Wuhstah Mass!"
Me: "Okay"
Woman: "No, you say it"
Me: "Wer-chest.."
Woman: "No! Wushtah"
Me: "Wuhstah"
Woman: "Wuhstah!"
Me: "Wuhstah!"
Woman: "Wuhstah Mass!"
Me: "Wuhstah Mass"
Woman: "Wuhstah Mass!"
Me: "Wuhstah Mass!"
Woman: "Good! Now when am I getting my clothes?"

So, screw the chestershire, it's just wuhstah sauce.

And after simmering for a few minutes we add the liquid to a cup of breadcrumbs forming sort of a crumbly paste.

Due to messy meat-filled hands I skipped a couple of steps with the photography, and through the magic of cooking on a blog the ground beef and pork got mixed with the breadcrumb mixture, along with a couple of eggs, and formed into one inch balls. Those meatballs then miracled their way onto a baking sheet lined with parchment and covered with plastic wrap. The baking sheet then levitated onto a shelf in the fridge, that mysteriously cleaned itself off, where it stayed for approximately 1 hour.

Who would have thought cooking or blogging would have been this simple?

After an hour, the meatballs go into the oven and I start making the gravy. Here we have butter with a little flour. I was going for a little bit darker but it wasn't moving, so for fear of burning this I proceeded with the next step.

Add beef broth and Worcestershire sauce and whisk the hell out of it! Add heavy cream..

I ended up using quite a bit of salt and pepper to give this gravy some flavor. I put a little more Worcestershire in it too so I didn't just have salty gravy. I turned out okay as it thickened more, and when the meatballs came out of the oven I let them simmer in the gravy a bit before serving. I think that helped flavor the gravy some too.

I also added a little dried parsley leaves - maybe a teaspoon I rubbed with my fingers while dropping in.

Who doesn't love a meatball. 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven worked out perfectly.

So, altogether not too big of a process for this dish. I sauteed some zucchini and yellow squash along with some mushrooms as a side and served the meatballs and gravy over some wide egg noodles.

The flavor of this was spot-on, but my only complaint is how salty the meatballs are. They tasted great underneath all that salt, there's just no need for it. I almost wonder if the recipe has a typo. I stored the leftover meatballs in the gravy, so I'm hoping the gravy will draw some of that salt out for tomorrow's lunch.

Anyway, give this one a try if you like Swedish Meatballs. The recipe can be found over on Food Network.

Later this week I shall be continuing the meatball theme!