My mother’s recipe for Swedish meatballs, also known as köttbullar, should be illegal. These meatballs are so good they should be a controlled substance.
I never knew my grandmother so I can’t remember her ever making Swedish meatballs, but I do have several strong memories of mum making these little balls of yum long ago, in the 1970s. Of course we ate Swedish meatballs in the Seventies — everyone did. They were right next to the fondue.
But even this was simply withdrawal symptoms of the Swedish meatballs’ heyday a decade earlier. Can’t you just see the chafing dish, the Sterno and the meatballs nestled in that slowly congealing-yet-somehow-irresistible gravy? Groovy baby, yeah!
Yet of all the crazy throwback foods of that much-maligned decade, Swedish meatballs are high on the list for preservation. If you’ve eaten well-made ones, can any among you honestly say you have not stuffed yourself on them? What the heck is it about these meatballs?
I’ve eaten several dozen at a sitting before, only to feel later like an anaconda that swallowed a cow made of butter.
Butter. Maybe that’s it? Every decent recipe calls for obscene amounts of butter.
The gravy is part drippings from frying the meatballs in butter, flour, stock and, in some cases, lingonberry or cranberry syrup or jelly. Still, I’ve eaten lots of rich things before without succumbing to gluttony.
Maybe it is a Swedish meatball’s size. Small. Bite-sized, to be exact. Dangerous. My Italian meatballs are big, honking brontosaurus balls; you need at least three bites to get one down. These little Swedish meatballs are just a tablespoon.
That’s not so much. Maybe I’ll have just one more…
Venison Swedish Meatballs
Ingredients
- 4 slices stale bread, crusts removed
- 2/3 cup milk
- 3 pounds venison or beef
- 1 pound pork fat
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 grated yellow onion
- Flour
- 1 quart beef stock or venison stock
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup lingonberry jelly
- Salt
- Butter or oil for frying
Instructions
- If you are not using pre-ground meat, chill the venison and pork fat until it is almost freezing by sticking it in the freezer for an hour. Cut both the meat and fat into chunks that will fit into your grinder. Grind through your fine die in a meat grinder. If you do not have a meat grinder, you can use a food processor, set on pulse. Don’t crowd the processor and chop the meat in pulses until you get something that looks like ground meat — it will not be as good as with a grinder, but it is easier than hand-mincing everything, which is also an option. Put the meat in the fridge.
- Pour the milk into a pot and set it on low heat. Cut the crusts off the stale bread and break it into pieces. Add the pieces to the pot. They will begin to absorb the milk. Turn off the heat and mash everything into a paste. Let it cool to room temperature.
- In the meat bowl, add the grated onion, salt and spices. Crack the eggs into the bowl, then pour the bread-milk mixture in. With clean hands, gently mix everything together. Do not knead it like bread, and do not squeeze things together. Just gently work the mixture: Think cake, not bread. When it is mostly combined — you need not get everything perfect — grab a tablespoon and scoop up some. Roll it into a little ball with your palms.
- Gently roll the meatballs in the flour; you’ll probably need about a cup. You may need to re-shape them before putting them onto a cookie sheet lined with wax or parchment paper.
- When the meatballs are all made, get a large pan ready; I use a big cast-iron frying pan. Fill it with a little less than 1/4 inch of oil. I use canola oil with a little butter tossed in for flavor. Bring it up to temperature over medium-high heat. When a drop of flour flicked in the oil immediately sizzles away, drop the heat to medium and add the meatballs. Do not crowd them.
- You want the oil to come up halfway on the meatballs. Add a little oil if need be; don’t worry, you can reuse it. Fry on medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. You are looking for golden brown. Turn only once. The other side will need 2 to 4 minutes. When cooked, set the meatballs on a paper towel or wire rack to drain. They can be used right away or cooled and then refrigerated for a week, or frozen for several months.
THE SAUCE
- Once the meatballs are cooked, drain all but about 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter/oil from the pan. Over medium heat, add an equal amount of the flour left over from dusting the meatballs. Stir to make a roux and cook slowly until it turns a nice golden brown. Think coffee with cream.
- Add the stock gradually and turn the heat up to medium-high. Stir well to combine and add more stock or some water if need be — you want this thicker than water, thinner than Thanksgiving gravy. Taste for salt and add if needed. Add the lingonberry or highbush cranberry jelly to the pan. Let it melt and then mix it in gently.
- Put the meatballs in the pan, coat all the meatballs with the sauce, cover and cook for 10 minutes over medium-low heat. Add the cream and just warm through, maybe 3 or 4 minutes. Serve over mashed potatoes or with German egg noodles.
These are excellent and really hit the spot. I have made them with venison and with other meat as well and always delicious!
These are my go-to when I want to impress people while serving them some hearty comfort food. It always ends up with people either asking for the recipe or asking to marry me, so use the power of these meatballs wisely.
If you can’t find lingonberries (if they’re not in the jam section of your grocery store, check near the pie filling and near the kosher/imported section before you give up and substitute) I’ve used blackcurrant or blueberry jam in a pinch and it’s turned out just fine. The key is having a sweet fruity zing to counter the savory, so don’t skip it altogether.
Made this recipe for the first time last night. It was delicious. I couldn’t find ligonberry jelly so used grape, but I think I will try cranberry sauce next time for a little more tartness.
Made these with moose and didn’t feel like going out for pork fat. They are great! I made extra gravy because….gravy. thanks!
Why so much fat? Is there a way to cut some and still be great?
Also does hank look for wild mushrooms? Like. Chanterelles or porcini? Chanterelles are our favorites and we hav lots on our property in up state NY.
Robert: Because I like fat. Fat = flavor. But yes, cut the amount if that suits you. And yes, I pick mushrooms here in the West Coast.
Made these today, and they’re amazing!! Used half venison, half ground beef. Thanks so much for the recipe.
This is a great recipe. However, it isn’t clear to me where the grated onion comes in. It is in the list of ingredients, but not mentioned in any of the instructions. I decided to put it in the meatball mixture and everything came out great!
TH: Good catch! Fixed the recipe, and yes, you did the right thing.
Hi Hank,
I just wanted to note that in your book, this recipe calls for 2.5 lbs venison, whereas this recipe calls for 3 lbs plus a pound of pork fat. All other ingredients and their proportions are the same. Is this a mistake or an evolution of the recipe?
I’ve made the book version three times and it is delicious!!!!
Thanks,
John
Is it sour cream or cream?
Jacquelyn: Sour cream.
Delicious! I used some homemade venison bone broth for the venison stock, and it was so good. I halved the recipe and had plenty of meatballs left over to freeze. I served it over German spaetzle, and it was definitely one of the best meals I’ve eaten in a long time. Thanks Hank!
I was given some ground moose meat by my brother. I decided to try this recipe but I couldn’t get ground fat, so I substituted really fatty fresh ground pork. I also didn’t add the loganberry as we are a savory bunch. Worked out wonderful! So tasty and tender that I have been asked to make it again for company. It was so good that my husband was upset that I gave some to my brother. lol Need to double up this time! Thanks for this recipe.
Sounds like an “Afternoon Delight”!
I just had two fabulous Svenska Kottbullar meals in Stockholm this week. Both were made with venison (Reindeer?). According to the respective menus, the meatballs of both meals were “traditional” style and served with soft potatoes (not pasta noodles), copious lingonberry sauce on the side and of course, a rich, light, brown gravy overall. I’ve been hunting the web for a recipe and see plenty that have beef, veal, lamb- even bison! But no venison so far. I loved the flavors of the venison meatballs.
I know my wife and I can make these here!
Can’t wait to try this recipe!
Hank,
I work with your dad, who has been boasting his sons meatballs to everyone. I am looking forward to giving these a try. My whole family likes to hunt, except me, I’d rather cook. Looking forward to going through the book.
Nice set up on the site, you have some great pics.
Nina
I grew up on moose meatballs. If you want to add a dimension to the taste, mix some dried chantarelles or porcini with the meat. Very nice
I’ll be doing this on the weekend with moose … does anyone know where I can get a pound of pork fat? Is there a substitute?
Thanks! Looks amazing.
In my case, it’s Swedish meatballs with venison.
There’s always, it seems, a very limited amount of available wild venison and a few favorite ways to prepare it…and this is one of them.
I love how the assertive flavor of the venison shines through.
Thanks for sharing the recipe. Been looking for a recipe of this Swedish meatballs because my husband has been requesting me to cook this for him. I’ll be surprising him with this meatballs during our first anniversary. Wish me luck!
Hey Hank, Made the meatballs for Christmas…Awesome! Thanks for the recipe. Substituted venison for moose and Ikea’s lingon berry jam. The jam was pretty blah, but everything else was great. If you happen to be up in Oregon in early July, there are red huckleberries that grow in the coast range which are very similar to the lingon berry and make fabulous jam. Also, I’m not real familiar with the Sierra’s up your way, but down here on the Stanislaus NF, lion’s mane were blooming the 2nd week of December the last two years. I’m out doing deer counts then and have been able to harvest a few. The lion’s mane I’ve found have all been on living black oaks, growing out of scars in the 2500-4000′ elevation range.
These look awesome. I think I am going to try something similar with some good old Pennsylvania white-tail deer meat. New game recipes are exciting!
As if this debate needed more Swedes pitching in, but what the heck: moose is, as you’ve noticed, fine for meatballs, but so is a bunch of different animals. These days I usually make mine out of 50% wild boar and 50% good, free range fatty pig meat, which is an exellent combo, but I´ve had them in restaurants made from Brown Bear and beaver as well (not in the same meatball). Mind you, both of these variations were more interesting then actually tasty. If it´s meat then you can probably make a decent meatball out of it. Chicken? No probs. Turkey. Great. Venison? Lovely. Aligator? Probably, but hold the lingonberries on that one.
As for the lingonberry debate: anything that is sweet and tart works pretty well. I’ve substituted lingonberries with Cumberland sauce, black/red currant jelly at times, just out of curiosity. It all works as long as the sauce is rich and creamy. I’m thinking gooseberry jelly could be an interesting variation, if the sauce is adapted accordingly.
Thyme adds some lovely flavour to the sauce, as do most wild mushrooms, I tend to use black trumpet mushroom or funnel chanterelles. Brilliant combo.
If you need to bake them in the oven they’re too big.
If you don’t mind going overboard with big, big flavours and take it easy on the jelly/lingonberries, a truffle-infused potato mash/purée is to die for with swedish meatballs.
Butter all the way.
Sweden has tons of great bands: Abba is not the be-all and end-all of the music scene (admittedly my kids love them, but they love Michael Jackson as well…), I recomend Katatonia for long winter nights, of which we’ve had quite a few this year.
Josh: Pronunciation. I wish I could remember the phonetic alfabet they taught us in school but here goes: the K is soft; Kott is pronunced kind of like “Chet” (the name) but with instead of the e use a high, open mouth U-sound. As for “bullar” it´s not too dissimillar to how you would pronounce it, but you need to tense the lips a bit, and pronounce everything higher in the mouth, think british upper class, and you should be there.
— JC
Ingemar: Maybe in your area or household, but not everywhere in Sweden, and definitely not among Swedish American families. That said, baked is fine, too!
Swedish meatballs are ALWAYS baked in the oven not fried.
These were AMAZING. I used ground lamb and bison. so. so. yummy. Thanks!
yumm….these meatballs looks really good!
my swedish nana (very proud of her heritage as she was always around a bunch of italians) made these all the time – obviously not w/ moose meat (although i would’ve eaten them even as a three year old). they bring back great memories.
Cork: Nice job on the boar. I normally don’t work with Asian flavors so I bet that was a nice change for Michael and the crew! As for the moose, it may not be worth all the expense just for this recipe, but it very well might be for the 1,000-plus pounds of meat you can bring home…
Dang, Hank–Now I have to go back to Alaska to get darned moose again, because looks so incredible! I don’t think I could do what Sarah said about substituting elk, though I love both, they taste so different, and that moose meat is so much richer, and would have resided as my top of the list if I hadn’t tasted the sweet meat of antelope shot near Casper, WY, and only fed on sage. That moose meat just makes it that much richer a Swedish meatball.
…Let’s see now , $2,500 for a float trip on a raft (cheapest/best hunt still available in AK), a flight up to Anchorage for the first leg, and another $1,000 for a flight out to King Salmon…is it worth it, to come back down and use this recipe? Yes!!! BTW I’ve only been used to the big dinosaur balls, too…the smaller ones must taste that much better with a better sauce to meat ratio.
Oh, and that boar I shot on Sat that we turned into babi guling, ended up making some incredible burritos and an amazing off the cuff sweet Thai curry pork!
Cheers,
Cork
Heather: Isn’t it weird? I still get lots of traffic from people looking for instructions on how to pluck pheasants.
Michael: Never picked you as a Starlight Vocal Band fan, and definitely not an Abba fan. Go figger…
STARLIGHT VOCAL BAND & ABBA tell Holly two of my faves for her description of your Swedish Meatballs!
Best to you!
Your Rocky & Bullwinkle idea had me laughing out loud. And the recipe, photography, and food details had me drooling. I can almost taste these little meatballs already. Afternoon delight! 😉
Phew
The world is a comforting [meatball] shape once more
SBW
Moose! Even more Swedish than usual, I reckon. Those look wonderful and I agree, bite-sized is best.
Thanks for the link-love. It’s weird, 10-20% of all my traffic comes from people Googling Swedish meatball recipes.
Cecilia, the plate came from Cost Plus (now known better as “World Market,” I guess to distinguish it from Costco). I’d say 95 percent of our plates come from either Cost Plus or various stores in San Francisco’s Japantown. Japanese plates and bowls ROCK. I go to Japantown a couple times a year to exercise my credit card in the name of food photography.
And Tom, thank you! I’m blushing :-).
Loved the story,and I look forward to trying the meatballs–the recipe and photos looks delish. I reckon I’ll have to substitute venison (that’s what I have) for the moose, unless I can get my cousin to send moose meat to Texas from Alaska.
The photography is, as always, gorgeous. My question is for Holly–where did you get that fabulous serving piece in which the meatballs were displayed? I LOVE it…and must have one. Thanks!!
What a great post! A fantastic recipe and utterly mouth-watering photography. Please tell Holly that the photography here just gets better and better. Lighting, depth-of-field, composition; wow, she’s got it all goin’ on with that camera. And I’ve got to say, you’ve done some really fascinating stuff since you hurt your foot. Maybe we should give Elise a contract to stop by and whack your other foot (just kidding).
Oh, yeah. My grandma was Swedish, too, and we had these balls on rare occasion. When I make them now, they are good, but not half as good as I remember. Maybe it’s the moose that I need….
The members of ABBA should be so lucky as to have such elegantly presented meatballs. Nice work!
Well, the black currant jelly just adds something sweet to the sauce, and we wouldn’t put the lingonberries in the gravy…
Thin slices of sweet and sour cucumber is another common addition to this dish.
Sarah: Thanks for the kind words, I am sure elk meatballs would be just as good!
SBW: The IKEA meatballs were better than my first try at Swedish meatballs, not this one. This one blew them away…
Stephen: “You could sell that.” I might have to steal that line.
Tina: Squirrel Kiev? Moose Borscht? Niiiice…. Oh, and as for the caraway, go ahead and leave them out, it won’t hurt anything.
K: Good to hear from a Swede and get another recipe. Lingoberry and black currants in the same dish, huh? Interesting. You are right about the onions, though. I left them out by accident, but it was a happy accident.
Josh: I like the Stephen Hawking idea. I can hear his computer “voice” say, “Dumbass.” LOL.
Nathan: Yes, add fat. Preferably pork fat. You could add ground pork, so long as it is fatty. And the sour cream goes in right at the end — it is stirred in and just barely heated through. And if you don’t have sour cream, regular heavy cream is different but also good.
NHbow Gal: Yep, maybe I will put in for the moose lottery in Maine this year.
I have to agree with Sarah that Moose is our favorite red meat. We have fond memories of unbelievably delicious tacos made with the moose my husband and a friend got a few years back. Time to enter the moose license lottery again. Wonderful, and inspiring post Hank!
Awesome! I’ve got my Valentine’s dinner figured out. A couple questions on the recipe…I plan to use venison, I butcher my own and it’s as close to 100% lean as you can get. Do I need to add more fat, bread or anything to keep them together? Or should I sub in some ground beef? Also, maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see the sour cream in the directions. I figured it goes in with the lingon berry jam? Thanks
Hank, those look great. However, I think you should have a link on the kottbuller with an audio of how to pronounce it. I was thinking either just you, saying something like, “kottbuller, [email protected]$$!”, but I think getting Stephen Hawking to do the audio pronunciation would be better. Probably with the “[email protected]$$” part with it, too…
Thanks re the photos, everyone! Photographing a brown-on-brown food always fills me with dread, but this assignment was a good excuse to trot out the new plateware. Have I mentioned that being Hank’s photographer has been an excellent excuse for my addiction to cute little bowls and plates?
And yes, these were total crack. I think what I really said when I ate them, after my eyes rolled back in my head for a few minutes, was “Holy [email protected]#$# [email protected]#% $%& **^&%!” But that doesn’t sound as good as some cheesy old ’70s lyrics, does it?
I have spent days trying to take pictures of meatballs… so I first must say Kudos for the great photos and then the recipe… OMG… fabulous and perfect for a winters night… my mom made them when I was a kid and I just about forgot about them… thanks for the memories, and the recipe.
Correction: I have _never_ had reindeer meatballs.
Being a Swede from Sweden, I have had a meatballs made with reindeer. The classical recipe (by late Tore Wretman) calls for 2 parts beef, 1 part veal, and 1 part pork. No spices but white pepper and salt. Fried onion, bread crumbs, cream, egg. No flour. To be fried in butter. Best served with “rÃ¥rörda” (raw-stired?) lingonberries (not cooked, just stired with sugar) and cream gravy (sometimes with added black currant jelly).
Having read all the bizarre recipes following your links, I just wanted to add one that more resembles the meatballs we eat here in Sweden, even though there is great variation here as well.
Absolutely loved the Rockey & Bullwinkle reference! Boris and Natasha would have loved a dinner combo of squirrel kiev with moose based borscht to start. Of course, now I’ve got to make swedish meatballs. It just so happens that I was at IKEA yesterday (no, I did not buy meatballs) and bought a jar of lingonberry preserves. On it’s own, I’m not really a fan, but made into a sauce for meatballs, it may actually be interesting. I usually use nutmeg instead of allspice, but I think I’ll give it a try; I do have to take exception to the idea of caraway seeds, though. Can’t stand them in anything, not even rye bread, so they’re out!
OK – so now I am going to have to go and make Swedish Meatballs a la Hank! They sound delicious and wish I could have been there to enjoy them with you! Recently had a hankering for meatloaf so made that with pizza sauce and beef meat from a farm in ME. It tastes great! Bet it would be even better with Bullwinkle Meat! Loved Holly’s photos too. She does super work!
Hank, love the presentation….Swedish Meatballs would make for a good cocktail party nosh too!
Thanks for the link-luv, I wait your Venison Stifado (sounds delish).
laughed out LOUD at Rocky and Bullwinkle, which I knew was coming when I read you were waiting to hunt squirrel before doing the moose.
I’ve been lurking around here and on Holly’s site for awhile. Time to stick my head up. Having done all the cooking for this household for the last 30 years, and being a hunter, I love your site. In the course of culinary flights of fancy often I crash and burn. But, there are plenty of times when through sheer perserverance and dumb blind luck something clicks extraordinarily. When it does I always say “HOLY SHIT!” Usually accompanied by the further descriptive, “You could sell that.” When I read that ” Holy Crap!” of yours, I reflexisvely spit a pomegranate kernel straight into the cup of coffee sitting on my desk. Needless to say, pomegranate infused java ain’t going on the menu. Thanks for the laugh.
‘the IKEA ones were better’
WTF Hank! I’d swallow pretty much anything I’ve seen you cook up, but I wont swallow that. NO WAY. My son is mad for ikea meatballs (he loves to see his food come in a packet Grrrr) so I’ve eaten shed loads of them and really mate, they’re not all that.
SBW
Those sound amazing! As the daughter of a hunter (who lived in Alaska for ten years) moose is probably my favorite red meat, elk coming in second. YUM! I have a freezer full of elk so may have to try these out . . . my son (almost three) loves anything in meatball form so these would be perfect!
Thank you!
Best,
Sarah
PS – I think this is my first comment. Discovered you last week when Ruhlman linked to one of your recipes on Twitter. I feel like I’ve met a long-lost brother. You remind me of my dad, and my husband. Both hunters, gardeners, fishermen and I’m the gourmet cook of the bunch. I’m enjoying perusing your blog! Keep it up!