Swedish Meatballs (Svenska Kottbullar) (2024)

FAQs

What is the meaning of Kottbullar? ›

Balls of ground beef are a staple of many national cuisines. Köttbullar, meaning meatballs, are the Swedish variant. This dish is not just served at IKEA—it's many Swedes' favorite food.

Mix ground beef, ground pork, egg, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger with onion in the mixing bowl. Lightly mix in bread crumbs and cream. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Pinch off about 1 1/2 tablespoon meat mixture per meatball; form into balls.

Swedish meatballs are traditionally served with mashed potatoes, cream sauce, lingonberries sprinkled with sugar, and quick-pickled cucumbers – known as “granny's cucumbers”.

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.

Slang. an awkward, clumsy, or ineffectual person.

The Seasoning

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.

We've been serving food at IKEA stores since the 1960s, but in 1985 Swedish chef Severin Sjöstedt created a meatball that was delicious, affordable and easy to serve, based on the traditional Swedish meatball. After 10 months of tireless testing and tasting, the IKEA meatball was born.

Italian Meatballs vs Swedish Meatballs: Swedish Meatballs are typically smaller in size than Italian meatballs and they are usually made with a 50-50 ratio of ground pork and ground beef.

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)

Instructions: Heating InstructionsThese meatballs are precooked. Appliances vary, please adjust cooking times to suit your own individual appliance. Ensure the product is piping hot before serving.

What happens if you put too much breadcrumbs in meatballs? ›

Using the wrong amount of bread crumbs (or flour)

Bread crumbs are another popular binder for meatballs that can become problematic if used incorrectly. Adding too many bread crumbs to the mix will cause your meatballs to become loose and fall apart. The same applies to flour.

Egg: Adds more moisture and helps the mixture firm up once cooked. Parmesan: My secret ingredient for the best meatballs! Parmigiano-Reggiano adds flavor and salt to our mixture.

Albondigas are itinerant meatballs. The name is derived from the arabic 'al-bunduq', meaning hazelnut, but also more generally used to describe any small round object. It is thought that albondigas were originally a Berber or Arabic speciality which was found its way into Spain during the period of Muslim rule.

It may be derived from fricandeau de veau, a dish of sliced veal, larded with pork fat. In the Dictionnaire des dictionnaires (1837) fricadelle is defined as, "In Belgium, a ball of minced, cooked meat" and a separate word, fricadèle, is defined as fricandeau.

The term "meatball" is believed to have originated in China, where it is known as "wotou". From China, the dish spread to the Middle East, where it became known as "kibbeh". Meatballs eventually made their way to Europe and the Americas, where they are now a popular food item.

With Swedish meatballs, the meatballs are usually made beef or pork (or both!) and smothered in a rich and creamy gravy. Sweden made this dish famous, but it was actually adapted from a recipe brought back from Turkey in the early 18th century by King Charles XII of Sweden.