Viking Meatballs
Oct. 11th, 2006 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
revenaBy popular demand (sorta), herein lies a post that consists of:
A Recipe for Scandinavian Meatballs
~and~
Variations Upon That Recipe
~given simultaneously, in a most novel fashion!~
You want to start with a basic understanding that Scandinavian meatballs have six parts to them, and that the variation in flavors comes from how you do each part. So I’m gonna start you off here with a list of the types of part, with… uh… subheadings? I dunno. Elaborations on specific parts. Or something.
Look, it’ll all make sense in a minute.
Part One: Meat
You want ground meat. For this recipe-and-variations, two pounds of it, as lean as is reasonable, which will end up feeding 6-8 people, or you 6-8 times, or whatever. Your ground meat can be:
*beef
*pork
*veal
*turkey works so-so
*hell, I dunno, you could probably use lamb. I’ve never done it, though
*some combination of those (half beef and half pork is my favorite)
Part Two: Eggs
This is the one you don’t want variation on. You need:
*two eggs. From a chicken.
Part Three: Liquid of Some Sort
You’ll want one cup of some form of liquid, to help everything mix together properly. Your options are:
*milk (what I usually use)
*broth, of any kind (my second choice. I go for beef or chicken stock)
*water
Part Four: Something That is Not Inherently Gooey
Think about this. You have raw meat, eggs, and some kind of liquid. How is this going to form into balls? By the simple inclusion of one half cup of some form of dry starchy binding agent, of course! You can pick from:
*bread crumbs (this is what I most prefer to use. You can buy them pre-crumbed at the supermarket, or else dry out a few slices of bread and smash up your own. The drier they are at start, the better they’ll work)
*oatmeal (not cooked. Yet)
*all-purpose flour (if you use this, make sure you go heavy on the flavorings, or the meatballs will taste floury)
Part Five: Flavorings
You can season and flavor your meatballs any way you like. The following are things I’d recommend thinking about mixing and matching into a satisfying combination for a two-pounds-of-meat round of meatballs:
*salt, to taste (which is gonna be between one and two teaspoons, most likely) – add this to every recipe, unless someone who is on a reduced-salt diet will be eating the meatballs
*pepper, to taste (about half as much as the salt) – again, this is one that you should add to everything
*dry mustard, 1-2 teaspoons (works particularly well in combination with either or both dill and nutmeg)
*dill weed, 1-2 teaspoons
*nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon or so (a little nutmeg goes a lonnng way)
*onions, chopped finely, about one small onion per every two pounds meat
*capers, minced, about two tablespoons to every two pounds meat
*any other spices you’re fond of that aren’t going to clash with your other choices
Part Six: Sauces
If people want me to, I can do another post later with instructions for some of the sauces I use. I’m not gonna do it in this post, because they’re actually much more complex than the meatballs, but you might be able to look recipes up online or something, so I’ll mention them here:
*gjetost sauce – this is made from a really wacky brown cheese and tons of other dairy products, and is, I believe, Norwegian. It is delicious, and completely terrible for you. It goes particularly well with meatballs that are low on spices and high on capers.
*sherry sauce – probably the sauce that people think of when they think Swedish meatballs. It’s made from sherry, bouillon, and a little fat from the meatball cookin’ process. I actually don’t care for it, but other people like it a lot. Meatballs with onions in them go well in this.
*sour cream – this is the one you don’t need a recipe for! Just regular old sour cream goes really well with most any sort of meatball. If you want to fancy it up, stir in some fresh dill. Mmm.
And Now, I Tell You How to Make the Meatballs
Look over the various parts. Pick out which from each list you’re gonna use. Making meatballs can get very messy, so I recommend lining the ingredients up on a clean surface next to a large mixing bowl, and the thing you’re gonna cook them on (I’ll get to that in just a minute). Plan the Order of Dumping (hah, you didn’t think you were going to sift flour or combine wet and dry ingredients separately or anything like that, didja?) so that it goes from stuff that will stick to your hands least to stuff that will stick most. This usually means:
1. Dump your bread crumbs, flour, or oatmeal into the mixing bowl.
2. Dump in your dry spices.
3. Pour in your milk, broth, or water.
4. Now the eggs.
5. Meat next! Do this one last, because even though it’s less gooey than the eggs, it’s a little more contaminate-y.
If you’re using onions or capers, and they aren’t already chopped up, stop here to wash your hands. Then:
6. Prepare the onions and/or capers, and dump them in.
The reason I like to do the chopped up produce/pickles last is twofold. One, you’ll find that that’s the stuff that’ll stick to your hands most, really, so it actually is gooeyest. Two, if you take a few minutes to dice ingredients while your meat, milk/broth/water, and eggs are sitting in the bowl, they won’t be quite so augh-oh-gods-oh-it-burns-freezing cold when you:
7. Stick your hands (which you’ve been washing at intervals, yes?) in that bowl and mix everything until it’s smooth. This can be very uncomfortable. Suck it up. It will be worth it.
Oh, geez. I missed a really important step:
0.5. Don’t Wear Jewelry on Hands or Wrists When Making Meatballs
Once everything in the bowl is well-mixed, we can proceed to the cooking bit. There are two versions, which, naturally, are suited for different purposes. The first is pan-frying, which is good if you’re making a small batch to eat for dinner in not-too-long.
To Pan-Fry Your Meatballs, spray a big frying pan with nonstick, or use a few teaspoons of oil if you don’t do the nonstick thing. You probably want to do this before mixing the meatballs. Put it over a medium heat once the meatball stuff is mixed up, then quickly roll up some one-inch-diameter (approximately) balls and put them in the pan. Run wash your hands! Now come back to the pan and move the meatballs around in it (spatula = good) until they’re cooked.
If you still have stuff in your bowl, repeat until it’s gone.
A Quick and Easy Variation on Pan-Fried Meatballs is to skip the “ball” part. Make patties. They are easier to turn, and you can make ‘em a bit bigger, so long as they’re not too thick. This won’t work if you’re planning on serving Swedish meatballs in sherry sauce, but if you’re doing the “sour cream is all the sauce I need!” route, patties are great.
If you are going to do either the sherry or the gjetost sauce, you’ll want to save some scrapings from your pan-frying, so don’t get rid of ‘em right away. Not that you would, because we all know that disposing of hot fat is a bad plan, right?
Alternatively, you could Oven-Fry Your Meatballs by the following method:
First - like, before mixing - preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Then line a rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Some people will tell you that you can just grease a baking sheet, or spray it with nonstick, and the meatballs will come right up. This is true, sorta, but the meatballs will also completely ruin your pan. Aluminum foil is your friend.
Since you’ve just given your baking pan a layer that can be discarded at the end, no need to grease it. Trust me – the meatballs will be greasy enough to come up all by themselves (unless you do them all-turkey or something, in which case you’ll need to come up with alternative strategies for this).
Set your pan near your mixing bowl. As soon as mixing is complete, start rolling the bowl contents into one-inch-diameter balls and putting them on the aluminum foil. Space them a little ways apart – meatballs won’t squash down like cookies, but the fat that comes out of them does spread around a little, and you want to leave it a little room. Once the pan is filled up, wash your hands, open the oven, and put the meatballs in for ten minutes.
If they’re not brown after ten (and they won’t be, unless you’re doing something a little different than what I’ve told you), give them another two, and another two if necessary, and so on. If your meatballs aren’t brown after twenty minutes, either you have no idea how big an inch-diameter-ball is, or else your oven isn’t turned on properly.
When the meatballs are cooked, take the pan out, let it cool about three minutes, and then get the meatballs off with a spatula. Serve immediately, or set aside for dumping in a sauce. Scrape the “drippings” off the aluminum foil with your spatula (a plastic one works way better than metal for this, btw) and set them aside for use-in-sauces, if desired. Then start the next batch of meatballs on the scraped-mostly-clean aluminum foil. It won’t hurt anything to use it again, as long as you don’t store it up between meatball cooking sessions, or anything gross like that.
And Now, Enjoy Your Delicious Meatballs, And Don’t Forget to Take Notes on What Worked and What Didn’t, Seasoning-Wise, so You Can Make Better Ones Next Time
So! That’s a basic, basic rundown of Scandinavian meatballs. The real trick to learning to cook them is to just experiment with the variations I’ve given you – and any others you can think of – until you hit on a combination that really appeals to you and/or the people you cook for most often.
Any questions? Did I leave out important steps? Does anyone want to see more about sauces?
A Recipe for Scandinavian Meatballs
~and~
Variations Upon That Recipe
~given simultaneously, in a most novel fashion!~
You want to start with a basic understanding that Scandinavian meatballs have six parts to them, and that the variation in flavors comes from how you do each part. So I’m gonna start you off here with a list of the types of part, with… uh… subheadings? I dunno. Elaborations on specific parts. Or something.
Look, it’ll all make sense in a minute.
Part One: Meat
You want ground meat. For this recipe-and-variations, two pounds of it, as lean as is reasonable, which will end up feeding 6-8 people, or you 6-8 times, or whatever. Your ground meat can be:
*beef
*pork
*veal
*turkey works so-so
*hell, I dunno, you could probably use lamb. I’ve never done it, though
*some combination of those (half beef and half pork is my favorite)
Part Two: Eggs
This is the one you don’t want variation on. You need:
*two eggs. From a chicken.
Part Three: Liquid of Some Sort
You’ll want one cup of some form of liquid, to help everything mix together properly. Your options are:
*milk (what I usually use)
*broth, of any kind (my second choice. I go for beef or chicken stock)
*water
Part Four: Something That is Not Inherently Gooey
Think about this. You have raw meat, eggs, and some kind of liquid. How is this going to form into balls? By the simple inclusion of one half cup of some form of dry starchy binding agent, of course! You can pick from:
*bread crumbs (this is what I most prefer to use. You can buy them pre-crumbed at the supermarket, or else dry out a few slices of bread and smash up your own. The drier they are at start, the better they’ll work)
*oatmeal (not cooked. Yet)
*all-purpose flour (if you use this, make sure you go heavy on the flavorings, or the meatballs will taste floury)
Part Five: Flavorings
You can season and flavor your meatballs any way you like. The following are things I’d recommend thinking about mixing and matching into a satisfying combination for a two-pounds-of-meat round of meatballs:
*salt, to taste (which is gonna be between one and two teaspoons, most likely) – add this to every recipe, unless someone who is on a reduced-salt diet will be eating the meatballs
*pepper, to taste (about half as much as the salt) – again, this is one that you should add to everything
*dry mustard, 1-2 teaspoons (works particularly well in combination with either or both dill and nutmeg)
*dill weed, 1-2 teaspoons
*nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon or so (a little nutmeg goes a lonnng way)
*onions, chopped finely, about one small onion per every two pounds meat
*capers, minced, about two tablespoons to every two pounds meat
*any other spices you’re fond of that aren’t going to clash with your other choices
Part Six: Sauces
If people want me to, I can do another post later with instructions for some of the sauces I use. I’m not gonna do it in this post, because they’re actually much more complex than the meatballs, but you might be able to look recipes up online or something, so I’ll mention them here:
*gjetost sauce – this is made from a really wacky brown cheese and tons of other dairy products, and is, I believe, Norwegian. It is delicious, and completely terrible for you. It goes particularly well with meatballs that are low on spices and high on capers.
*sherry sauce – probably the sauce that people think of when they think Swedish meatballs. It’s made from sherry, bouillon, and a little fat from the meatball cookin’ process. I actually don’t care for it, but other people like it a lot. Meatballs with onions in them go well in this.
*sour cream – this is the one you don’t need a recipe for! Just regular old sour cream goes really well with most any sort of meatball. If you want to fancy it up, stir in some fresh dill. Mmm.
And Now, I Tell You How to Make the Meatballs
Look over the various parts. Pick out which from each list you’re gonna use. Making meatballs can get very messy, so I recommend lining the ingredients up on a clean surface next to a large mixing bowl, and the thing you’re gonna cook them on (I’ll get to that in just a minute). Plan the Order of Dumping (hah, you didn’t think you were going to sift flour or combine wet and dry ingredients separately or anything like that, didja?) so that it goes from stuff that will stick to your hands least to stuff that will stick most. This usually means:
1. Dump your bread crumbs, flour, or oatmeal into the mixing bowl.
2. Dump in your dry spices.
3. Pour in your milk, broth, or water.
4. Now the eggs.
5. Meat next! Do this one last, because even though it’s less gooey than the eggs, it’s a little more contaminate-y.
If you’re using onions or capers, and they aren’t already chopped up, stop here to wash your hands. Then:
6. Prepare the onions and/or capers, and dump them in.
The reason I like to do the chopped up produce/pickles last is twofold. One, you’ll find that that’s the stuff that’ll stick to your hands most, really, so it actually is gooeyest. Two, if you take a few minutes to dice ingredients while your meat, milk/broth/water, and eggs are sitting in the bowl, they won’t be quite so augh-oh-gods-oh-it-burns-freezing cold when you:
7. Stick your hands (which you’ve been washing at intervals, yes?) in that bowl and mix everything until it’s smooth. This can be very uncomfortable. Suck it up. It will be worth it.
Oh, geez. I missed a really important step:
0.5. Don’t Wear Jewelry on Hands or Wrists When Making Meatballs
Once everything in the bowl is well-mixed, we can proceed to the cooking bit. There are two versions, which, naturally, are suited for different purposes. The first is pan-frying, which is good if you’re making a small batch to eat for dinner in not-too-long.
To Pan-Fry Your Meatballs, spray a big frying pan with nonstick, or use a few teaspoons of oil if you don’t do the nonstick thing. You probably want to do this before mixing the meatballs. Put it over a medium heat once the meatball stuff is mixed up, then quickly roll up some one-inch-diameter (approximately) balls and put them in the pan. Run wash your hands! Now come back to the pan and move the meatballs around in it (spatula = good) until they’re cooked.
If you still have stuff in your bowl, repeat until it’s gone.
A Quick and Easy Variation on Pan-Fried Meatballs is to skip the “ball” part. Make patties. They are easier to turn, and you can make ‘em a bit bigger, so long as they’re not too thick. This won’t work if you’re planning on serving Swedish meatballs in sherry sauce, but if you’re doing the “sour cream is all the sauce I need!” route, patties are great.
If you are going to do either the sherry or the gjetost sauce, you’ll want to save some scrapings from your pan-frying, so don’t get rid of ‘em right away. Not that you would, because we all know that disposing of hot fat is a bad plan, right?
Alternatively, you could Oven-Fry Your Meatballs by the following method:
First - like, before mixing - preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Then line a rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Some people will tell you that you can just grease a baking sheet, or spray it with nonstick, and the meatballs will come right up. This is true, sorta, but the meatballs will also completely ruin your pan. Aluminum foil is your friend.
Since you’ve just given your baking pan a layer that can be discarded at the end, no need to grease it. Trust me – the meatballs will be greasy enough to come up all by themselves (unless you do them all-turkey or something, in which case you’ll need to come up with alternative strategies for this).
Set your pan near your mixing bowl. As soon as mixing is complete, start rolling the bowl contents into one-inch-diameter balls and putting them on the aluminum foil. Space them a little ways apart – meatballs won’t squash down like cookies, but the fat that comes out of them does spread around a little, and you want to leave it a little room. Once the pan is filled up, wash your hands, open the oven, and put the meatballs in for ten minutes.
If they’re not brown after ten (and they won’t be, unless you’re doing something a little different than what I’ve told you), give them another two, and another two if necessary, and so on. If your meatballs aren’t brown after twenty minutes, either you have no idea how big an inch-diameter-ball is, or else your oven isn’t turned on properly.
When the meatballs are cooked, take the pan out, let it cool about three minutes, and then get the meatballs off with a spatula. Serve immediately, or set aside for dumping in a sauce. Scrape the “drippings” off the aluminum foil with your spatula (a plastic one works way better than metal for this, btw) and set them aside for use-in-sauces, if desired. Then start the next batch of meatballs on the scraped-mostly-clean aluminum foil. It won’t hurt anything to use it again, as long as you don’t store it up between meatball cooking sessions, or anything gross like that.
And Now, Enjoy Your Delicious Meatballs, And Don’t Forget to Take Notes on What Worked and What Didn’t, Seasoning-Wise, so You Can Make Better Ones Next Time
So! That’s a basic, basic rundown of Scandinavian meatballs. The real trick to learning to cook them is to just experiment with the variations I’ve given you – and any others you can think of – until you hit on a combination that really appeals to you and/or the people you cook for most often.
Any questions? Did I leave out important steps? Does anyone want to see more about sauces?
