Extra Ordinary Food: Secret to perfect Swedish meatballs is the right spices

This month I’m going to tackle a comfort food that has been the unfortunate subject of good press. The humble meatball. So many cultures have a meatball tucked away in there somewhere. For good reason. There’s always a bit of scraps to use up, that don’t quite fill a spoon. For those little bits and pieces, most food traditions have come up with the same approach: chop or grind up all the little loose bits, then bind them together into something one can sink their teeth into.

You either end up with a loaf or a meatball. Our modern American references tend to make us think either of Italian meatballs or diner-style meatloaf. The basic idea and techniques are the same. How it fits on the plate and how it fits into a meal are quite different.

Italian and Chinese meatballs are meant to be tucked into a nest of noodles. A meatloaf, terrine or Salisbury steak is meant to behave like an intact slab of meat. Both versions tend to use binders and extenders, like bread or crumbs. The extenders draw the flavor out over more bites. They turn a few scraps of meat into a drawn out feast.

Meatballs with pasta, American meatloaf and hamburgers absolutely have dominated our collective sense of what to expect from this kind of food. Gyros pokes it’s head up every once in a while, as does the Mexican variation on gyros: al pastor taco meat.

And then we have Swedish meatballs. There’s definitely a fad for Swedish meatballs, pushed in no small part by a certain international furniture chain. Come get some flat pack furniture, and hey, we have novelty meatballs, by the way. Something to nibble on while you’re shopping.

Yes, yes, the trend for Viking culture and imaginations of their fashion senses has been a dominant trend for the last several years. But there’s also a fascinating bit of history tucked in here, that goes beyond flat pack furniture and genealogy.

The Swedish meatball is a medieval throwback. It’s not the bright, crisp Mediterranean flavors of an Italian meatball. It’s not the plain, understated flavors of Puritan meatloaf. It’s flavored with meat spices that were rare and sought after a thousand years ago.

Pumpkin spice. Yep, that pumpkin spice. Those were the primary meat flavors in Europe, 30 or 40 generations ago. Nutmeg and allspice. Coriander, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. A pinch of exotic spices that could enliven minced meat and breadcrumbs into something heavenly. It turns out, they weren’t wrong. Pinches and hints of these spices really do transform the mundane into something extra ordinary.

Swedish meatballs preserve this history. Spices are so common these days, so easy to obtain, that we forget how precious they used to be and have kind of fallen into a rut of standard flavors. The nutmeg and allspice flavors mixed with the beef and pork can be surprisingly pleasant. A nice change from the garlic and oregano that seems to find it’s way into everything these days.

When I’m writing recipes, I tend to do my homework and read 20 to 30 versions of it — whatever is out there that I can get my hands on. I especially love old and badly written historical recipes. They can be horribly inaccurate: “add enough milk.” Enough milk to do what exactly? But sometimes you find some great tricks and hacks in there.

So here are the tricks and hacks you want to know to make your Swedish meatballs have a light, fluffy texture and hold together well.

There are breadcrumbs and egg as a binder and some dairy. I find it helpful to mix the cream and egg together, then soak the breadcrumbs in that to soften them up. This turns into a great medium for soaking up the meat juices that render out while the meatballs are cooking. Pre-soaking the crumbs also prevents them from being hard little nuggets inside the meatballs, and helps them hold the meatballs together. The breadcrumbs will “melt” a bit into the dairy and become sticky, kind of like the flour and butter roux you would use to thicken a sauce.

There are onions and garlic in the meatballs, and these seem to shine the best when they are partially liquefied and added as a wet soak with the dairy for the breadcrumbs.

It’s also good to work the meat with some salt before adding it to the breadcrumb “roux.” Roughing up the surface of the ground meat also makes it sticky and helps them hold together. This is the same principle that gyros or al pastor uses to get it to stick together in a loaf. Knead it with the salt or mix it in a big bowl with a big spoon, just get in there and work it to rough it up.

Since we’ll be making gravy with the juices that come out during cooking, it’s really best to fry them in a pan with good fat instead of baking them. Butter or bacon fat are the best. Not only for the flavor, but also for the binding properties when you are making your gravy later. As an added bonus, butter and bacon fat don’t aerosolize when you’re cooking them, so you won’t be breathing oil and it won’t end up leaving a gummy residue on the walls of your kitchen.

The meatballs want to be small. An inch or an inch and a half, to give more surface area when you are browning them up. There is no worry of them drying out while cooking. The cream, onions and breadcrumbs help trap the juices inside.

It’s simple food with a devilishly complex but subtle flavor. Traditionally served with boiled or mashed potatoes and a spot of tart fruit jam. Lingonberry jam would be the most accurate, but tart cranberry sauce is a lot easier to get a hold of in the States. Throw a green vegetable on the plate, like broccoli or kale, and you have a complete meal. This makes a great family style meal.

Chef Tibbs, also known as Joshua “Tibbs” Tibbetts, is a Cedar Rapids native who has been a professional chef for more than 30 years. Reach him at askmrtibbs@gmail.com.