Swedish Meatballs
642kcal44.5g protein43.4g fat17g carbs*Estimates computed from the ingredient list; cost uses average US supermarket prices. Not a substitute for packaging measurements or your receipt.
Contains gluten, dairy, egg
Restrictions
Containsgluten · dairy · eggIt is in an ingredient you cannot leave out.
Diets
No alcohol
Worked out from the ingredient list. It knows nothing about brands, shared equipment or cross contamination, and it is not a certification — if you have an allergy, you still have to read the label.
Ingredients
Servings:
| 2 slice |  bread (crusts off, torn — for the panade) |
| ½ cup |  milk (divided: panade and gravy) |
| 1 lb |  beef (ground) |
| 1 lb |  pork (ground) |
| 1 unit |  onion (grated) |
| 1 unit |  egg |
| ¾ tsp |  allspice (ground) |
| ¼ tsp |  nutmeg (grated) |
| 1 ½ tsp | salt (divided) |
| 3 tbsp |  butter |
| 3 tbsp |  flour |
| 2 cup |  beef stock |
| ½ cup |  heavy cream |
| 1 tsp |  mustard (Dijon, a teaspoon into the gravy) |
| ⅓ cup |  lingonberry or red currant jam (alongside) |
| 2 tbsp |  parsley (chopped) |
Optional
Not counted above. The dish works without them.
| 2 lb |  mashed potatoes or buttered noodles (the vehicle) |
Steps
- Mix8 minpanade first, then everything, rolled SMALLbread soaked in 1/4 cup milk and mashed to paste, then beef + pork + grated onion + egg + allspice + nutmeg + 1 tsp salt folded in gently and rolled into inch-wide balls — the panade is the tenderness insurance a small meatball needs, and the warm-spice pair is what makes these Swedish instead of merely small
- Sear12 minmedium-high, in butter, batches, rolled to brown all overthe meatballs browned on all faces but not cooked through — out to a plate; the browned butter and fond they leave behind is the gravy's entire flavor base, which is why the baked version costs more than it saves
- Whisk4 minthe gravy: flour into the fat, then stock in a streamflour into the pan's butter and drippings a full minute, then beef stock streamed in, scraping every browned speck loose — the roux-and-fond gravy that IKEA's version can only gesture at
- Simmer10 minmeatballs back in, cream + Dijon + remaining milk, gentlethe meatballs finishing in the gravy as it thickens to coat — the Dijon is invisible and structural, same as everywhere else in the catalog; the cream goes in off the boil and the gravy should nap a spoon, not stand on it
- Top2 minparsley over, jam besideserved over mashed potatoes or noodles with the lingonberry (or red currant) on the plate's edge — the sweet-tart jam against cream gravy is the dish's defining contrast, and eating a bite without it misses the point of Sweden's whole idea