Swedish Smoked Meatballs
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 60 g fresh breadcrumbs rounded
- 120 ml heavy cream rounded
- 750 g ground beef and pork, mixed, roughly equal parts rounded
- 80 g onion, very finely chopped rounded
- 1 egg rounded
- 4 g ground allspice rounded
- 2 g ground nutmeg rounded
- 10 g fine salt rounded
- 2 g white pepper rounded
Cream gravy
- 40 g butter rounded
- 30 g flour rounded
- 500 ml beef stock rounded
- 150 ml heavy cream rounded
- 15 ml soy sauce rounded
- to taste fine salt and black pepper rounded
To serve
- 150 g lingonberry jam (optional) rounded
Method
Method
- Preheat your smoker to 99°C (210°F), set up for indirect heat.
- Combine the breadcrumbs and cream in a bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes, until the crumbs have soaked up the cream and turned to a soft paste.
- Add the meat, onion, egg, allspice, nutmeg, salt and white pepper to the breadcrumb paste. Mix with your hands just until evenly combined.
- Shape into small, walnut-sized balls, about 25 g each. Arrange on a wire rack or directly on the smoker grate.
- Smoke for 25 to 30 minutes, until the surface is lightly coloured. They won’t be cooked through yet; that’s expected.
- While the meatballs smoke, make the gravy. Melt the butter in a wide pan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the stock, then the cream, until smooth. Simmer for 5 minutes, until thickened.
- Stir in the soy sauce for colour and depth. Season with salt and pepper.
- Transfer the smoked meatballs into the gravy. Simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, turning occasionally, until the internal temperature reaches 71°C and the meatballs are cooked through.
- Serve with lingonberry jam and mashed or boiled potatoes.
Notes
- Smoke the meatballs only partway, then finish them by poaching in the gravy rather than pushing them all the way to temperature on the smoker. Poaching keeps them tender through the last stretch of cooking and lets them actually absorb the sauce, where continuing on dry heat the whole way would dry out a mixture this lean and leave the sauce sitting on top rather than soaking in.
- Soak the breadcrumbs in cream before they meet the meat. A traditional Swedish meatball is leaner than an Italian one; the soaked crumb is what keeps it tender rather than dense once it’s been through the smoker.
- The soy sauce is not traditional, but it isn’t out of place either. It’s there for colour and a savoury backbone in the gravy, in the same spirit as the Worcestershire sauce many Swedish home cooks already add.
- Keep the meatballs small. Traditional köttbullar are bite-sized; a large meatball takes longer to smoke through and is more likely to dry out before it reaches the gravy stage.
Ingredient substitutions
- All beef or all pork works if that’s what’s on hand, though the classic flavour comes from the mix.
- A splash of dill, stirred into the gravy at the end, is a common Swedish variation.
- Beef stock can be swapped for chicken stock for a lighter gravy.