Swedish Meatballs, Like My Mama Used to Make ‘Em

Sep 4, 2010

When I was a kid, one of my favorite meals was Swedish meatballs. Now my kids eat them – and I use exactly the same recipe my mom did.

There is a very special secret ingredient to my recipe.

The McCormick Swedish Meatballs Seasoning & Sauce Mix.

If you came across this blog looking for some old, family-heirloom recipe with a true secret, I am sorry to disappoint. My mom dutifully put a home-cooked dinner on our table almost every night of my young life, but an adventurous or thrilled cook she was not. And cooking for five picky kids will certainly take any fire for culinary experimentation right out of you, I imagine. Our weekly menus consisted of basics like these Swedish meatballs, spaghetti, tater tot casserole, rice-and-hamburger casserole (which may be, to this day, the only food my dad has ever refused to eat), stuffed peppers, goulash, baked chicken, potato-and-hot-dog-and-onion fry, and so on. Recipes were quick, easy and cheap. My parents would buy half a cow and we ate a lot of ground beef. Nothing fancy like pre-cut chicken breasts like spoiled me gets nowadays.

I am pretty sure I have never had real Swedish meatballs, but I imagine they are more labor-intensive than the ones I make. A quick search online turned up cook times of an hour! And that is the beauty of the McCormick seasoning packet. As long as I have milk, ground beef, some sort of pasta and 20 minutes, I am good to go. And I can at least pretend I’m making something interesting.

Since I can’t really share a recipe here (instructions are conveniently written on the packet!) I can share a tip for decent stove-top meatballs. Maybe this is common knowledge and I’m the last person to know, but just in case YOU are the last person to know, I wanted to give you my insights into making sure the meatballs do stay ball-shaped and don’t burn. Because up until about two years ago every batch I made looked more like slightly singed, fat, mini beef pancakes than meat spheres.

First, I use a tablespoon to make sure my meatballs are uniform in size. Some people may be good at estimating this, but I’m not one of those people. I put the meatballs into a cold skillet, then cover and cook over medium heat until the meatballs brown. Turn them over with a spoon and cook a little longer (I know, my times are so scientific, aren’t they? Next time I will write down how long they cook for). Drain the fat from the pan and continue with packet instructions.

Anyway, there you have it, my method for making truly round meatballs on the stove top.

This “recipe” gets a 5/6 star rating at our house. Grant won’t eat ground beef, but everyone else eats it. And as any other mom knows, anytime you’ve found a food that 50% or more of those in the house actually eat, you consider it a success.