Swedish Meatballs, revised

A little over a year ago, I posted a recipe for Swedish Meatballs. The picture looked like this:


Not so appetizing, although at the time I thought the picture looked good. I hope my photography skills keep improving.

I liked this dish the first time I blogged it, but thought the sauce was thin, and there wasn't nearly enough of it. I searched for another recipe, and thought Alton Brown's sounded good. So I combined elements of the CI recipe and the AB recipe. I loved how the meatballs and the sauce turned out.


Swedish Meatballs
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, January/February 2009
And Alton Brown

2 slices fresh white bread
¼ c milk
2 Tbs olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
¾ lb ground beef
¾ lb ground pork
1 egg
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground allspice
1 tsp packed light brown sugar
Vegetable oil for frying

¼ c all purpose flour
3 c beef broth
¼ c milk


Tear up bread into small pieces. Place in a bowl with ¼ c milk, and let sit.

Heat olive oil in a skillet with over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until soft. Remove from heat.

Place bread/milk mixture, sauted onions, ground beef, and ground pork in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until well combined. Add egg, salt, pepper, nutmeg, allspice, and brown sugar and mix for another minute.

Pour vegetable oil into a large dutch oven until it is 1-inch high. Heat to 300˚F. While oil is heating, shape meat into 1-inch balls. Fry in batches (can place meatballs close together in the oil), turning once, until browned on all sides, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer cooked meatballs to paper towels. Drain the oil from the dutch oven but leave as much of the browned bits as possible. Lower heat to medium-low, return dutch oven to stove, and add the flour. Stir and cook for 1 minute. Very gradually add the beef broth, whisking constantly to minimize lumps. Stir in the milk. Simmer until gravy reaches desired consistency, add meatballs, and simmer another 5 minutes.