Ikea Swedish Meatballs

First off I have to admit that I have written this review a couple times already and admittedly I was so angry I couldn't write it properly. So after trying to settle down a bit, here goes:<br/><br/>a. The recipe is very poorly written. I have provided many recipes over the years to family, friends and as contributions to charity/fundraiser cookbooks. I write recipes in painstaking detail...nothing unnecessary...so that the cook who is using my recipe doesn't have to guess about what they need to do. EVERYTHING must be spelled out precisely.<br/><br/>b. When I am following a recipe I prepare all the ingredients as listed and described completely so when it's time to use them I'm not scurrying around for something.<br/> i. Direction number two is "Fry the onion till golden in a couple of tablespoons of lightly browned butter. The recipe calls for 2 TBSP of butter. Direction number 7 is "Fry them slowly in plenty of butter." What is PLENTY of butter. This needs to be more specific. When cooks have prepared something many times they progress beyond needing specific amounts often, because they have personalized the recipe and it's their own. But this and every published recipe must be done as though the chef is making the recipe for the first time. Because this was my first time, as I said, I followed the directions exactly.<br/> ii. Based on the list of ingredients I made sure I had soy sauce on hand. Admittedly the recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon of soy sauce. REALLY? In a pound of meat 1/4 teaspoon of soy sauce. BUT WAIT: after making sure you have the soy sauce, it is never mentioned again. Where are we to put the soy sauce? In the meat? In the cream sauce?<br/> iii. The ingredients call for "1/2 cup cream {half and half} or 1/2 cup milk. I'm sorry but this is unintelligible. Should we use cream or half and half or milk. Why is "half and half" in brackets? Cream is cream. Half and half is half and half and milk is milk. DECIDE and then tell us what to do. If we want to change it to accommodate a particular lifestyle we will change it, but please be clear about what the cook is supposed to use...i.e., tell us what the standard of "excellence" is for this recipe. What, in your mind, makes it best????????<br/><br/>c. After assembling the called for ingredients (and absolutely omitting the water because by the time all the other ingredients were assembled it was raw soup, not able to be formed into meatballs) I could not begin to move forward with shaping them into balls.<br/><br/>d. I suggest the following which I did in an effort to save the $25 i spent on meat and ingredients I didn't have on hand: (again, if you want to make changes to make it your own, OK, but I can only tell you what worked for me.<br/> i. Use cream, not half and half and not milk. Use 1/3 cup.<br/> ii. Completely omit the water.<br/> iii.Based on this recipe, use at least 1/2c dried breadcrumbs and more if necessary.<br/> iv. Add some flavor to the meat. There is nothing but allspice and that, according to the <br/>"source" is optional. I don't know about you, but I think meatballs are basically mini/round meatloaves. I do not make a meatloaf devoid of seasoning. Why would I make a meatball devoid of seasoning. YES, I know that people rave about the sauce, but I have learned this in my years of cooking: if the meat itself is not seasoned and only depends on the sauce it's in for flavor, what you get is a mouthful of unflavored meat with some sauce on it. I learned this the hard way with "The Best Chili You Will Ever Taste" when I thought the chili was magnificent until i tasted the meat and it was like having a mouthful of flavorless..something. Meat needs to be able to stand on its own and then be enhanced by a sauce...the sauce cannot make up for flavorless meat. I don't know what Ikea meatballs are like...perhaps they are supposed to be bland and let the sauce do the work....personally, I added two teaspoons of cumin, two teaspoons of ground coriander, two teaspoons of ground fennel and3 cloves of garlic to go along with the onion.<br/> v. Chill the meatball mixture for 2 hours. More is OK, less is not a good idea.<br/> vi. Don't just cook the meatballs slowly in plenty of butter. Use two tablespoons of butter, CLARIFIED if possible, and two tablespoons of olive oil. Because you are cooking slowly, so as to make sure the meatball is cooked through without the outside being ruined, you can use olive oil despite it relatively low smoking point. It will be OK...but cook on medium heat at best. I'm not being specific here because there are so many permutations of ranges...I use a Viking stovetop and have complete control...so anything wrong is my fault...to lower and raise temp immediately. <br/><br/>I have now, based on the original recipe and only adding extra breadcrumbs and omitting the water...tried frying these little clumps. They are flavorless by themselves and beg for the seasonings i mentioned above. The texture is wonderful but the meatballs remain flavorless.<br/>Here's a great chance for you to season to your heart's content....or not...it's up to you how you want your meatballs to taste!!<br/><br/>Anyway, I'm sorry that this didn't turn out the way it should. Thank you Dee_73 for giving us a great starting point to make some incredo meatballs. I suggest making changes which will make these little morsels quite tasty. I can't comment on the cream sauce yet.....

The water has been removed from the recipe above; the original IKEA recipe calls for a mixture of cream and water, so I think that's where the issue is coming from. I would probably use heavy cream as personal preference.

My meal turned out edible but I had a few challenges with this recipe. First, the ingredients aren't listed in the order they are used, so that is a little confusing. Second, wasn't sure about the mashed potatoes as I haven't ever heard of putting them in meatballs before. I added them and my meatballs were ok but I still am not sure if that was what I was supposed to do. Not sure about the 2T of butter listed at the end of the meatball list... maybe that is what is used to saute them. I didn't include in my meatballs. Finally, I did not include the water as the meatball mixture was extremely moist already. As for the sauce, the flavor wasn't what I expected. Mine didn't thicken nor did it have much flavor - so I added dill and thyme and used cornstarch to thicken. Also, I added the soy sauce to the sauce after I added the other liquids, the directions don't mention it though it is in the ingredient list. If you make these, my best recommendation is to read the recipe a few times before you start!

This was fantastic! i love ikea meatballs and buy them frozen to make at home, but when i'm out, this is a great fix! I would make the following changes: 1 - I don't think i'll add the water to the meatballs next time. They did fall apart easily and needed to be a bit more dense. 2- the gravy is spot-on! Mine was a little thin so i might add a bit more flour, but the flavor is perfect! 3 - I might try baking the meatballs next time instead of frying in butter... tastey but that's alot of butter! :) Plus baking is just easy and i'm lazy!

These were really nice. I used all beef, omitted the water from the meatballs, added a pinch of ginger & nutmeg to the sauce. Served with egg noodles. I also made the sauce first & simmered the raw meatballs for a few hours in the sauce (which is how I like to make meatballs best). The meatballs were flavorful, tender & really melded well with the sauce after simmering for a few hours. Thanks for sharing.