Mom's Christmas Swedish Meatballs

Submitted by pammyowl

"My mom found this recipe years ago in the newspaper and has perfected it over the years. We all make it every year for Christmas, it just isn't Christmas without these luscious meatballs!"

 

• Ready In: 2hrs
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 10-12

ingredients

• 2 cups chopped onions
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups breadcrumbs
• 2 quarts half-and-half
• 2 1⁄2 lbs ground beef
• 1 1⁄2 lbs ground pork
• 3 - 3 1⁄2 teaspoons salt
• 3⁄4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 4 beaten eggs
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1⁄4 cup butter
• 1⁄4 cup flour

directions

1. Saute onions in 3 T. butter. Let cool a bit and lightly mix the meat, onions, bread crumbs, eggs, 1 1/2 cups of the cream. salt, pepper, nutmeg and parsley. Form into meatballs, about the size of a small walnut, place on cookie trays, and bake at 375 for 20-25 mn.
2. Put in two casseroles, and make the cream gravy.
3. Melt the 1/4 cup butter in a large, heavy saucepan Add the 1/4 cup flour, a touch more salt and pepper, cook for at least one minute. Do not brown. Gradually add the remaining cream, stirring continuously, until thickened. I like to add some Kitchen Bouquet for more flavor and some color at this point.
4. Pour over the meatballs.
5. Note: At this point, we generally freeze them and then defrost and bake for an hour or so on Christmas, as this recipe makes a lot of meatballs, so it is time consuming and who wants to do all that on the day of, right?.
6. Also, you can freeze the cooked meatballs alone, and make the gravy later and pour it over the meatballs right before you bake them.

Reviews

[Deely]

Just WOW! This recipe is the real deal. I halved the recipe and still had enough to freeze for another day. It was a cold and rainy day, which led my decision to spend the day playing in the kitchen. This recipe was the centerpiece of the menu. I started out by grinding my own beef and pork, then followed the instructions to the letter. These really are restaurant quality and will be my go to recipe for guests. I served with brown rice, fresh baby lima beans and homemade bread. Made for the Cook-a-Thon in memory of pammyowl. RIP

 

[I'mPat]

I scaled the recipe back to make a 1/4 of the recipe and got 20 35gram meatballs so had enough for 3 of us and some left over when served over pasta. I did have to use half thick cream and hi lo milk to make the sauce and it was still very rich so much so that I could only eat 3 of my meatballs and half the pasta but the meatballs were absolutely delicious. Made in pammyowls memory for here cookathon.

 

[rosie316]

Excellent recipe! I made these for dinner for just hubby and I, so I halved the recipe, and we still have a lot left-over. All the ingredients are pretty basic, and this was extremely easy to prepare (just a little time consuming, but well worth it). I originally planned to make these as an appetizer for Christmas, so when I do, I will definitely make the entire batch (I'm sure they will go quick). For last nights dinner, I served the meatballs and gravy over wide egg noodles. And I, too, added a splash of Kitchen Bouquet to the gravy for a tad bit of color and a little boost of flavor. Made in memory of my dear friend Pammy.

 

[Mia in Germany]

These are utterly delicious! Although we usually don't eat pork, I did use the pork in this recipe, and we definitely liked it very much. In place of the half and half I used almond cream, also I used gluten free breadcrumbs. I'll make these again! Thanks for sharing :)<br/>Made for Make My Recipe Reunion Tag Game AUS/NZ Forum

 

[breezermom]

My son got home from college tonight at 8, and Swedish meatballs is one of his favorite recipes. I made the meatballs last night, so all I had to do was make the sauce tonight. I used 2 lbs ground chuck and 1 lb ground pork (I had a 1 lb pkg), so scaled the recipe accordingly. This made a ton of meatballs!! So tonight I made half the sauce and used half the meatballs....now this was for 2 people, and the recipe says 10-12. I had 4 meatballs over noodles, my DS ate the rest. I'd say the recipe was a success. The remaining meatballs will be frozen and shipped back to college with him in a cooler after the holiday weekend! I'll give him the sauce recipe. Too dark and late for photos tonight....sorry! Thanks for sharing! Made for Newest tag game.