Finnish Meat Balls – Lihapullat

The small meat balls are one of the most popular home food in Finland and are part of the top 5 for decades. They are well known thanks to Ikea in the rest of the world as Swedish meat balls.  The meat balls are a shared history and to be fair, they are the comfort food in most Northern European countries. The meat balls are also the grandfather of todays Hamburgers.

The Finnish meat balls “kötbollar” pop already up in 1755 in Cajsa Warg's cookbook.  In 1755 most of Finland was part of the Swedish Empire. In that recipe meat, rye bread, eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg are combined. The sauce gets a pinch of sugar. Today we use breadcrumbs instead of soaked rye bread, but else its pretty much the same. In some old cookbooks the amount of meat is reduced and some cooked potatoes were mixed into the meat dough.

Ingredients (roughly 6 person):

700 Minced meat

2 dl Finnish yoghurt (kermaviili) or use cream

1 ½ - 2 dl Breadcrumbs

1-2 Eggs

1 Small onion

1 tsp Salt

½ tsp White Pepper

Oil for frying

Sauce:

1-2 dl Water

1 dl Cream

1 Tbsp. Flour

Salt & White Pepper

Instructions:

Cut the onion into small pieces and fry them brown in a bit of oil. Mix the ingredients and check if you can form small balls, if the dough is too moist, add some more breadcrumbs.

Fry them in hot oil in a pan or on a baking tray in the oven, both can be done. If you want sauce, I recommend the pan.

When the meat balls are done, put them on a plate and add some flour into the pan. Fry the flour brown in the pan and then add water and cream slowly while stirring to make sure no lumps form. Adjust tase with salt and pepper and if you want to go old fashioned add a pinch of sugar, if you want to be more “70ties” add a dash of soy sauce.

Serve with mashed potatoes and lingonberries.