Hairy Bikers Swedish Meatballs Recipe

Four anchovy fillets in a meatball recipe sounds wrong until you taste what they do to 600g of pork mince. They dissolve during baking and add a salty depth that makes these Hairy Bikers Swedish meatballs from British Classics better than anything from a flat-pack furniture store. It serves 4 to 6 at around 440 calories with a cream and lingonberry gravy.

IKEA sells two million meatballs a day, but Si and Dave say to forget queuing with a wardrobe on your back and make your own at home. The Scandinavians agreed, because they cooked this recipe on their Baltic TV series and were told the meatballs were sensational.

The gravy roux cooks for 5 to 10 minutes rather than the usual two, which turns the flour golden brown before anything else goes in. That colour is what gives the gravy its nutty depth, so do not rush it.

Hairy Bikers Swedish Meatballs Recipe

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Baking Cuisine:British Swedish Courses:Main Course

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 25 minutesCook time: 40 minutesRest time: minutesTotal time:1 hour 5 minutesServings:5 servingsCalories:440 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

Pork or wild boar meatballs with anchovy fillets, allspice, nutmeg, and milk mixed in by hand, baked at 200°C then simmered in a white wine gravy finished with cream and lingonberry jam. Served with dill and mashed potato.

Ingredients

For the Meatballs:

• 600g pork or wild boar, minced
• 4 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
• 100g breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 50ml milk or single cream
• ½ tsp allspice
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• Sea salt and black pepper

For the Gravy:

• 25g butter
• 25g flour
• 100ml white wine
• 500ml beef stock
• 2 tbsp single cream
• 1 tbsp lingonberry jam or redcurrant jelly, plus extra to serve

To Serve:

• A few dill sprigs, finely chopped
• Mashed potato

Instructions

1. Cook the onion: Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion until soft and translucent, then add the garlic for another minute. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool completely.
2. Mix and shape: Put the cooled onion and garlic in a large bowl with the mince, anchovies, breadcrumbs, egg, milk, allspice, and nutmeg. Mix thoroughly with your hands and season well. Shape into 24 balls between the size of a walnut and a golf ball, roughly 40g each.
3. Bake: Place the meatballs on a baking tray and bake for 12 to 15 minutes until cooked through.
4. Make the gravy: Melt the butter in a pan large enough to hold the meatballs. Stir in the flour and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the roux turns golden brown. Add the wine and stir vigorously, then gradually pour in the beef stock, stirring well between each addition to avoid lumps. Stir in the cream and lingonberry jam, and season to taste.
5. Combine and serve: Add the baked meatballs to the gravy and simmer gently for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with chopped dill, extra jam on the side, and plenty of mashed potato.

FAQs

Why put anchovy fillets in Swedish meatballs?

Nobody will taste fish in the finished meatball, because the fillets melt into the pork and leave only a salty savouriness behind. This is the same trick Italian cooks use in lamb roasts and pasta sauces, where anchovies work as a seasoning rather than a flavour.

Four fillets across 24 meatballs means each ball gets a tiny amount, so nobody eating them would guess. The recipe does not draw attention to them in the headnote, which suggests Si and Dave wanted people to taste the result before learning what was in there.

Why cook the roux for 5 to 10 minutes?

Most gravy recipes cook the roux for a minute until the raw flour taste goes. This recipe pushes that to 5 to 10 minutes until the mixture turns golden brown, which toasts the flour and gives the gravy a deeper, nuttier flavour.

Stir it regularly during those minutes because the flour can burn, and burnt roux tastes bitter. The golden colour sets the base, so when wine and stock go in you already have something rich rather than a pale white sauce.

Can I use pork instead of wild boar?

Yes, and the recipe lists both equally as “pork or wild boar, minced” so neither is a substitute for the other. Wild boar has a slightly gamier taste with less fat, while standard pork gives a milder, softer meatball that most people prefer.

Wild boar mince is harder to find outside specialist butchers, so pork is the practical choice. The spaghetti and meatballs from Everyday Winners also uses pork, but with pine nuts and lemon zest instead of anchovies and allspice.

What is lingonberry jam and do I need it?

Lingonberry jam is a Swedish preserve made from small red berries that taste like a cross between cranberries and redcurrants. The recipe says “if you can’t find any, good old redcurrant jelly works fine” so do not skip the step, just swap the ingredient.

The jam goes into the gravy and adds a sharp sweetness that balances the cream. IKEA sells lingonberry jam in their food hall for a couple of pounds, which is worth knowing if you want the authentic version.

Is there a lighter version of this recipe?

The Hairy Dieters cookbook has Swedish meatballs at 415 calories using a pork and beef mix with Worcestershire sauce instead of anchovies. The gravy swaps the butter roux for cornflour and uses reduced fat crème fraîche instead of cream.

The Dieters version replaces lingonberry with redcurrant jelly and skips the wine, so the gravy tastes cleaner but thinner. For fewer calories without losing the full flavour, serve less mash and add steamed green vegetables alongside.