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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Sweden
Small meatballs made with ground meat, fried in butter and served with cream sauce, potatoes, lingonberry jam and pickled cucumber. They are Sweden’s best-known home dish, with the first printed recipe appearing in a 1755 cookbook.
Traditional dish from Sweden
Also known as: Köttbulle (singular), svenska köttbullar, almôndegas suecas
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Köttbullar — Sweden
Köttbullar are the Swedish dish best known outside the country. They are small meatballs made from ground beef or a mix of beef and pork, with onion, breadcrumbs or bread soaked in milk, egg and seasonings such as allspice, shaped by hand and fried in butter until browned.
The word köttbulle first appears in print in the cookbook by Cajsa Warg, Hjelpreda i hushållningen för unga fruentimber, published in Stockholm in 1755. Cajsa Warg worked as a housekeeper in the homes of capital-city families, and the book was one of the most used in Sweden for generations. Dishes of minced meat formed into balls, boiled or fried, existed earlier, and the spread of the meat grinder in the 19th century made meatballs easier to prepare at home.
A popular theory says King Charles XII brought the recipe from the Ottoman Empire, where he lived in exile in the early 18th century, and the idea gained traction in 2018 when an official Swedish account repeated it. Historians, however, point out there is no source linking the king to the meatballs; the connection to Charles XII’s court is clearer in the case of kåldolmar, the cabbage rolls.
The classic way to serve them combines meatballs, a cream sauce made from the pan drippings, mashed or boiled potatoes, lingonberry jam and sweet pickled cucumber. Köttbullar appear at everyday lunches and dinners, on restaurant menus and at celebratory tables, such as the Christmas julbord and the smörgåsbord.
Sweden
A home-country dish found across Sweden, without regional ties; the first printed recipe is from Cajsa Warg’s book, published in Stockholm in 1755.
Ground beef or a mix of beef and pork, onion, breadcrumbs or bread soaked in milk, egg, salt, black pepper and allspice, butter for frying; for the sauce, pan drippings, stock and cream.
Served hot, with cream sauce, mashed or boiled potatoes, lingonberry jam and sweet pickled cucumber. At festive tables they also appear on their own, served with a toothpick.
Everyday lunch and dinner; a traditional presence on the julbord at Christmas and on the smörgåsbord.
Your questions
It’s a popular theory, tied to King Charles XII’s exile in the Ottoman Empire, but historians say there is no source that proves the connection. The first printed Swedish recipe dates from 1755.
With cream sauce, potatoes or mashed potatoes, lingonberry jam and sweet pickled cucumber.
The cook Cajsa Warg, in the book Hjelpreda i hushållningen för unga fruentimber, from 1755.
Flavors of Sweden
Raw salmon fillet cured in a mixture of salt, sugar and dill, sliced very thin and served with hovmästarsås, a sweet mustard-and-dill sauce. The name means “buried salmon” and recalls the old method of preserving the fish under the ground.
Sweet yeast bread flavored with cardamom, rolled with butter, sugar and cinnamon, and topped with pearl sugar. It is the pastry most associated with fika, the coffee break, and even has its own day in the Swedish calendar, Kanelbullens dag, on October 4.
Dome-shaped cake with layers of sponge cake, raspberry jam, vanilla cream, and lots of whipped cream, covered by a green marzipan sheet and decorated with a pink marzipan rose. The name recalls the three princess daughters of Prince Carl, pupils of Jenny Åkerström, the recipe’s author.
Wheat bread with cardamom, cut open at the top, filled with almond paste and whipped cream and topped with the cut-off lid dusted with sugar. It’s the sweet eaten on fettisdagen, the Fat Tuesday, and descends from the hetvägg, bread eaten soaked in warm milk.
Tall, hollow, lace-like cake made from eggs, sugar and potato starch, poured little by little onto a rotating spit in front of heat, layer by layer. Decorated with white or pink icing, it is a celebratory sweet from Skåne, and the name Skånsk spettkaka is protected by the European Union.
Cubes of beef tenderloin, potato and onion browned separately and served side by side, with a raw egg yolk in the center and mustard or mustard cream. Named after the Hotel Rydberg, which operated on Gustav Adolfs torg in Stockholm, where the dish is said to have originated.
Baked saffron rice pudding tart with eggs, cream and almonds, yellow in color, served warm or cold with salmbär jam and whipped cream. Despite the name “pancake,” it’s baked in a pan. It is the sweet most associated with the island of Gotland.
A white stick candy with red spiral stripes and peppermint flavor, pulled and twisted by hand. It originated in Gränna, on the shore of Lake Vättern, where the widow Amalia Eriksson obtained a license to make it in 1859, and the town remains the center of its production.
Baked dessert made from curdled milk using rennet, enriched with eggs, cream, sugar and almonds, with a moist, granular texture. Served warm with jam and whipped cream, it is the festival specialty most associated with the Småland region, with Swedish records dating back to the 16th century.
Large potato dough dumplings filled with bacon or pork and onion, cooked in water and served with melted butter and red bilberry jam. The Öland version, gray and made with raw potato, and the Småland version, lighter and made with cooked potato, are the best known.
Boiled dumpling made from raw grated potato and wheat or barley flour, filled with pork, served with butter and red bilberry jam. It’s an everyday food in northern Sweden, and the name comes from the town of Piteå, considered the Swedish center of palt.
Baltic herring, lightly salted and fermented, canned in summer; strong-smelling with a salty, acidic taste. It’s eaten on the thin flatbread tunnbröd with potato, red onion and sour cream, in a communal meal at the end of summer. The tradition links the dish to the Norrland coast and the island of Ulvön in the High Coast (Höga Kusten).
