BETTY’S SWEDISH MEATBALLS

SEASON 3, EPISODE 6

“Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency”

“Hot or cold? Swedish meatballs or chicken salad?” asks Betty Draper when Don comes home late from work on evening. Don chooses the chicken salad, but we chose the meatballs, thinking Betty’s Nordic heritage might mean she knows a thing or two about preparing them properly.

Traditional Swedish meatballs are topped with a brown gravy, but over the years some in the United States began preparing them with a cream-based sauce. Often eaten as an appetizer, typically off the end of a toothpick, they can also serve as an entrée. When presented as a main course, they are often accompanied by lingonberry jam, cranberry sauce, egg noodles, or mashed potatoes.

Brought to America at the beginning of the twentieth century by Swedish immigrants who settled in the upper midwest, these bite-sized meatballs enjoyed great popularity in the 1950s and ’60s, especially as an hors d’oeuvre, or as part of a buffet—smorgasbord in Swedish—or potluck supper.

Meatballs aren’t exclusively Swedish; every Scandinavian country has its version made with veal, pork, or beef, or any combination of the three. The Scandinavian meatball tradition began as a way of using leftover meat—considered a luxury item not to be wasted—and there are countless recipes with variations in spices and cooking techniques. Some call for cooking in the oven, while others require pan frying.

A casserole dish filled with these tasty treats would have been very much at home at the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Christmas Party (season 4, episode 2, “Christmas Comes But Once Year”) or at any festive 1960s occasion. There are countless recipes for Swedish meatballs from the 1960s to choose from, but we adapted ours from The Boston Globe Cookbook for Brides (1963).

Swedish Meatballs

ADAPTED FROM THE BOSTON GLOBE COOKBOOK FOR BRIDES, EDITED BY NELL GILES AHERN (THE GLOBE NEWSPAPER COMPANY, 1963)

NOTE: You can serve these over egg noodles for dinner or alone as an appetizer.

1 cup soft bread crumbs

¹⁄₃ cup milk

1 pound ground beef

¹⁄₂ cup finely grated onion

1 egg, beaten

³⁄₄ teaspoon salt

¹⁄₈ teaspoon ground black pepper

¹⁄₄–¹⁄₂ teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 beef bouillon cube, dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water

¹⁄₂ cup light cream or half-and-half

1. Soften bread crumbs in milk in a mixing bowl. Drain excess milk. Add beef, onions, egg, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and mix and combine with hands.
2. Shape into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Melt butter in a large skillet; add meatballs and brown over medium low heat. Remove with a slotted spoon to a baking dish.
3. Whisk flour into pan drippings and blend well. Cook, stirring constantly, until bubbly. Gradually add beef broth to the flour mixture, stirring constantly until smooth. Add cream or half-and-half. Continue cooking for approximately 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens.
4. Add meatballs to sauce, and simmer for 10–15 minutes, stirring occasionally until sauce is of desired consistency. Serve warm.

YIELD: APPROXIMATELY 24 MEATBALLS