Tallberg recommends doubling the recipe and freezing some to save for your New Year’s party.

“Your dad’s original! It just says Christmas,” reads a note on Anders Tallberg’s family recipe for Swedish meatballs. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Serves 6
3 slices white bread, crusts removed
1 cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
4 tablespoons minced onion
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons butter
3-4 tablespoons flour

Soak the bread in the milk. Pour the soaked bread and egg into the combined meats. Mash with your hands. Then add the onion, the seasonings and the sugar. Mash the mixture with your hands again.
Shape the mixture into balls that are smaller than a golf ball but larger than a big marble.
Melt the butter in a skillet. Adding more butter as needed, brown the meatballs in batches in the skillet. When they’re all brown, return all the meatballs to the pan with a bit of water and steam them covered until they are cooked through, 20-25 minutes. Transfer the meatballs to a serving bowl or deep platter. Add the flour to the drippings, stirring, to make the gravy. Pour gravy over meatballs and serve warm.

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