Swedish Meatballs w/Grape Jelly Recipe

I am looking for a swedish meatball recipe where the sauce for the meatballs is made with grape jelly and chili sauce. My grandmother used to make these for us when I was a kid. I would like to make these as an appetizer on Thanksgiving and have done some research but I cannot find a recipe from a reputable source. If anyone has a recipe that they are willing to share I would be most grateful.

Googling "Meatballs Grape Jelly" brings a plethora of recipe sources (I am surprised because I've never heard of this). Not sure what you consider a reputable source? Here's one from epicurean.com:

Ingredients:
2 lbs. lean ground beef
2 eggs
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
Salt and black pepper, to taste
2 bottles (8 oz. each) chili sauce
1 cup grape jelly
4 tsps. lemon juice

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine ground beef, eggs, bread crumbs, water and garlic salt. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Shape beef mixture into 1-inch balls.
In a large skillet, combine chili sauce, grape jelly and lemon juice, mix well. Add meatballs. Cook, covered, over low heat 45 minutes, or unitl meatballs are done. Transfer meatballs and sauce to a chafing dish for serving. Makes about 7 dozen.

I had these at a pot luck once (in Wisconsin natch). They were pretty damn tasty.

These are generally called cocktail meatballs and you can definitely find recipes online - most will be pretty similar if not exactly the same.

The recipe was in the original "I Hate to Cook Book," circa 1963 - pretty common early sixties cocktail party fare, according to Peg Bracken (along with rumaki and cocktail weenies). If you can find a copy, look in the chapter called "Canapes and other Heartburn Specials" (I'm going from memory here - my copy is at my ex's house, sad to say.)

But please, DON'T call them Swedish! There's nothing remotely Swedish about this recipe, other than that the meat is formed into spheres.

You are looking for the wrong recipe. You need to look for either cocktail which was mentioned in a previous post or 'sweet and sour' meatballs.

I have made these numerous times and cannot remember ever using a recipe beyond the following:

1 jar of chili sauce
1 jar of grape jelly
1-2 lbs. of ground beef/pork combo
1 or 2 eggs
bread crumbs (if necessary)
chopped onions
garlic
salt/pepper and any other seasoning which sounds good that day

Usually mix finely chopped onions and a little garlic in the meat, as well as saute some onions in the pot, before adding the chili sauce and jelly

hell, why bother with all the work, just use cocktail wieners!

sundevilpeg wrote: But please, DON'T call them Swedish! There's nothing remotely Swedish about this recipe, other than that the meat is formed into spheres.

Boy I'm glad someone did that for me! Thanks, sundevilpeg!

I'm making a similar recipe with Cranberry Jelly instead of Grape for tomorrow.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cocktail-M ... etail.aspx

Sweet and sour meatballs were considered very elegant by Jewish hostesses in the 1950s and 1960s. My aunt, a very good American Jewish cook of that era, made them very well. Unfortunately I can't find her exact recipe, but it is close to what has already been posted (using all beef). She always made them as an appetizer and formed then very small; she served them in a chafing dish with toothpicks. We would eat them in the living room before we sat down for the meal. I made them once as a sort of retro appetizer, and I have to say, people liked them.

Joan Nathan in her Jewish Cooking in America gives her mother's recipe for sweet and sour meatballs, which uses tomato puree, chili sauce, brown sugar and a little lemon juice for the sauce. The venerable Settlement Cook Book, 1948 edition, has a recipe for "Chopped Beef, Sweet Sour," that uses water, raisins, sugar, and a lemon to make the sauce. Let me know if you would like me to post either recipe.

hell, why bother with all the work, just use cocktail wieners!

Sometimes, you just need a Tipsy Wiener. I like the variety of sausages used (I try to use 3 different kinds when I make them).

My friend whose mother is a gourmet cook used to make these meatballs for all her parties. They always were gone immediately. I made them for an office party one year and they were a big hit. My recipes tend to be a little...um...detailed.

Alyssa's Meatballs in Sauce
Makes about 25-30 meatballs

2 pounds ground beef
1 cup breadcrumbs (about 1 piece of bread’s worth)
⅔ cup minced onions
2 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley (or 1 tbsp dry)
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 12-oz bottles chili sauce
2 10-oz jars grape jelly (if you get the 12 oz jars, only use half of the second jar)

Set the oven to broil.

Combine the first set of ingredients, working with the mixture lightly until just mixed (or meatballs will be tough). Make the meatballs about ¾ of an inch in diameter. Place them in an ungreased baking pan with short sides.

Broil about 4 inches from broiler. When the top is browned well, turn each meatball to brown the other side. I used a meat thermometer to get them to 160 degrees, but once both sides are browned they are probably fine. You may have to broil in two batches.

Combine the chili sauce and the grape jelly in a saucepan. Cook sauce on medium, stirring often, until jelly is melted. Add cooked meatballs and simmer a little bit if you like the sauce thicker.

I put a little sauce in the broiling pan and scraped out the brown bits into the sauce. This is optional.

For next day crockpot use, keep the meatballs and sauce separated. Heat the sauce in a microwave, then transfer meatballs and sauce to a crockpot and keep on high for an hour or two until hot. You may want to heat the meatballs in the microwave before doing this if you are in a hurry or worried about reheating meat too slowly.

(Variation—The original recipe called for browning meatballs in shortening, taking them out of the saucepan, and then making sauce in the pan you used for browning. I broiled the meatballs instead to cut down the fat in the recipe and because seemed like less work to broil.)

Generally I am not a fan of these things, however a friends mistake one time led to them being delicious. Instead of using Chili Sauce such as Heinz, she used a hot Thai Chili sauce similar to Siracha. They were sweet and fiery, good stuff.

brandon_w wrote:Instead of using Chili Sauce such as Heinz, she used a hot Thai Chili sauce similar to Siracha. They were sweet and fiery....

I bet they were fiery if the sauce was 50% thai chili sauce!

A rather dumbed down variant an old girlfriend used to prepare involved frozen meatballs, a jar of grape jelly, a bottle of yellow mustard and a crock pot. My expectations couldn't have been much lower, but that said, they were exceeded. Embarrassingly noshable in an "I can't believe that actually kind of works" sort of way. Not to be confused with food, of course, but strangely compelling.

Of course, this was college.

Dmnkly wrote:A rather dumbed down variant an old girlfriend used to prepare involved frozen meatballs, a jar of grape jelly, a bottle of yellow mustard and a crock pot. My expectations couldn't have been much lower, but that said, they were exceeded. Embarrassingly noshable in an "I can't believe that actually kind of works" sort of way. Not to be confused with food, of course, but strangely compelling.

Of course, this was college.

I came home one time and ate a whole head of iceberg lettuce, plain, like an apple. So I ain't sayin nuthin.