I like Swedish meatballs. I've been buying Marie Callender microwave Swedish meatballs. And I was disappointed when they decided to make the product a “meal” and not just because I don't like green beans.

For me the real problem was that originally, the sauce and the noodles came in separate packages. You could microwave them the right amount for each part.

In “meal” form the sauce and noodles were mixed together and you either got luke-warm sauce with icy crystals in the meatballs or you got piping hot sauce and crispity-crunchity noodles. (Plus the problem of not letting those nasty old green beans afflict the taste.)

So I set out to learn how to make them myself. The Internet, here I come!

After reading a dozen recipes with essentially nothing in common, not even the meat involved, I'm left with a burning question:

What makes a meatball Swedish?

It doesn't appear to hamburger or pork or bread crumbs or onions or brown gravy or sour cream or (shudder) grape jelly.

My best guess is that it isn't an ingredient at all.

I think that Swedish meatballs just have to be tiny.