10 Secrets You Didn’t Know About IKEA Meatballs

Many people think of IKEA as a Swedish furniture
store that sells inexpensive home furnishings to college students and other young people.
But there are other people who think of IKEA as a place where they can get good Swedish
meatballs for dinner. Get ready to find out 10 secrets you didn’t know about IKEA meatballs. Green “Meat” When you think of IKEA’s famous Swedish meatballs
you likely think of them as a tasty beef and pork dish. The recipe also includes some bread
crumbs, egg, onion and potato, but the exact recipe is still a guarded secret. However,
all this might be about to change for loyal customers as the furniture store’s recipes
are in the process of undergoing some changes. The company wants to do its part to be more
environmentally conscious, and using less real meat from animals in its recipes is a
way to do this. Instead of staying with traditional meat products, IKEA has experts working on
meatless alternatives using sustainable plant sources such as green algae. Meatballs made
from plants and other ingredients would help to cut down on the… gaseous “emissions”
from cattle that some people have argued contributes to global warming. While cow gas may seem
like a joke, some people seem to take it seriously and point to the industrial production of
beef and other meat as a serious problem. IKEA meatballs are known as a Kottbullar,
but this name could very well come under review as the ingredients and the recipes are being
experimented with to produce new kinds of meatless meatballs. This ongoing work reflects
shifting tastes around the world and other restaurants, and perhaps furniture stores
are bound to follow. Furniture Store To Restaurant As many as 30 percent of IKEA customers visit
the store primarily for the food and not to shop for dining room and bedroom sets. According
to the furniture giant, they sell up to one billion dollars worth of their meatballs every
year, or about one million meatballs a day – that’s a lot of meatballs! With these facts
in mind, the Swedish furniture company is getting into the restaurant business so even
more customers can taste their famous meatballs. Now you won’t have to pretend you want to
go furniture shopping to eat dinner at an IKEA. In 2017 IKEA announced plans to open
a stand alone restaurant in Live Oak, Texas that is scheduled to open in 2019. These traditional
brick and mortar locations come on the heels of IKEA pop-up restaurant locations inside
existing furniture store locations. Customers will be able to use the self-serve kitchens
to whip up their own recipes for Swedish meatballs and other IKEA favorites. As part of a dining
club, customers can attend courses and workshops to learn how to make better meatballs with
a variety of ingredients. In addition to the famous meatball recipes so many want to try,
amateur cooks of all skill levels can learn some new breakfast and lunch recipes as well.
The meatballs would probably go well with pancakes. You’d have to be quick to take advantage
of one of these pop-up restaurants because they only stay up and running for a couple
of weeks at a time. IKEA Meatballs For Everyone A lot of people love IKEA’s famous Swedish
meatballs. Many people go to one of the popular furniture store locations just to get the
tasty meatballs, but now you don’t have to leave your house to have these meatballs for
dinner. The recipes call for equal amounts of beef and pork as well as a generous helping
of potatoes. An egg, onion and cream are also called for as well as a number of spices depending
on how flavorful you prefer your Swedish meatballs. Unlike Italian meatballs that use a lot of
parmesan and garlic, Swedish meatballs call for things like allspice and nutmeg in the
traditional recipes. The potatoes not used to make the meatballs are put aside and mashed
for a hardy side dish that goes perfectly with the main dish. The gravy is integral
to making the recipe work of course, and it is made in the pan after the meatballs are
browned. To make the creamy gravy, you add some butter and flour to the drippings that
are left behind in the pan. You stir this mixture over heat for a couple of minutes,
adding some water slowly if necessary. You can serve the meatballs as they are, but many
people like to serve them over rich egg noodles or rice to complete the dish. The tender
meatballs with a rich, creamy gravy make for a popular dish that both adults and kids alike
will enjoy whether they are shopping for furniture or not. The IKEA Science Project As if the idea of replacing beef and pork
with green algae isn’t surprising enough, IKEA has experts experimenting with a number
of meat alternatives. Some of them sound decidedly unappetizing, but meatless meat seems to be
the wave of the future. Plant-based options such as algae are apparently not the only
alternatives being considered and some of them are not strictly speaking “meatless”.
How do mealworm meatballs sound to you? If they don’t sound very appetizing, you’re probably
not alone, but this hasn’t stopped IKEA from exploring the idea of using them as a substitute
for beef and pork. Even now food scientists are busy concocting who knows how many recipes
of questionable composition in a laboratory somewhere. If or when IKEA tries to market
worm balls, will the name matter? Is “crispy bug balls” supposed to make them sound better?
This sounds like a not so funny joke or at best a misguided publicity campaign to sell
even more real Swedish meatballs. IKEA spokespeople have repeatedly said that this decision was
made to help “save the planet,” which is of course a worthy goal. Hopefully Swedes and
all of those IKEA customers who love the traditional meat meatballs will make their voices and
their appetites heard, in order to find the best possible alternative. Fresh Or Frozen? Most people who eat IKEA’s Swedish meatballs
eat them at the stores dining facilities, but this doesn’t have to be the only way you
eat their delicious meatballs. Plenty of online sites offer IKEA meatballs in their frozen
form, including its own site, but also on Amazon.com. So not only can you order your
furniture online, you can get the meatballs as well. These convenient bags allow you to
easily portion out the meatballs for family dinners or just a late night snack. The meatballs
can be heated up in the oven, toaster oven, or in the microwave for the quickest results.
But perhaps for the best results, you can take a little more time and cook up the meatballs
in a pan on the stove and let them simmer in a creamy gravy until the meatballs are
completely heated through. IKEA’s site recommends you serve the meatballs with mashed potatoes,
cream sauce and Sweden’s number one dish – lingonberry jam. For customers looking for a meatless
alternative for their meatballs, IKEA’s website offers a vegetarian frozen meatball made from
things like chickpeas, green peas and carrots. The vegetarian alternative will go just as
good with the mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. Beyond Meat It seems like more people than ever, especially
millennial diners, are looking for alternatives beyond traditional meat, and IKEA is doing
what it can to help its customers get beyond it. Recently, IKEA teamed up with a food company
called Beyond Meat that makes a vegan alternative to meat that many people say is close in texture
and taste to real beef. The beyond Meat CEO is on record saying that he wants to make
real meat “obsolete” and replace all meat products. He says that Beyond Meat’s plant-based
products will lead the way in this endeavor. His furniture company partner has had a meatless
alternative to its famous Swedish meatballs available for several years, but both companies
hope that this new partnership will take the meatless meatballs to the next level. In other
meatless meat news, IKEA has also recently rolled out a vegan hot dog made from kale
and red lentils as well as strawberry dairy-free soft-serve ice cream. These new products were
initially available only at European locations. Apparently they were both relatively successful
and there are plans to offer these products at many of IKEA’s international locations.
The company seems fully committed to improving their meatless meatballs for the masses, as
well as expanding on their meatless alternatives for customers, including desserts. Turkey Meatballs The Swedish people are rightly very proud
of their meatballs. Because of this you probably were under the impression that IKEA’s famous
meatballs were invented in the Scandinavian country, but apparently you’d be wrong. Official
government sources in Sweden have had to reluctantly admit that one of their country’s most delicious
cultural treasures actually originated in a country far away from Scandinavia. The recipe
for what would become known as “Swedish meatballs” was brought back to Northern Europe by a King
named Charles XII more than 300 years ago when he returned to his homeland from a five
year exile he spent as a guest of the Ottoman Empire (the modern-day nation of Turkey.)
Although King Charles XII was an unsuccessful ruler who lost his Empire, he was successful
at enriching his fellow Swedes’ culinary choices. In addition to the meatball recipe, he also
brought back other coveted delicacies like coffee and stuffed cabbage. Swedes shouldn’t
be too disheartened by this historical development because after-all, borrowing customs, ideas
and of course food from other cultures has, for thousands of years, been one of the primary
ways people have spread good things around the world. IKEA offers its traditional beef
and pork, vegan, and chicken varieties, but ironically does not offer a meatball actually
made from turkey meat. Don’t Look A Gift Horse In The Meat Back in 2013 IKEA blamed its horse meat scandal
on a “complex supply chain.” The story first broke when a  factory in Ireland reported
that its quality control measures had discovered traces of horse meat in the meat mixture used
for hamburger patties. IKEA’s Swedish meatballs came under fire a little later when meat inspectors
in the Czech Republic found traces of horse meat in packages of frozen meatballs set for
shipment to IKEA stores in Europe. Representatives for the furniture chain indicated that the
frozen meatballs had been shipped to several countries spread across Europe including Portugal,
France, Hungary, Ireland and Greece. The spokespeople also made it clear that the tainted meatballs
had been quickly recalled and removed from store freezers. It’s unclear whether any people
complained about eating some of the meatballs and if anyone had it’s doubtful if they would
have noticed any difference. According to reports, meatballs bound for the United States
were not impacted by the scandal so those batches were not recalled. IKEA and government
employees tracking the origins of the horse meat were confronted with other cases such
as the incorrect meat being found on pizzas in Denmark. There were also reports of a couple
of other food manufacturers having to recall some of their meat products for similar reasons.
The exact cause of these mix ups was difficult to unravel, but some officials blamed it on
a simple labeling error. Whatever the cause let’s hope they have tightened up their quality
control efforts. Blame Canada? We love our Canadian neighbors to the North,
and leave it to them to make Salmon meatballs a popular dish at their IKEA stores. The Salmon
industry in Canada was happy to hear that IKEA locations in the country would be serving
the savory fish balls in addition to the traditional beef and pork meatballs. The recipe for the
Salmonballs includes seaweed and lemongrass to season them. Frozen packages of these Salmonballs
will also be available for purchase at Canadian markets. American customers will be happy
to hear that if they so choose, they can also order the healthier fish option instead of
the traditional meatballs at IKEA locations in the United States. IKEA chefs recommend
a tomato spinach ragout as a tasty side dish for the Salmonballs, but there is little doubt
many people prefer the classic mashed potatoes. You can’t go wrong with mashed potatoes, right?
IKEA is emphasizing the idea that using the parts of the Salmon for the balls that are
left after the fillets are made makes for a more sustainable food chain. The furniture
giant also claims that the fish balls have a carbon footprint that is seven times smaller
than the carbon footprint left by traditional beef and pork meatballs. So you can choose
to eat the Salmonballs because they are healthier for you or because they’re healthier for the
planet. Mystery Meatballs There are a lot of web sites and cookbooks
that claim to know how to make meatballs just like those that IKEA famously sells at its
furniture stores. Why shouldn’t IKEA work to keep its famous meatballs under wraps?
Restaurants from Burger King to The Cheesecake Factory take a lot of pride in their unique
recipes and work to keep them their own. Cloning popular commercial recipes is a pastime for
some people because they get to say they are revealing secret information, but are they
really? Of course the basic ingredients are well known and include things like: beef,
pork, potatoes, onions, bread crumbs and other seasonings. Most of the recipes provide information
on how to make the gravy as well. Some even include a recipe for the mashed potatoes.
But not all of the copycat and secret recipes call for the exact same proportions of all
the ingredients, so who’s to say which one is actually the definitive recipe? It’s certainly
possible that none of the recipes being offered on the Internet are the same as the real one.
You can make your own versions of them at home and they’ll probably make for a really
fine meal. However, you will know you’ll be getting the genuine IKEA Swedish meatballs
only if you go to one of the stores or restaurants that serve them. This way you can do some
shopping while you’re there. Get more genuine BabbleTop videos right here.
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