Paleo Swedish – Koenigsburger Klopps

I once handed my card to a pastry chef from Durham.

"Paleo-culinary ethnography?" She laughed and walked away.

Yeah, well.
Paleo-culinary ethnography is what I call American food before it became fashionable – before the Food Network and even before Julia Child. I do try to take it seriously. I do own a dozen or so cookbooks that are older that I am. And I do stick my proboscis into them trying to excavate something interesting in order to turn back the clock. And in spite (or despite) of the levity I generate in the professional foodie community, I will endeavor to persevere.

Nosing about one of my 29 (wink, wink) year old mother's cookbooks, I happened on a recipe for Koenigsberger klopps – Swedish meatballs. This household has a fetish for nearly all things Swedish – both a Volvo and a Saab in the garage, a bottle of Absolut in the freezer, and Dux to sleep in upstairs – and this Pre-Eisenhower recipe works well steamed potatoes and green beans.

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 1 pound ground beef
  
• 1 pound ground pork
  
• ½ half of a large onion, grated
  
• 5 egg whites, well beaten
  
• 1/3 to ½ cup breadcrumbs
  
• Sal, pepper, and nutmeg to taste
  

Sauce

• 3 cups water
  
• ½ onion grated
  
• 4 bay leaves
  
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon of salt
  
• 1 tablespoon of peppercorns
  
• 1 tablespoon of allspice berries
  
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
  
• 1 tablespoon flour
  
• 5 egg yolks, beaten
  
• 1 lemon sliced
  
• 1 tablespoon capers
  

Boil the first six sauce ingredients for 30 minutes, then strain and bring to a boil again. Add the meatballs in batches and cook for about 15 minute. When they're done, remove them from the water and onto a warming plate. Once all your meatballs are done add the vinegar to the water. The add the flour slowly, whisking the mixture. Slowly whisk in the egg yolks until thick. Serve the sauce over the meatballs.

Looking back at this recipe, it's easy to see why people of that generation didn't live all that long. A nice meal like this, topped off with an unfiltered Lucky Strike, is not exactly the way to make it to triple digits. Still, it does spin the clock backwards offering a glimpse of what America was like when life was simpler and we weren't so jaded; a time when men wore hats, women wore dresses and the world in general and the dinner plate in high relief specific didn't seem so dangerous.