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Dutch Meatballs & Gravy
In my country any recipe that starts with the word “Grandma’s” is a guaranty to success. It’s a universal rule: everything tastes better the way grandma made it.
I’ve received so many emails asking me for an authentic and traditional Dutch meatballs recipe. Crazy amount of emails! What’s the fascination for Dutch meatballs? Now let me start by saying there is no such thing. There are a gazillion different recipes out there. A lot of them use similar ingredients such as nutmeg and mustard, but mainly they’re family recipes with varying ingredients. They do have one thing in common: butter. Lots and lots of butter. Our traditional gravy differs from American gravy. You’ll see.
What I can give you is the recipe I grew up with. It’s not an exact one-on-one because certain ingredients such as Ketjap—a thick and sweet Indonesian soy sauce—can’t be purchased all over the world and it’s big part of the recipe as it lingered around my family.
But I found a work around … the recipe behind the cut comes pretty close to our family recipe! If you’re not a fan of nutmeg, you might want to opt out of this one!
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1/2 a tbsp ground nutmeg
2 tbsp coarse mustard
1/2 tsp white pepper
6 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
butter (lots of it)
1 cup beef broth
flour
Directions:
Start with 1 pound good-quality ground beef. Not hamburger, mind you, that comes from a different part of the cow.
Add 1 egg, salt to taste (we like them salty, so I add 1 1/2 tsp), 1/2 a tsp ground white pepper, a pinch of cayenne and 1/2 a tbsp ground nutmeg, mine wasn’t freshly grated or I’d still be grating. This seems like a lot of nutmeg but trust me, it works.
Tip: adding a finely minced small onion is also really tasty.
Wrecked my brain over a Ketjap substitute (any ideas?) and decided to go for 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce. It was perfect.
Add 1 tbsp milk and 2 tbsp coarse mustard. The milk makes the meat somehow taste better. Almost juicier. The mustard adds a lovely tang and slight flavor but doesn’t make it mustardy.
Now I know Paneer is also the name of an Indian cheese, but overhere it stands for breadcrumbs. Add 6 tbsp breadcrumbs.
Dig your hands in there and mix it all up. Make your hands slightly wet and form 4 to 5 meatballs. Make them firm. Really press them on all sides to remove as much of the air trapped inside as you possibly can. It’s the air that makes them crack during browning.
Note: I ran out of flour, but this is the moment you sprinkle a little flour all over each meatball!
You shouldn’t be afraid of butter in order to make Dutch meatballs, that’s for sure. Heat lots of it. This was roughly 3 oz.
As soon as the butter stops bubbling, add the meat balls and brown them on all sides. When they’re brown enough for your liking, pour in 1 cup of beef broth and pop the lid on. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, crack the lid slightly allowing moisture to escape.
Here’s what it looks like after 25 minutes. Now this is Dutch gravy. Loads of butter, meat juices and broth combined and cooked down. Fattening like crazy but oh-so good. You can add a little mustard (or ketjap) for extra flavor.
Serve with curly endive mash to get the full Dutch effect and drizzle lots of gravy on top.
Honey, I’m home!!
These meatballs are delicious as is, but what I can wake my guys for in the middle of the night is a meatball sandwich. It’s why I usually make a few extra and store them in the fridge. Slather some mayo on two slices of bread, top with cold meatball slices and a little ketchup and mustard. Yum.
I just made these. Lekker! Like my mom’s (I used Kecap Manis). Thanks for such detailed instructions. And also, I love the print cards on the site.
I once found an online recipe for Kecap Manis when I ran out. It was a dead ringer, but I can’t seem to find it now. It was a mixture of molasses, basic soy sauce, brown sugar (?)…can’t remember what else. The molasses really made a difference by giving it that “dark” taste. I could kick myself for loosing it.
Amazing!! I have been trying to create my grandmothers famous meatballs and thanks to this I have… and might I add they might even be a bit better :D
The step by step aid with the pictures really helped as it gave me a clear visual of what everything should look like.
And your right do NOT hold back on the butter it makes the test that much more incredible!
Looks fantastic! Just a quick FYI– “ground beef” is only a general term for any kind of ground cut from a cow. The most typical cuts “ground beef” comes from are chuck (about 70% lean), round (about 80% lean), and sirloin (about 90% lean). These are all from different muscles on the cow and have differing amounts of fat and flavor. When the term “hamburger” is used, it’s just another general term for ground beef, but probably indicates some kind of mixture of one of these three types, or else it would be more specific in its name. Grounds may be marked with these general terms at a local grocery store, but they are most likely coming from one of these three major muscles and you can usually ask the butcher what cuts it came from. I’m interested to find out what exactly it is you’re using for these amazing looking meatballs, hope to hear back soon!
Here’s a lot of information on the difference between ground beef and hamburger, allowed fat content etc!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_mince
you can get ketjap manis on amazon :)
Ground beef does not come from a certain part of a cow. It is made up of trimmings which come from any part of the cow. There are specific names that come from specific parts of the animal. Ground sirloin comes from and only from the sirloin. Ground round comes from and only from the round. Ground chuck comes from and only from the chuck. I listed the specific names from most lean (sirloin) to the least lean (chuck) which is the most flavorful. I would recommend using either the ground round or the ground chuck because the sirlion will have the tendency to fall apart and or be too dry. I have been a butcher and chef for over 30 years.
Hi,
I’m going to follow this recipe, the last one I followed came out bland and flavorless. One of my friends from Holland looked at my recipes and he said the one I used was made for grannies that needs to eat healthy food.
About your gravy, is it okay if I replace beef broth with chicken broth?
And what would you suggest goes good with the meatballs besides curly endive mash. This is when I start getting lazy.
_P
Not sure using chicken broth will do much for it… never tried it myself. Pretty much any type of potato dish will work with this one!
Ketjep manis is available at our local Dutch stores. Maybe we are lucky. I will use it in your recipe. My hope is that it does taste like my Oma’s recipe!
I am in charge of providing 3 pounds of meatballs for a 70th birthday party for my father-in-law. Do you think I could make these the day before just like your recipe states and then put them all in a crock-pot/ slow cooker to keep warm and serve at the party? I was also considering making them with Bison/buffalo meat which I have done before and they do make great meatballs. It’s expensive and 90% lean. But I get to call them Buffalo Balls!
That will not only work very well, but they will probably taste even better the day after.
Must admit I’m completely unfamiliar with the flavor of bison/buffalo meat!
Just made this dish tonite. It was fantastic ,absolutely delicious. I had bought gr.beef on sale and asked my Dutch hubby what could I make him out of the beef. He said,’Dutch meatball, boiledpotatoes and red cabbage”. His mother always used prepackaged meatball spices. So I googled Dutch meatball and saw the only spice is nutmeg! Anyway, I made your recipe, I had ketjap manis, and it’s a keeper. I’m book marking your blog for when we might want to make other traditional favorites. Thank you for sharing and BTW, you have a nice sense of humor.
Possibly use Oyster sauce as a substitute for Ketjap. but Sweet chilli and beef are best mates so you cant really go wrong.
Sounds delicious, one thing you forgot though…. some finely diced onion… :-P
I take my last comment back, as you did post the tip of a small onion… ;-)
These look amazing and I can’t wait to try some of your recipes! How about a Recipe for Dutch meatball soup?