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Comment by ncmncm | Hacker News Reader

"Swedish meatballs" are really Turkish meatballs. Just sayin'.

Meatballs are pretty common all over the world and many cultures have their own variants. The Swedish ones are quite similar to the ones in the rest of the Nordics, apart from their smaller size. I suspect there's as many recipies as there are grandmothers.

G'Kar describes it well in Babylon 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVLkxSSvegc

r/unexptectedBabylon5

Though with the topic it's pretty expected.

Hard to believe that rolling minced meat into a spheric shape and frying them has only been invented once.

The only source for that seems to be a retracted claim of the official Swedish Twitter account.

https://twitter.com/swedense/status/992396766808035329

Alex has a series about it: https://youtu.be/JViMCRQ4f44

Well, guess I'm making Köttbullar for dinner this week!

Aren't you clever? Good job!

Based on what evidence?

Always hard to prove things in deep history but: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/03/europe/swedish-meatballs-turk...

" King Charles XII took the throne in 1697 at age 15 and later spent several years in Bender (now Bendery in Moldova), which was under Turkish rule, before returning to Sweden in 1715 – allegedly with a recipe for meatballs. "

(allegedly)

"Coffee beans and stuffed cabbage were also brought back to Sweden by Charles XII, according to Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu. "

I would believe that the concept of meatballs came from Turkey, but I wouldn't agree that that makes Swedish meatballs actually Turkish. That kind of thinking is found a lot with strong nationalists etc as a way to claim superiority, and even aside from that, it's too reductive. Swedish meatballs are clearly their own dish with unique customs and associations. Every culture has things that originated in or were influenced by things from other culture, but that doesn't mean that they are one and the same.

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