Sweden Admits Meatballs are Turkish

**uncle junior** · 04-05-2018, 04:18 PM

“Those famous Swedish meatballs you get in Ikea are actually Turkish, admits Swedish government,” tweeted TRT World, Turkey’s publicly funded international television news channel.

“Swedish meatballs are actually based on a recipe King Charles XII brought home from Turkey in the early 18th century,” the Swedish account revealed abruptly and for no immediately apparent reason. “Let’s stick to the facts!”

Turkey’s Anadolu agency seized the chance to speak to Annie Mattsson, of the literature department at Uppsala University, who confirmed that after losing a key battle against Russia in 1709, Charles and the remnants of his army took refuge in what is now Moldova, then part of the Ottoman empire.

Once known as “the Lion of the North” and “Swedish Meteor” for his early military prowess, Charles, who acceded to the throne in 1697 at the age of 15, had bitten off rather more than he could chew by taking on Russia, and spent the following six years in exile in and around present-day Turkey.

Having acquired a taste for the local cuisine, he returned to Sweden in 1714 with the recipe not just for köfte, the spiced lamb and beef meatballs that in time became the Swedish staple köttbullar, but also forthe popular stuffed cabbage dish now known in Sweden as kåldolmar.

Charles, who died in 1718 when he was shot in the head while attacking Danish-occupied Norway, is also considered responsible for importing and popularising the Turkish habit of drinking coffee, which became so widespread in Sweden in the later 18th century that King Gustav III briefly banned it.

In Turkey’s meatball capital, Inegöl, this week, a local chef, İbrahim Veysel, told the Doğan news agency it was an honour that the Turkish dish should have become “an example to different cuisines all over the world”.
Others were less happy. Serdar Çam, president of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, complained that Ikea, which sells 2m meatballs a day in its in-store restaurants, should not be selling the dish as though it were Swedish.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ls-are-turkish

**nidhogg** · 04-05-2018, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by uncle junior

Others were less happy. Serdar Çam, president of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, complained that Ikea, which sells 2m meatballs a day in its in-store restaurants, should not be selling the dish as though it were Swedish.

They have only been eating the f*cking things for 300 years.

I am pretty sure it now counts as part of the Swedish culture.

**baldrick** · 04-05-2018, 05:28 PM

The meatballs I have eaten in Turkey have not been anything to be proud of

My grandfather's rissoles are extraordinary better

**lom** · 04-05-2018, 06:29 PM

Originally Posted by uncle junior

King Charles XII

They didn't even got his name right, there hasn't been any King Charles in Sweden but a lot of King Karl/Carl.

**DJ Pat** · 04-05-2018, 07:09 PM

The meatballs l saw at the Bang Na store definitely weren't Turkey.

More like a mixture of liquified pork anuses and donkey lungs.

**david44** · 04-05-2018, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by uncle junior

had bitten off rather more than he could chew

Dog's Bollox Kebab

Originally Posted by uncle junior

the Doğan news agency

Dogs Beau Lux says Pupgun Ogolulu

Originally Posted by nidhogg

eating the f*cking things for 300 years.

portion control for chewy

Originally Posted by uncle junior

Turkey’s Anadolulu agency seized the

Scrote's grip

**Chittychangchang** · 04-05-2018, 09:03 PM

Shirt bullen. ..that's Swedish for value...and horse meat

**DJ Pat** · 04-05-2018, 09:41 PM

Nothing wrong with eating horse meat.

I had it once, when my neigh-bours invited me for lunch

**Chittychangchang** · 05-05-2018, 02:37 AM

**sabang** · 05-05-2018, 07:39 AM

I am pretty sure it now counts as part of the Swedish culture.

Yup- no different to chicken tikka masala being part of the British culture, and hamburgers & burger carts ubiquitously Filipino.
And Turkey was the first place in the world to think of grinding up cheaper cuts of meat, forming it into a ball or pattie and cooking it thus? I rather doubt that.

**nidhogg** · 05-05-2018, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by sabang

And Turkey was the first place in the world to think of grinding up cheaper cuts of meat, forming it into a ball or pattie and cooking it thus? I rather doubt that.

Indeed.

**lom** · 05-05-2018, 09:56 AM

I don't think the Swedish Government makes statements about origin of meat balls, they have more important things to do like ruling the country.
The whole story is prolly an Erdogan nationalistic hubris hoax.

**happynz** · 05-05-2018, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by DJ Pat

More like a mixture of liquified pork anuses and donkey lungs.

That's the protein component of every sausage and every bowl of kueh teow or jok I've ever had in Thailand.

Delish!!

**baldrick** · 05-05-2018, 11:04 AM

Yes. Snap elections were called in Turkey

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