Are Swedish Meatballs Even Swedish?
- [Narrator] When you thinkof Sweden, what comes to mind?
Ikea, Abba?
Maybe those delicious cinnamon rolls?
But what about these?
Swedish meatballs.
Right?
Well, maybe not.
Welcome to the meatball mystery.
Let's cut straight to the chase.
It's hard to make the Swedesangry, but on one fateful day,
something happened thatfired up the whole country.
This tweet was sent from the official
Sweden Twitter account:
Swedish meatballs areactually based on a recipe
from King Charles XIIbrought back from Turkey
in the early 18th century.
Let's stick to the facts.
Yikes.
Did you catch that?
The tweet said that Swedish meatballs
actually come from Turkey.
As you can imagine, the tweet went viral.
Swedes were up in arms.
It was picked up all around the world.
- The Swedish government has admitted
Swedish meatballs are actually Turkish.
What?
What?
- No, that's not a fact.
The fact is really interesting.
Since we don't have anyfacts from that period.
- [Narrator] Wait, who are you?
- My name is Richard Tellström.
I'm a food historian.
- [Narrator] OK, here's what we know.
In the 1700s, Swedish KingCharles XXII lost a battle
in the Great Northern War.
He was forced to fleeto the Ottoman Empire
where for several yearshe negotiated his return.
The controversial tweetssuggested that he brought back
a local Turkish meat dish called koftas.
- However, there is nodocumented interests
from him in food.
No mentioning of the meatballs there.
They are not Turkishbecause we can't follow
the original meatballs in the world.
There is no zero meatballwhere everything started.
Most likely, origin of themeatball is a development
in parallel ways-
in parallel food cultures.
Therefore, meatballs are verydifferent all over the world,
but they exist all over the world.
- [Narrator] Today it's one ofSweden's most popular dishes.
Traditionally served withmashed potatoes, a brown gravy,
and a sweet lingonberry sauce.
Mm-mm.
- [Richard] Food gives us anexample of how we are connected
when it comes to culture.
Food is a sort of cultural network.
- [Narrator] So take pridein your meatballs, Sweden.
And so should Turkey, China, Italy,
and every meatball rolling country.
Because if there's one thingthe world can agree on,
it's that meatballs are delicious.
It’s hard to send an entire country into an identity crisis, but one single Tweet managed to do just that—and all under 150 characters. When Sweden’s official Twitter account claimed that Swedish meatballs may in fact actually be Turkish, Swedes around the world were set into outrage. How could such a beloved touchstone of Swedish cultural history all be a sham? To get to the bottom of it all, we enlisted the help of an expert. Come along as we try to unlock the great meatball mystery. SUBSCRIBE: https://goo.gl/vR6Acb #Meatballs #Swedish #Turkey This story is a part of our Flavors series, where we do so much more than play with our food. Come with us as we dive into deliciously different and tastefully off-beat stories in the culinary world. Got a story idea for us? Shoot us an email at hey [at] GreatBigStory [dot] com Follow us behind the scenes on Instagram: http://goo.gl/2KABeX Make our acquaintance on Facebook: http://goo.gl/Vn0XIZ Give us a shout on Twitter: http://goo.gl/sY1GLY Come hang with us on Vimeo: http://goo.gl/T0OzjV Visit our world directly: http://www.greatbigstory.com