Swedes dismayed as Swedish meatballs revealed to be Turkish

Sweden’s quintessential national dish, the meatball, was actually pilfered from 18th century Turkey.

The Scandinavian nation made the unexpected confession on its official Twitter account.

Smaller than their Italian cousins and usually served with a creamy roux and lingonberry jam rather than tomato sauce, Swedish meatballs - köttbullar - are synonymous with Sweden, and have pride of place in Ikea cafes around the world.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

According to the tweet, however, the recipe was actually brought to Sweden from Turkey by King Charles XII in the early 18th century:

The king fled to Moldova, then a territory of the Turkish-controlled Ottoman Empire, following his defeat by the Russian army in 1709, returning in 1714 with a taste for koftas, the minced meat patties eaten across the Empire. Thus the “Swedish” meatball was born.

The revelation, which came “abruptly and for no immediately apparent reason”, says The Guardian, caused an instant uproar both at home and abroad.

Some Swedes did not take the news well, to put it lightly:

Which wasn’t helped by Sweden’s Norwegian neighbours weighing in with some friendly ribbing:

In Turkey, however, the confession was met with “undisguised glee”, says the Guardian.

Several national newspapers published gloating coverage of the revelation, while news agency Anadolu even twisted the knife by pointing out that two other Swedish staples - coffee and stuffed cabbage - can also be traced back to Charles XII’s sojourn among the Turks, CNN reports.

Happily, some Turks were happy to take the high road and offer their Swedish friends a culinary joint custody: