Vintage Meat Balls

Meat Balls Strogonoff
Great Ground-Beef Recipes Copyright 1965, 1966, 1971

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, grated
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves Yuck! I don't own cloves
dash of pepper
1 tablespoon salad oil
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 envelope instant beef broth or 1 beef-flavor bouillon cube
1 cup water
1 cup (8-ounce carton) dairy sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped parsley I thought I would use dried parsley but I couldn't find any
I also added mushrooms

1. Mix ground beef lightly with onion, salt, nutmeg, cloves and pepper; shape into 36 balls. (These are seriously small meatballs)
2. Brown, half at a time, in salad oil in a large frying pan; remove and set aside. Pour off drippings, then measure one tablespoon and return to pan.
3. Blend in flour and mustard; stir in instant beef broth or bouillon cube and water, crushing cube, if using, with a spoon. Cook, stirring constantly until sauce thickens and boils 1 minute.
4. Return meat balls; cover; simmer 5 minutes or until cooked through.
5. Mix sour cream and parsley; blend in about ½ cup of the hot sauce, then stir back into remaining in pan. Heat slowly until just hot.
6. Serve with hot cooked rice, noodles, or mashed potatoes, if you wish.

Makes 4 servings.

I know this is a basic recipe but I've been trying to work with ingredients that I have on hand. It's times like this that I realize why I don't usually use a recipe. I think if I had thrown this dish together on my own it would have been better. The meatballs certainly would have been. The sauce was very good but the meat balls weren't. I think some breadcrumbs would have helped make the meat balls more tender.

The cover of this cookbook boasts 1,900,000 million copies in print. Ground beef must have been really popular in the late 60s. There are a lot of interesting ideas in here, certainly more interesting than the one I chose.