Century-old meatball recipe is a crowd-pleaser

Ginny Froehlich had no trouble listing all the positive attributes of this meatball recipe. It’s delicious, for one. It’s economical for feeding a crowd.

“In this day and age, with our children being more and more fussy about what they eat, this is one recipe that children — little children and big children — everyone likes.”

And it’s been in her family more than 100 years.

She knows this because she’s 85 1⁄2 and the recipe came from her grandmother, Luella Humke.

The family calls them Swedish meatballs, even though typically Swedish meatballs sit in a cream-based gravy. But Froehlich’s family isn’t Swedish — “we’re German through and through.” She lives in West Bend but is originally from Sheboygan.

“If we all get together, one in charge doesn’t know what to make, it’s Swedish meatballs,” said Froehlich, who has three grown sons and five grandchildren in their 20s, including four grandsons who are “all good eaters” and one granddaughter.

Froehlich’s mother browned the meatballs in a skillet, but she browns them in the oven. Then they bake for two more hours in a sauce. A key ingredient in that sauce is Kitchen Bouquet.

Turns out, the browning and seasoning sauce is more than a century old itself; in fact, it was introduced somewhere around 1873. Made from herbs, spices, vegetables and water, Kitchen Bouquet is manufactured today by a subsidiary of the Clorox Co.