With all the spices we have access to, it is amazing how bland recipes have become. I have many cookbooks, some from great chefs, television personalities and friends. What I am always surprised by is how bland the food has become.
People seem to think a bit of salt, pepper, maybe onions and garlic provide the spices one needs. Perhaps it is because some associate spice with heat. Mostly because many have never experimented with some of those great warm spices available. A pinch of coriander, some freshly ground cumin, a little cardamom, or a touch of cinnamon can turn an ordinary dish into something remarkable. And the most astonishing part is that these spices financed voyages around the world, built cities, created fortunes, and caused people to kill one another.
Without the spice trade, it is safe to say that the United States, as we know it, would be vastly different than we are now. The money loaned to the United States, when we were a fledgling country, came from the wealthy spice merchants from what was considered one of the great hyper empires of the world - based in Amsterdam.
But before we go to the birth of the United States, let me take you to the meatball.
Today’s Meatball is a bit boring
When I went to the states for college, the meatballs in the continental US were boring. Many are just combinations of beef and pork, and often the meat is overcooked, leaving the meatball dry, although that is often hidden in the sauce (tomato sauce if you are making spaghetti, or a gravy sauce for others). One recipe had frozen meatballs from the grocery store placed into a crock pot with a vat of grape jelly (it wasn’t bad, it was ghastly).
Most meatballs are like having only the meat from a burger without the crunch and sour of the pickle, the sweetness of the tomato, and that touch of bitterness from the onion. I didn’t understand why my grandmother’s and mom’s meatballs were so delicious, and these were so dull. Over time, I had received recipes from different people who made meatballs, and they were all versions of the same until history showed me the ingredients I was missing.
In Search of the Mighty Meatball
While there may have been other reasons to visit Turkey, Norway, Italy, and Sweden — there was always project meatball. Finding a meatball that tasted like my mom’s. I can’t ask mom about this, her dementia didn’t let me crack that code, so I had to travel the world to find the secret to unlock the flavors in her meatballs.
The Swedish Meatball’s Origins in Turkey
If you go to Stockholm, consider taking a “food tour.” Not only will you learn about the history and culture of the country, but you will also eat well. Then, if looking for recommendations, they know the city and its food like no other. In this case, I wanted a meatball. The traditional meatball as served in Stockholm.
But when talking to the food historians in Sweden, the meatball did not originate in Sweden. The meatball was brought to Sweden by King Charles XII in 1714. He was forced into exile in the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) after losing a war to Russia in 1709. For five years, he was a guest of the Sultan, and besides trying to get the Ottoman Empire to go to war against Russia, he enjoyed the Ottoman cuisine. After five years, the Sultan became tired of Charles scheming and tossed Charles out of Turkey.
Charles returned to Sweden with two cuisine items: the meatball and coffee.
The Meatball in the Ottoman Empire
Istanbul is the western world’s second cosmopolitan city. This was the last city of the Roman empire, until the Sultans conquered it in 1453, which began the Ottoman Empire. But today I was walking in The Spice Market. This market has been in business since 1664. You can imagine when Charles XII came here, and his nose was filled with aromas from around the world. Aromas he never smelled before.
Lets start counting world hyper powers. The Ottoman Empire was one. It was built not just on military conquests, but spices. The spice road, silk trail, ended here and from here money was made selling these goods to Europe.
Food Charles had never eaten before. When I was there, the smell of the spices was so abundant and so fresh that my nose was overjoyed. Just outside the spice market, as everywhere, are people who will sell you lamb cooked simply over fire, and to that lamb is added lemon zest, salt, zaatar, as well as nutmeg.
There was something comforting about the smell in the spice market. I didn’t realize my brain was remembering food aromas from home.
Putting ground meat with spices isn’t an original idea. In the Roman Empire, the cookbook author Apicius (25BC–37AD) describes meats from chicken to fish being ground with spices added. Almost every culture has a variation of a meatball (ground meats roasted with some spices). Rome is our second major global power. Yes, we learned the conquest of the world but where did Rome make its money? Trade. It conquered not to force people into a religion or a political system, but to secure trade routes. What made a lot of Rome’s money? Spices and food.
For the Ottoman empire, the meats they used were lamb and poultry. No pork (they were Muslim and pork was forbidden). The flavor came from the variety of spices available to the Ottomans. The Ottomans, it turned out, had all the known spices of the Western World. The spices from Asia and Indochina were traded to Europe through the Silk Road, which began in modern day Xi’an and ended in Istanbul.'
The Swedish Version
Until the mid 1800’s meatballs were mostly consumed by the wealthy in Sweden. Charles didn’t have meatballs as a meal, but would eat them as a snack with coffee (coffee being the other Turkish product he introduced to Sweden). Meatballs were first mentioned in Cajsa Warg’s 1754 Swedish cookbook. She described meatballs as chopped meat (calf, sheep, or ox) with grated bread and eggs. The seasonings were pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Nutmeg, for a time, was worth more per weight than gold.
By the 1850s, the meatball became common food for the Swedes. Much like fashion trends are set by the famous today, the meatball was the fashionable food and became a beloved dish of Sweden.
But let us get back to spices and the world.
A Night in Amsterdam
Many years ago, I stayed in the Waldorf Astoria, Amsterdam. The hotel is made up of six canal houses, once owned by some of the city’s wealthy residents.
In the seventeenth century, Amsterdam was the center of one of the great commercial empires in history. That empire was based on spices
Tea and pepper were the commodities that allowed Britain to become an empire. Notice a pattern here. Trade, often involving spices, but stable trade, which was backed by a navy. A different group of spices for Amsterdam, Nutmeg Cloves, Cinnamon, and Pepper. Amsterdam became one of the wealthiest cities in the world from spice trades. In fact, so wealthy it is considered one of the great hyper empires of the world. Along with the Roman Empire, British Empire and the United States.
Most look at Amsterdam during this period and have called it a global power, and this would be our third global power. s
A Young Republic
If you are in Amsterdam, you can find the house where John Adams lived. As ambassador, Adams secured loans to our fledgling republic, helping keep it afloat when the US was nearly bankrupt. All because the world loved the taste of nutmeg.
Amersterdam Wasn’t the First
Spices were a way to display wealth and status. If you wanted to impress your guests, you served them a meal filled with spices.
One of the first spices traded was pepper. Pepper was valuable because it was small, durable, easy to transport, and in tremendous demand. In medieval London, a pound of pepper could cost the equivalent of a week’s wages for an ordinary laborer.
The Price of Nutmeg
The Banda Islands, now Indonesia, were once the world’s source of nutmeg and mace. The islanders traded these spices with Asian merchants for centuries before Europeans arrived.
In 1621, Dutch forces under Jan Pieterszoon Coen conquered the Banda Islands. Much of the indigenous population was killed, expelled, or enslaved, and the islands were reorganized around spice production for corporate profit.
New York City is sometimes referred to as New Amsterdam, because Amsterdam laid claim to the big apple. Britain gained New York in exchange for a small spice island, Run. The exchange was one of those moments when the spice trade and New York intersect.
Today, you can buy spices for a fraction of what they were. And yet, most of those spices are underused in kitchens.
Many of those spices have medicinal properties: turmeric is anti-inflammatory, cinnamon helps regulate blood sugar, and pepper improves bioavailability of many compounds. Adding spices to your cooking not only improves flavor, but also your health.
But without spices, many global powers would never have been. Today we have counted Rome, the Ottmans, Britain, Amsterdam and the United States might never have been. There may never have been a reason to cross oceans, develop corporations like The Hudson Bay, or Dutch East India. The United States is now a major power. Spices are cheap, and the seas are defended to allow them to move freely. That is why we are mighty - it is the mighty spice
So don’t let the great explorers of the past lives be for naught - add some spice to your cooking.
Coming Home Through Food
They say you travel the world to find paradise in your backyard. In this case I had gone to four countries in Europe to find the meats and spices used to make the meatball in my grandmother’s cookbook. But we have to add a twist — we have more spices available, so here is my version of the meatball. Made, tested, and even JJ approved.
