The most beloved fast food in the Netherlands is french fries with various toppings and accompanied by a large variety of mostly meat-based, deep fried snacks. The most popular snack is the frikandel. This sausage-like snack (no casing) is made of spiced, finely ground meat. It is cooked in simmering water and then deep fried. And today, February 4th, is National Frikandellen Day!
The frikandel is older than us!
There have been similar meatballs for ages, but it seems that the actual frikandel as we know it, was first made by Jan Bekkers in 1958. He founded the famous Beckers factory a year later. Different spelling on purpose, likely to distinguish himself from other companies in the family.
Why we make our own
Since we can’t import meat, you can’t find these frikandellen here in Canada, unless some company has tried to make some here. We’ve tried a few from Dutch stores in other parts of the country with varying success. But since we don’t have one here in Regina, we started to make our own. They have become the main attraction on our New Year’s Eve parties!
Our favourite recipe
We’ve tried a few different recipes that we found online and like this one on veelkantie.nl the best. It comes close to the factory-made ones, but I think I need to use meat that is a bit greasier than the usual minced chicken and pork that we buy. Maybe we’ll add some pork belly next time. It’s just that we only have a very basic food processor and it helps to buy meat that’s already ground up. For the frikandellen it needs to be ground to a paté-like paste.
Ingredients:
- 900 gram (about 2 lbs) chicken
- 600 gram (about 1 1/3 lbs) pork meat
- 20 gram (about 1 tbsp) salt
- 2 tsp pepper
- 1.5 tsp all-spice
- 2 tsp nutmeg
- 4 tsp onion powder
- 250 gram (2 1/3 cup) bread crumbs
- 200 ml (0.8 cup) whipping cream
Making the mixture
Put the meat in a bowl, mix all the spices in a cup and keep the crumbs and the cream separate. I usually double the recipe. In batches I grind and mix the meat in my food processor. After the first run I do it again while adding the spices bit by bit. Then I’ll do a third run where I’ll add the bread crumbs and whipping cream bit by bit. If you only have coarse crumbs like panko, you’ll want to grind them a bit smaller. After these three runs I end up with a fairly smooth paté-like and almost dough-like elastic mixture.
Rolling the frikandellen
I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to take some of the mixture out of the bowl. Use your hands to roll it into a sausage on your table or countertop. A little flour sprinkled on your counter will help against meat sticking to it. I try to make them all a similar length and regularly push the ends back in a bit while I’m rolling them.
In the beginning we tried cooking the meat in stainless steel pipes to keep them straight, but we hated that. It’s hard to do, there are too many air bubbles in the meat and they ended up being too thin. Some use small devices that push out meat like a sausage, but I’m happy with rolling them with my hands. It does take me about an hour to roll 45-50 of these from a double batch.
Cooking them in simmering water
In a fairly big cooking pot I bring water to a simmer. I have an old mesh basket, a left over from a round deep fryer I used to have. It fits in the biggest cooking pot of my set. You can do without, but using this makes it a bit easier to lower my raw frikandellen into the simmering water and take them out again. I can cook 5-6 frikandellen in one batch. Cook them for about 8 minutes (or until they come to the surface).
I start cooking as soon as I have the first few frikandellen ready, as I roll them a bit faster than they cook.
Freeze or deep fry right away!
After they have cooled off, you can deep fry them right away, or you can freeze them for another day. If I make them for a party, I cut them in two or three for party size snacks and serve them with mayo and curry ketchup. Check out how we make our own curry ketchup!
10 Comments on “How to make frikandellen”
Where do you get the curry ketchup? Do you buy it or make it? If you make it, what is the recipe?
In Holland I would buy it (Hela brand), but here I make my own. I will add that recipe too, planned for next week! Then I will link it in the text above.
They look amazing, I have to try them.
It’s a bit of work, but worth it 🙂 Let me know how you like them when you make them. They are kind of too nice… more meat than the factory ones LOL
Bij de CO OP in Lacombe kan je de curry saus zoet kopen.
Lekker! Hier in Regina is geen NL winkel, ik zal eens bij onze Coop kijken (komen we niet vaak). Welk merk heb je bij jullie Coop? Ik heb wel eens Hela curry bij de Superstore gevonden, maar de export versie. Niet hetzelfde helaas! 🙁 Ik maak het al jaren zelf, beetje pittiger dan de Hela en voldoet goed. Dat recept ook ooit online gevonden en ik zet het volgende week hier op.
het merk van de curry saus is van gouda’s glorie, er is bij de CO OP van Lacombe een klein hoekje waar ze Nederlandse producten verkopen. In Ponoka is een winkeltje waar ze alleen Nederlandse producten verkopen. En een grotere winkel staat in Edmonton.
Een vraagje, je voegt er 1.5 theelepel kruiden toe, welke of wat voor een kruiden zijn dat?
Annette, allspice (piment in het Nederlands) is een specerij, zou je in elke supermarkt moeten kjnnen vinden.
“Allspice is a spice made from the dried berries of a plant known as Pimenta dioica, which is a member of the myrtle family. The flavor of allspice brings to mind cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and pepper”
Dank je wel Marlies, ik heb vanmorgen een potje piment gekocht, en vanmiddag weer frikandellen gemaakt, ik heb ze niet in de frituurpan gedaan omdat ik geen frituurpan heb, nadat ik ze uit het water heb gehaald, laten afkoelen en daarna in de airfryer gedaan, en nu smaken ze hoe horen te smaken. Dank je wel voor het laatste advies, het potje piment.
Ik heb nog nooit zoveel kruiden in huis gehad, als nu :-).