Norwegian Meat Cakes (Medisterkaker)

I’ve always loved these - at Christmas these are always my go-to, even though they often don’t play the lead role in the typical Christmas dinner. Get a taste for a Scandi Christmas with these meat cakes!

No - not exactly “cakes”.

The name probably refers to how they are flatter and not round like typical meat balls, but essentially they are just big, Christmassy meat patties. Super delicious and easily made with simple ingredients. Give it a try! Insanely tasty with simple boiled potatoes, sauerkraut (coming up next week on the blog!), lingonberry (or cranberry) jam and apple sauce.

Norwegian meat cakes

For 2 people

Time: Prep 15 mins | Cook time: 20-30 min

• 2 tbsp butter

• 500g pork mince

• 100g beef mince (optional)

• 2-3 tbsp potato flour

• 200 ml milk (or cold water)

• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

• 1/2 tsp ground pepper (black or white)

• 1/2 tsp salt

• Some water

Instructions

In a large bowl, mix the mince well together so it resembles a dough. You can use a food processor too, just be careful to not mix the mince too much as it can quickly get too runny in a processor or blender. I prefer to do this by hand. And I mean by hand. I know it’s a bit messy, but get your clean hands in there! Add the potato flour and spices, and mix well again. Then, add milk (or water), bit by bit. It might seem like a lot of liquid, but we want to mix for the cakes to be quite sloppy (I have cut down on the liquid before and it has made the cakes a bit too dry).

In a large and ideally quite deep frying pan, heat up the butter. (I recommend adding some sliced onion to the pan first and let it cook with the meat cakes! Perfect combo) With a spoon and your hand, just like when you make meat balls, form quite large balls (larger than your average meat ball) and place it in the pan. Pat it down to make it flatter with your spatula, and repeat with all the meat. This should get you around 10-12 meat cakes. You can use a big glass with luke warm water to dip the spoon in between making the cakes, this helps stop the mix sticking to your hand.

Cook the meat cakes well on each side until they are golden brown either side. Then, add a bit of water - at least up to 1 cm in the pan - and keep the heat on medium and let the cakes soak up some of the water.

There you go - juicy, delicious meat cakes - have it with some potatoes and other vegetables or sauces of your choice, and enjoy Scandinavian Christmas on a plate!

Do you think you’re going to try making these? What will you do differently? Share on Instagram and tag @TheFromScratchBody and hashtag #TheFromScratchBody so I don’t miss it!