Christmas comes ever closer and Christmas preparations are continuing. Mrs J pierced some oranges with cloves in the old fashioned way.

She likes the look of them, as well as the smell.

But as the main event today Mrs J and Mrs B rolled meatballs. These little munchkins are an essential item on the Christmas table, at least if you are from Mrs J’s part of Scandoland. However, there are many essential items on a proper Christmas table, so whatever can be made in advance of Christmas itself must, and will, be made in advance. Only heating and finishing touches on the day itself are required on the meatballs, if you preroll and precook them.

There are variations galore on how to make meatballs. As we are in Mrs B’s kitchen for the moment, today it’s Mrs B’s meatballs. Mrs J makes them much the same. If anything, she might increase the share of beef mince to pork mince and add some finely chopped and sautéed onions. Then again she might not.

Start by soaking 2 dl of dry breadcrumbs in 4 dl of water for 10 minutes.

Mrs J agrees, it looks like a whole lot of nothing going on. Some may say this is the culinary equivalent of “the void of noneness”. However, it is essential to the texture of the finished meatball.

Mix in 2 tsp of salt and a good helping of black pepper. Add 2 large eggs, 500g of beef mince and 500 g of pork mince. The more finely ground the mince is, the better. In Scando an even-Steven mixed mince is usually found already prepared in the shop.

Mix everything well.

Now comes the sticky part. To make it less sticky, make sure you have a little bowl of ice-cold water around to wet your fingers and hands while you take little bits of the mixture and roll them into small meatballs.

Some use wet spoons to form the meatballs to avoid the sticky hands. If Mrs J did that she would be spending the next week or so forming meatballs. And while making meatballs can be fun (especially in good company) there are more things that need doing before Christmas.

Fry them slowly on all sides in lots of butter (putting the meatballs in the fridge for a while before frying makes them firmer, but today we didn’t and that’s fine too).

Let sit and cool in a pot or tin. Mrs J and Mrs B find that this evens out the cooking and makes them taste even better.

Eat them immediately or save them for Christmas in the fridge or freezer, depending on how far in advance you end up making them. Use more butter when reheating and maybe a little soy sauce.