🇳🇱 How to Make Bitterballen

Craving Bitterballen? On FoodNeverComes the food never actually comes — so here's how to make real Bitterballen at home, in about 1 hr + overnight chilling, with stuff you probably already have.

🛒 Ingredients

Tap ingredients to tick them off as you shop or cook ✔️

• 50g butter, 75g flour, 500ml beef stock
• 300g cooked beef, very finely shredded
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley, 1 tsp mustard
• 1 tsp nutmeg, salt, pepper
• 2 sheets gelatine, softened (optional, helps it set)
• for coating: flour, 2 beaten eggs, fine breadcrumbs
• oil for deep frying
• mustard, to serve

👩‍🍳 Method

1. Make a very thick roux with the butter and flour, then add the stock slowly, whisking, until you have a ragoût far stiffer than a normal sauce.
2. Cook it out for a good 8 min. Raw flour is the most common bitterballen fault.
3. Stir in the beef, parsley, mustard, nutmeg and gelatine. Season aggressively — it will be muted once cold and fried.
4. Spread into a tray and refrigerate OVERNIGHT. Not two hours. The ragoût must be firm enough to roll, or the balls burst in the fryer.
5. Roll into walnut-sized balls, then coat flour → egg → breadcrumbs → egg → breadcrumbs again. Double-crumbing is what stops leaks.
6. Fry at 180°C for 3 min until deep brown. Rest one minute, then warn everyone: the inside is molten and burning your mouth on the first one is essentially the national tradition.