While many of us have had a portion of Swedish meatballs during a visit to IKEA, it seems the origins of the dish are not Swedish at all.
There's been a strong reaction online to the admission from Sweden's official Twitter account that the country's most famous culinary export actually originated in Turkey:
Swedish meatballs are actually based on a recipe King Charles XII brought home from Turkey in the early 18th century. Let's stick to the facts! pic.twitter.com/JuTDEjq9MM
— Sweden.se (@swedense) April 28, 2018
Over on the unofficial Sweden account, the curator summed up much of the online reaction:
My whole life has been a lie https://t.co/tVcRmJx5By
— @sweden / Örjan (@sweden) April 28, 2018
A researcher from Uppsala University, meanwhile, suggested it wasn't only meatballs King Charles XII returned to Sweden with following a stay in Istanbul.
Annie Mattson told Turkey's Anadolu Agency that the king also came back with coffee beans and stuffed cabbage.
Turkish meatballs are known as köfte, and variants of the dish can be found across the Middle East and parts of South and Central Asia.
