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The Liège-style meatball

Any visit to Liège must include a meal of boulet-frites.

The local name is not boulette, the traditional expression in French, but boulet, which sounds bigger and heavier, because this substantial dish will fill you up for a large part of the day. That said, it is so good that you will want to try it again as soon as possible! To help you, here is our recipe for boulet à la liégeoise.

Did you know ?

There exists a boulet à la liégeoise brotherhood: Le gay boulet. It organises the boulet de cristal contest every year. You will find the last winner on our site.

Recipe for Liège-style meatballs

Boulets:

500 g of minced beef and 500 g of minced pork
4 slices of white bread (without crusts) soaked in milk
1 finely sliced onion
1 bunch of finely sliced parsley
Salt, pepper, nutmeg and breadcrumbs
2 eggs

Sauce:

4 sliced onions
4 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 dash of red wine vinegar
1 litre of meat broth
2 tablespoons of Liège syrup
4 cloves, a few juniper berries, 2 bay leaves, a pinch of thyme, salt and pepper
Sultanas

How to prepare the meatballs:

Knead the ingredients into a uniform mixture and roll it into meatballs of about 100 g each.
Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

How to prepare the sauce:

Remove the meatballs. In the cooking juices, fry the onions after sprinkling with thyme until they are lightly brown.
Add brown sugar and then deglaze with the vinegar.
Moisten with the broth, bring to the boil and blend in the Liège syrup, cloves, juniper, bay leaves, salt and pepper.
Leave to cook for 30 minutes.
Just before it has finished cooking, add the sultanas and thicken the sauce slightly with cornflour or flour.
Place the meatballs in the sauce and leave it to simmer several minutes on low heat.
Serve with chips and lettuce.