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In honor of my mother’s birthday today, we’re sharing a recipe that is by far one of the most uniquely-delicious recipes we’ve found so far in her old recipe box. It’s a recipe called Moscows.
This recipe was a bit of a mystery for us – a handwritten list of ingredients on an index card – but no instructions. We were really fascinated by the eclectic list of ingredients including ground beef, rye bread, beet horseradish, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and sour cream – an obvious mix of Eastern European-inspired flavors! Being of Polish decent, I can totally see why this recipe appealed to my mother.
So my husband Jack and I wondered, “Are Moscows a type of meatloaf? Or are they meatballs?” We weren’t really sure – so Jack spent some time online researching the recipe, but all he could find were recipes for a cocktail named Moscow Mule.
Without any other information to go on, we decided to form the mixture into meatball-sized portions and baked them in a muffin pan. And – as soon as these Moscows came out of the oven, we knew we had a winner! The smell was fantastic and they were moist and delicious with an amazing flavor, unlike any other meatball I’ve ever eaten!
And Jack and I both agree – that beet horseradish (which can be found at most supermarkets in the refrigerated section) – really makes this dish. These Moscows are great served warm with boiled potatoes (and more horseradish and sour cream on the side) or served between slices of rye bread as a sandwich! You’ve got to try this recipe!
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Moscows
Ingredients
- 1 pound 80/20 ground beef
- ½ cup finely minced onion
- 1 teaspoon crushed caraway seed
- ½ cup rye bread crumbs (4 whole slices rye bread, see note above)
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ cups fine grated Swiss cheese, divided
- ¼ cup beet horseradish (this is very mild and sold right next to regular horseradish in your average supermarket)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup well drained sauerkraut chopped
- 2 tablespoons beef broth or water
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix all ingredients until combined except ½ cup of the Swiss cheese.
- Divide the mixture into 12 balls and fill a 12 cup muffin pan with the meatballs. I used a large ice-cream scoop so they were flat on the bottom and round on top.
- Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup of cheese over each and bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove from pan and discard fat in each muffin cup.
- Serve with additional sour cream and beet horseradish with boiled potatoes, or between slices of rye bread and eaten as a sandwich.
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Notes
You can either lightly toast the rye bread slices or let them sit out overnight to get stale before turning into bread crumbs in your food processor. Remove crusts before processing.
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Wow these sound delish! I Love to try new recipes. I also pinned and saved your other cabbage recipes. I Love Cabbage.. Can’t wait to try them out too! Thanks for sharing, I love to read your stories, makes me smile. Happy Birthday to your Mom, Wishing her many many More!!
Thanks Marta! I hope you enjoy all of the recipes!
What a fun way to find a recipe….a bit like an adventure. These do sound interesting… very unique blend of ingredients.
I’m drooling. I’ve never seen a recipe like this before but those flavors sound amazing. i totally need to find some beet horseradish!!
Happy birthday to your mom!
️Thanks Lauren!
Martha! Martha! Martha! These look totally incredible and if I had only seen this recipe earlier in the day, I would have run out to the store to purchase the ingredients so we could eat these Moscows tonight!!! Serioulsy! I just pinned them to my board “recipes I’m dying to try” and I am literally dying to try these. They have all my favorite flavors! Thanks so much for the recipe. I’ll let you know when I make them and give you 100% credit when I blog about them!
I hope you enjoy them as much as we do Renee!
I love anything in a muffin tin because it’s perfectly portioned! So unique that you couldn’t even find anything on google about Moscows, that is amazing!
This is such a unique recipe. I love it.
These look amazing! Happy birthday to your mom!
Thank you!
My 100% Polish grandmom (who passed last year at 102) made beet horseradish her whole life…it was always sent home with us throughout my childhood. She made it with quite the kick! This is like a sandwich, a sandwich turned into a meatball…Holy YUM, my hubs would be bonkers for it!!
Oh wow Colleen – that beet horseradish sounds great! Do you happen to have the recipe on your blog? (I’d love to check it out if you do!)
Its been on my mind to put it up…this summer I will 🙂
Now, THIS I need to try!
Thanks Kiara – hope you like them!
Being of Russian decent and having grandparents who moved to America later in life, these are ingredients I can relate too! This reminds me of how my grandma cooked and many of her recipes. Not only do I love the name, the ingredients and the whole concept, but how you baked them in a muffin pan is quite marvelous! Need to try these, would make grandma proud =)
I hope you enjoy the recipe Laura!