In a large bowl, combine the ground chuck, bread crumbs, eggs, and evaporated milk. Mix with your hands until just combined — overworking makes the meatballs dense.
Roll into small balls, about 1½ inches / 4 cm across. You should get roughly 30-36.
Pour enough oil into a large frying pan to coat the bottom and heat over medium-high heat.
Working in batches so the pan isn't crowded, fry the meatballs, turning as needed, until browned on all sides, about 6-8 minutes per batch. They do not need to be cooked through — the oven finishes them.
Transfer the browned meatballs to a shallow casserole dish, scraping the pan drippings in with them.
Not Swedish meatballs. The original card called these Swedish meatballs, but there's no allspice, no sour cream, and no roux — it's a mid-century American cream-soup casserole.
Don't dilute the soup. The undiluted soup plus drippings makes the gravy. Adding water or milk thins it out.
Only have one can? One can (10.5 oz / 298 g) plus the ketchup is about 1¾ cups of sauce for 2 lb of meat — enough to glaze the meatballs, but not enough to spoon over noodles or rice. Two ways around it:
Halve the batch. Use 1 lb / 450 g ground chuck, 1 egg, ½ cup / 55 g bread crumbs, 2 tbsp / 30 ml evaporated milk, and ¼ cup / 60 ml ketchup with the single can. Yields 4 servings.
Stretch the can. Keep the full 2 lb and mix 1 can with ½ cup / 120 ml ketchup plus ½ cup / 120 ml beef broth (milk, cream, or water with a splash of Worcestershire also work). Pack the meatballs into a smaller, deeper dish — 9×9 in / 23×23 cm rather than 9×13 — so the sauce pools instead of spreading thin, and keep it covered for the full bake. Taste the sauce before pouring; stretched sauce may need extra salt.
Serve with: cheese-rice casserole, rice and corn casserole, macaroni and cheese, tossed salad, or buttered vegetables. Also good over egg noodles or mashed potatoes.
Make ahead. Brown the meatballs a day early and refrigerate. Add the sauce and bake straight from the fridge, adding about 10 minutes to the bake time.