SCANDINAVIAN CUISINE

The culinary repertoire of the Scandinavian countries relies on fish, potatoes,

pork, beetroot (red beet) cucumber, fruit, dill, horseradish, cream and butter. It preserves
the distant heritage of the Vikings who had mutton, shellfish, wild birds, reindeer, and
bear and were adept at making butter and beer.
The natural isolation of the Scandinavian countries has contributed to the survival
of some very old recipes, notably raw salmon marinated with pepper dill sugar and
served with mustard sauce. Bread is traditionally made at home. Hence the variety of
Scandinavian barley or rye cakes and breads. In addition the climate is conducive to the
widespread practice of drying smoking and marinating. Cod and herring have therefore
become the main stay of the Scandinavian diet. One particular dish is
SURSTROMINGSOUR
Herrings pickled in the sun in a barrel of brine, strong sharp dish eaten with sour black
bread and potatoes.
Diary products play an important role in the Scandinavian cookery. Double
(heavy) or soured (diary sour) cream, butter, and cottage cheese.
Each of the Scandinavian countries has its own culinary characteristics. Denmark
has rich fatty foods. Norway is a wilder country, hence fish, reindeer, mutton are
important here. Finland has rustic dishes and Sweden has the most varied cuisine.

DENMARK:
Solid plentiful and mild, Danish cookery makes use of butter and cream, pork and
potatoes are the predominant foods. Two great classics are loin of pork stuffed with
prunes and apples and roast leg of pork with crackling. Stews are also popular
Fricandelles (meat balls of minced veal and pork with onions) as well as stuffed cabbage
and Hakkebiff (minced beef with onion covered with brown sauce). Poultry dishes which
are reserved for special occasions include Chicken stuffed with parsley and roast goose.
In addition to potato, cabbage is widely used, especially braised red cabbage with apples,
which is served with pork, goose or duck. Boiled kale, chopped and combined with
cream sauce is a favorite garnish for ham. The offal specialties include a famous black
pudding (black sausage), calf’s head en tortue and stuffed ox’s heart with cream sauce.
Liver pate is a very popular dish and is one of the main items in the cold buffet, the
traditional Danish lunch which includes salds, herring, scrambled eggs with bacon and
cheese on slices of buttered whole meal or black bread, together with various foods
which are easy to slice such as RULLEOOESE(spiced rolled belly of pork).
However the best known items of Danish cookery are the pastries and dessert ,
ranging from simple pancakes stuffed with vanilla ice cream, fruit pudding and rodgrod,
to the more elaborate apple cake(made of several layers of sweet pastry

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interspersed with jam and bread crumbs mixed with melted butter and topped with
whipped cream). Home made biscuits(cookies)includes the BRUNE KAGE(made with
spices almonds and brown sugar) ginger bread and short bread. Some Danish pastries are
very popular such as the soft flaky turnovers of various shapes,filledwith cream jam or
dried fruits. The most impressive set piece is the KRANSEKAGE, eaten on birthdays and
at weddings. As high as 80 inches, it is made of piled up rings of pastry decorated with
crystallized fruit, studded with little flags, and patterned with icing designs.
However, a less rich culinary tradition exists in Denmark, going back to rural
origins of the country some examples are the milk porridge topped with butter and salt-
pork gravy, and ollebrod, a thick soup with beer and rye bread.

NORWAY:
The traditional Norwegian breakfast is based on salt or marinated fish, strong
cheese, bacon, fried potatoes, egg and various types of bread, together with butter and
jam. The midday meal is often only sandwiches except in the country where the two main
fishes of Norway ie: mutton and fish are often eaten. The main meal of the day is dinner.
Sour (dairy sour) cream is widely used in soups and sauces, porridge, waffles and with
salt meat pork products and salads. The natural taste of foods are appreciated, with such
dishes as salt mutton chops grilled over a birch wood fire and served with kohlrabi
purees; fried trout coated with cream and sprinkled with parsley; fish salad with
horseradish, dill, and onion; and ham with ‘rkal’ a sort of sauerkraut with cumin. The old
Norwegian national dish is ‘rommegrot’ a porridge made with soured cream, flour and
milk, dusted with cinnamon and sugar and melted butter and red currant or black berry
juice: it has now given way to the more p[popular rice puddings.
Meat is often dried, salted and smoked; leg of mutton prepared in this way is
called fenalar and is cut into long thin slices, and spekeskinke is dried ham eaten in the
spring with vegetables. In the winter more fortifying foods are eaten, such as far I kal a
mutton cabbage stew with black pepper. There are some original recipes for game:
ptarmijin casserole with cranberry, roast venison with goat’s milk cheese sauce and
smoked elk.
There are numerous ways of preparing fish trout is prepared by pickling as well as
other methods, and salmon is grilled (broiled). Smoked or cooked stocks are served cold
with horseradish butter and cucumber. Sea fish are widely used. Boiled salt cod is served
with melted butter and egg sauce or cooked with potatoes and young peas with mustard
sauce. Another very popular dish is cod’s tongue , which are often mixed with various
types of fish in aspic. As in other Scandinavian countries herrings are prepared in many
different ways but mackerels are highly priced; marinated and then grilled, they are
served with tomato butter, aquavit, beer. There is also a fish pudding made with smoked
haddock and cod served with shrimp sauce and fish soup from bergin, made with green
vegetables soured cream and egg yolk.

SWEDEN:
Of all Scandinavian cookery that of Sweden is best known abroad. The most
famous culinary tradition is the smorgasbord, a sumptuous buffet that features in
domestic cookery and in all the restaurants. The Swedes are also proud of a court

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culinary served with mountain cranberry and potatoes and fillet of beef oskar(with
asparagus and béarnaise sauce).
Swedish home cookery is always full of flavor. Yellow pea soup with thyme and
marjoram served with a slice of pork, can be followed by pancake topped with cranberry
compote, fried pork sausages with pickled beet root, beef and beer stew and salmon
pudding (made with potatoes and onions, topped with egg custard). The potato recipe
shows great inventiveness: potato balls stuffed with pork, baked potatoes filled with fresh
cream and topped with cod’s roe, little potato pancakes with chives and pepper a well as
the famous PYTT I PANNA ( small potatoes and meat dice fried with onion sprinkled
with parsley and served with raw egg yolk or fried egg).
The other typical Swedish dishes should be mentioned: beef linsdstrom (minced
beef with beetroot juice, capers, and onion); Rolled slices of beef stuffed with anchovies
and onions, and rolled slices of veal stuffed with leeks.
The patisserie is particularly rich and varied, and saffron and cardamom are used
a great deal.
Within the Arctic Circle, whether Sweden, Norway or Finland, The meat par
excellence is Reindeer. Smoked t6o the bone and then dried, it can be kept for a long
time. But it can also be cooked fresh, stewed with bone. The laps maintain some old
traditions like salted black coffee into which they dip reindeer milk cheese.

FINLAND:
Finnish culture is characterized by foods with robust flavors such as
VORSHMACK (a hash of mutton, beef and salted herring spiced with garlic and onion.)
Accompanied by RYVPPY (strong grained alcohol, which is drunk, chilled). Soup made
of lake fish and potatoes and onion is served with a hunk of buttered rye bread, a soup
made of chopped offal’s cooked with carrots and potatoes is thickened with blood and
garnished with barley balls. The Finns are fond of sweets (RUTABAGA), raw salmon
(LOKI), and strong liqueurs which they make themselves such as lakka (based on Arctic
cranberries). They also use a lot of milk in the form of thick butter milk in porridges and
puddings; these include puddings made with rye malt, treacle and bitter orange peel, and
barley porridge served with rose-nip puree, raisins, or melted butter.
Wild mushrooms from the forest are wildly used in soups, sauces, stews, pickles
and salads and wild berries are made into purees and cream desserts. Other typical foods
are turbot roe, smoked reindeer tongues, crayfish cooked in stock with fennel. The
Russian influence is significant: borsch pashkaand blinis are common dishes and in
karalla rye pastries variants of piroshki and kou libiaka are the typical dishes; these
include piirakka, with a rice and fish filling served with melted butter and hard boiled egg
and the famous kalakukko, filled with small fresh water fish and minced pork. Other
Finnish dishes are liver stew with rice and mutton, pork and veal stew.

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