What can you expect when you sign up for our Swedish dinners?

Here are some examples of what we allredy have served:

Laxpudding (Salmon pudding)

Some facts about Laxpudding:

This dish is considered to be a great example of husmanskost (home cooking), but don’t let that make you think it’s a dull dish. It is delicious and quite cheap dish since it is a way of using leftovers to make a new comforting meal. If you have potatoes and salmon you can slice it up and put it in a container, then just pore eggs milk and some dill over it all and put it in the oven for 1 hour.

Salmon is very traditional food in Sweden. Historically it was almost a staple, if you take Västerbotten for example, almost 60% of the residents paid their taxes in salmon in the 16th century. So salmon was a common source of protein.

In 1822, salmon pudding is mentioned for the first time in text.

Nyponsoppa (Rosehip soup)

Some facts about Nyponsoppa:

We have eaten rosehips in Sweden since the Wiking age. The soup has been eaten since the 18th century.

There were two important reasons why nyponsoppa was thought to be essential. Firstly, it was considered necessary for a healthy diet in the winter, because the hips contain a lot of vitamins, calcium and antioxidants, which would be very hard to obtain from other sources when the land was frozen. Secondly, at that time many Swedes were very poor, so a strong foraging culture was built out of necessity and since rosehips grow well everywhere in Sweden, right up to the Arctic Circle, they were easy to find and pick.

The soup can be served with small almond biscuits and whipped cream. It is a common snack and was also common as a dessert in the 50s.

Köttbullar (SWEDISH MEATBALLS)

Why is meatball Swedish?
Swedish meatballs, perhaps the country's most famous culinary item, are actually based on a recipe brought back from Turkey in the early 18th century by King Charles XII of Sweden. They are a part of both traditional holiday meals and a staple in everyday home cooking. They became famous all over the world when IKEA started to serve them in their restaurants back in the eighties.

What makes Swedish meatballs different?
Italian and spanish meatballs are famously served in a bright, tangy, often chunky tomato sauce (marinara to the layman) whereas Swedish meatballs are cooked in a rich, roux-based, creamy gravy made with beef or bone broth and sour cream (or sometimes heavy cream)

Hjortronsylt (CLOUDBERRY JAM)

Some facts about Hjortronsylt:

The cloudberry jam is made from the berries known as "the gold of the forest" in Sweden. You can only find these berries in the northern part of the country and in very moist areas, the mires.
It’s eaten warm with vanilla ice cream.

Fun fact: there is also a Band named Cloudberry Jam, consists of students from the universitycity of Linköping. They played Indiepop absout 30 years ago.

Ärtsoppa & Pannkakor (Pea soup & pancakes)

Some facts about Ärtsoppa:

In Sweden, pea soup has been eaten since at least the 13th century. The ingredients include yellow peas, spade from cooked pork, onions and spices (usually pepper, mustard, thyme and marjoram). Pea soup represents the type of cooking in the traditional peasant kitchen where food was cooked over the fire in a single cauldron in which vegetable and animal ingredients were regularly mixed.

When Sweden was Catholic during the 13th and 14th centuries, they fasted on Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week, and on Thursday they therefore made sure to eat something more luxurious and filling so that they could sustain themselves during the fast.

Boiled, salted pork was a rarity in medieval cookery but the peas were a festive alternative to cabbage and turnips. Different types of meat have been served in the pea soup throughout the ages, from beef, mutton to fish and seal. In the second half of the 19th century, pig production increases greatly in Sweden and then pea soup with pork becomes the cheapest meat to have in the soup.

It is said that King Erik XIV was poisoned by arsenic in pea soup in 1577. It is established that he died of arsenic poisoning, but there is no definite evidence that arsenic was in pea soup.

Some facts about Pannkakor:

Pannkakan is a very old dish that has probably existed in Sweden since ancient times. Pancake is mentioned in Swedish for the first time in a writing by Olaus Petri in 1538. However, it is not known what kind of pancake he wrote about.

Before there was a stove, you had a frying pan on three legs that was placed over the fire. The frying pan was filled with a batter consisting of eggs, flour, milk, sugar and salt.

When the wood stove came, you could start using frying pans. Then you didn't get burned as easily and the pancake became very popular.