Scandinavian food (was: SC - re: lutefisk!)

[Par Leijonhufvud]

On Fri, 19 Sep 1997, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> We really don't know how
> period Scandinavians would have eaten it, though. As with many bland
> foods (my favorite example being bean curd) it needs to be seasoned when
> cooked. For those cultures whose only seasonings extend to salt and
> pepper, that shouldn't be a problem. (I made a batch of haggis some

The problem is what spices were used in medieval Scandinavia. based on
archaeological finds one can make up a list of what was used during the
Viking age (I thing Thora Sharptooth has such a list on the WWW), and
for later times there might be some literary remarks that could help
us. 

> I'm reasonably familiar with Lutefisk being served with melted butter
> (sometimes drawn butter, but not always) and potato-dough pancakes that
> the Norse call lefse, but the Swedes lompe. Hot dogs are also eaten in
> lefse/lompe, BTW. Makes 'em almost tolerable.

OOP: cook your hotdog in your prefered manner, roll into a piece of thin
bread of the lefse/lompe type with some mashed potatoes and your
favourite hot dog fixings. Best way to eat the dastardly things. Most
hot dog places over here (Stockholm) will even place such things as
bratwurst, kabanossen, etc in them, for added meat content and flavour.

BTW, I've never seen the term lompe used in Sweden, they generally are
referred to as 'tunnbr<o-umlaut>d' (lit. thin bread'). Note that you
have to specify hard or soft. No idea what the period term would have
been.

> I suspect that the long lines would form for the mutton prosciutto
> (fennlaer, IIRC), but there would likely be some diehard Scandamaniacs

If you place the feast along the cost of Norway, or on Iceland you *must*
include whale... :->

And let's not forget the skyr, however we interpret it (I've seen what
is supposedly a good impersonation of what is sold in Iceland as skyr,
but never the original.) Does anyone know?

For fun (but hard to document) you could serve "long milk", which is a
yoghurt- or kefir-like soured milk product which is "stretchy"! Yep, it
sticks together in a rubberlike manner. If you can get hold of a live 
culture for this you can make your own, no need to buy all you need.

You could also make use of blueberries. And don't forget the herring,
which was a bit of a staple along the coast, at least.

And barkbread, lets not forget barkbread. Take the cambium layer from a
pine (Pinus silverstis), roast till dry and crush. Mix with flour and bake
your bread. I *think* that is documentable. 

Spread your sights a bit and make Finnish fish-bread?

/UlfR

- --
Par Leijonhufvud                  par.leijonhufvud at labtek.ki.se 
I haven't lost my mind, it's backed up on tape somewhere.

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