Photo: Imagebank.sweden.se
1. Lingonberry jam with meatballs – a logical pairing
Alongside ketchup and mustard, in Sweden lingonberry jam is served with some hot dishes: with meatballs and pancakes, with porridge and blood sausage (blodpudding). At the same time, despite its sweetness, it is rarely spread on bread. True connoisseurs of wild nature, many Swedes have been accustomed since childhood to pick lingonberries and make jam from these tart red berries.
2. Pickled herring – a regular on the Swedish buffet
Whether it's Christmas, New Year, Midsummer (Midsummer Festival) or Easter, no festive table in Sweden is without pickled herring (sill). The tradition of pickling herring, which abounds in the North and Baltic Seas, dates back to the Middle Ages.
Marinades for herring are made to suit every taste – with mustard, onion, garlic, dill, beets, curry – and this is far from a complete list. Herring is most often eaten with boiled potatoes, sour cream, finely chopped green onions, aged hard cheese, sometimes with boiled eggs, and of course, with crispbreads.
3. Crispbread – with what?
In addition to soft bread with butter, crispbread (knäckebröd) is an invariable ingredient of any lunch or dinner. They began baking it in Sweden more than 500 years ago, and originally crispbread was considered food for the poor. When stored properly, crispbread retains its flavor for at least a year, and it remains one of the most versatile foods.
Varying in shape, thickness, composition, consistency and taste, crispbreads occupy entire shelves in supermarkets. The variations of sandwiches made from crispbread are endless: with sliced boiled eggs and tube caviar for breakfast, with ham, cheese and cucumber slices for lunch, or with butter for dinner. Yes, and with lingonberry jam, of course!
4. Shrimp sandwich – heir to the plate
The Swedish sandwich tradition originated in the 15th century, when thick slices of bread were used as plates. In Sweden, the shrimp sandwich (räksmörgås) is still a dish fit for a king. Consisting of a mixture of finely chopped boiled eggs, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, this seafood appetizer is often topped with roe sauce (romsås) – sour cream mixed with dill sprigs and roe.
The shrimp sandwich is an integral part of Swedish culture, which gave rise to the popular expression: "glida in på en räkmacka" (literally "to slide in on a shrimp sandwich"), meaning to gain an advantage or achieve something without much effort.
5. Pea soup and pancakes – Thursday staples
For many Swedes, pea soup and pancakes (ärtsoppa och pannkakor) on Thursdays are important childhood memories. There are various opinions about the origins of this culinary ritual. According to one version, Catholics (and until the 16th century Sweden was a Catholic country) do not eat meat on Fridays, so they would fill up on hearty pea soup on Thursdays. According to another, pea soup was an easy-to-prepare dish for servants who worked half-days on Thursdays.
Regardless of its origin, this culinary trait has become firmly established, and in most traditional restaurants, pea soup and pancakes with lingonberry jam or any other kind of jam (sylt) are served for Thursday lunch.
6. Princess cake – a royal weakness
No self-respecting pastry shop's display case is without the pale green "Princess cake" (prinsesstårta), topped with a scarlet sugar rose. Several layers of sponge cake, spread with jam and vanilla cream, are covered with whipped cream and then a thin layer of sweet green marzipan.
The cake debuted in 1920 at the initiative of Jenny Åkerström. She was the teacher of the daughters of Prince Carl Bernadotte, brother of King Gustav V – Princesses Margaretha, Märtha and Astrid, who loved this cake so much that over time it became named in their honor. Although the official Princess Cake Week is the third week of September, this popular treat is widely used for celebrating special occasions. Today it is made in different colors – from classic green to yellow for Easter, red for Christmas, orange for Halloween, and white for weddings.
7. Sweet celebration – a red-letter day
A Swede will always find an excuse to indulge in sweets – special days are even set aside for sweets in the calendar.
Cinnamon Bun Day (Kanelbullens dag) is celebrated on October 4. Semla buns, filled with cream and almond paste (semlor) are traditionally eaten on "Fat Tuesday" (fettisdagen) – the day before the start of Lent. Freshly baked waffles (våfflor) are eaten on March 25, and a cream sponge cake decorated with a chocolate or marzipan silhouette of King Gustavus Adolphus (Gustav Adolfs-bakelse) is traditionally eaten on November 6 in memory of the Swedish monarch who was killed on this day in 1632 at the Battle of Lützen.
8. Crayfish – the head of everything
"Crayfish parties" (kräftskivor) in Sweden are a symbol of August. Freshwater and sea crayfish are consumed on warm summer evenings in gardens and on balconies throughout the country.
In the 16th century, when this tradition began to take shape, crayfish were affordable only for the upper class and aristocracy. Over time, they became a national delicacy for everyone. Crayfish were not only caught in Sweden but also imported from other countries – and their price dropped significantly.
9. Soured herring – it doesn't smell of roses
In every national cuisine (at least, Swedes think so) there is a dish that horrifies both locals and guests. In Sweden, that role is played by soured herring (surströmming) – it appears on store shelves in the second half of August.
The tradition is this: swollen tins of Baltic herring are opened outdoors because of the unbearable stench. The bouquet of smells combines notes of rotten eggs and sewage. Pickled Baltic herring is actually eaten. Swedes are not alien to anything human: sometimes you just crave fresh fish.
10. Sweets on Saturdays
An average Swedish family, consisting of two adults and two children, eats 1.2 kg of sweets per week – and most of them on Saturday, the official candy day. This tradition is linked to a dubious medical experiment.
In the 1940s-50s, at a psychiatric hospital in the city of Lund, patients were fed large amounts of candy as part of a study to intentionally cause cavities. Based on the results of the experiment, which established a direct link between eating sweets and tooth decay, the National Medical Board recommended that Swedes limit candy consumption to once a week. Many families still adhere to this unwritten rule to this day.
Based on materials from Sweden.ru