Traditional Easter Smorgasbord Posted by jennie on Apr 5, 2010 in Culture, Swedish Language
Swedes are not the most adventurous people. That might explain why we eat the same thing on Christmas, Easter and Midsummer – with some minor adjustments depending on the season. Or, do we simply just love our herring (sill), salmon and meatballs? It is probably just as simple as that, and to be perfectly honest, who wouldn’t?
So, to tickle your taste buds (smaklökar), here’s what you should serve if you want to make a Swede very happy:
Important food no 1: Smoked salmon (rökt lax) and Swedish style rye bread (rågbröd)
Important food no 2: Gravadlax (gravad lax), a cured salmon that has been cured in a mixture of salt, sugar and dill for several days. This stems from back in the days when we used to preserve the fish by burying it in the sand (‘grav’ means ‘grave’ in Swedish, so gravadlax is basically ‘buried salmon’). It ‘s dead easy (ha!) and you can find the recipe we used here.
Important food no 3: Silltårta (a savoury herring cake made of rye bread, eggs, herring, creme fraiche and dill) and egg halves with caviar and/or mayo:
Important food no 4: Meatballs, prinskorv (tiny sausages, literaly means prince sausages) and potatoes
Important food no 5: Herring in all shapes and varieties, such as onion, mustard and garlic. And decorated eggs of course!
(please note the nice big påskris in the background, that’s more like the way it should be…)
Important food no 6: Janssons Frestelse (Jansson’s Temptation) – a potato gratin with anchovies and don’t ask me who Jansson is and why we eat his or her temptation, I have no clue! Does anyone know?
Important drink no 1: Snaps (shots of Aquavit or other herbal spirits)
(Apart from snaps, Påskmust is a must! You know, the root beer-drink that we also drink at Christmas? But it was sadly nowhere to be found on IKEA this Easter)
There we go! The key ingredients to a perfect Swedish Easter (or Christmas or Midsummer…) Smorgasbord. Of course, this varies depending on family traditions and where in the country you are, but I think it’s safe to say that at least five of the seven above where consumed by almost everyone who celebrated a Swedish Easter the last couple of days.
Did you? What was on your smorgasbord?
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Comments:
Emma:
I really want to come to Sweden and try all this food! Especially the gravadlax, it all looks so good!
My Easter dinner in Canada consisted of a big roasted Ham, potatoes, turnip, vegetables, fruits, and since the weather was so nice a BBQ with burgers and sausages. I also ate a lot of chocolate eggs.
jennie:
Sounds really good! BBQ especially, can’t wait for that!
And honestly, it isn’t that difficult to make your own gravadlax if you are tempted. IKEA also sell it from time to time. But I guess to acctually try it IN Sweden would be ideal.. 🙂 Good luck!
sven-goran ericsson:
What you refer to as anchovies, are actually not anchovies at all. It’s just that the swedish word for that particular pickled fish is “Ansjovis”, and there really isn’t any foreign equvallent. Anchovies are what the swedish calls “Sardeller”.
Just FYI.
jennie:
@sven-göran: Ah, thank you! I had no idea that that was the case. But I guess you can use anchovies just as well?
sven-goran ericsson:
@ jennie:
Not really. It doesn’t really have the same flavour, and anchovies are much saltier than ansjovis.