I’ve been living in Wisconsin for the last 18 months or so working on a graduate degree in Scandinavian Studies. I moved here after having lived in Stockholm for just over three years. Most of my work actually focuses on Swedish Americans. I travel around interviewing Swedish immigrants and later Swedish-American generations. It’s a lot of fun and I love hearing new stories and just how people celebrate their Swedishness.

I’ve learned a lot along the way. It wouldn’t have been nearly as fun if I hadn’t of course, but one thing that has struck me has been the different Swedish-American foods. A couple that I had never even heard of until moving to Wisconsin and a few that seem to be ubiquitous.

The first one that caught my attention was egg coffee. I had never seen this in Sweden, but it consists of coffee grounds mixed with one egg. You can choose to either include the shell or not. Your call. I don’t actually drink coffee so am of no use in commenting on the tastiness, anyone who can speak to the quality of egg coffee?

The next food item is more of an ingredient than anything else – Jell-O. It’s everywhere. Especially in salads. It seems that you can mix just about anything you want, fruit, vegetables, candy, whatever, into Jell-O and you’ve got yourself a salad. Jell-O was always tough to find in Sweden in my opinion, and when it was available it tended to be in the ethnic food section with other American foods. In this region of the United States though, Jell-O is a staple of Swedish-American cuisine.

And then there are your classics. Pancakes. Meatballs. Sill. Glögg. It seems no matter where you go, some foods are just staples of Swedishness. They might differ a bit in terms of recipe, but the idea is there. They act as a sort of base from which to build on.

What Swedish foods do you eat? And what are your favorites? If you’re here in the US, do you have any Swedish recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation?