History, products and traditions
With particularly cold winters and short summers, agriculture in Sweden was generally limited to a few cereals and root vegetables, not forgetting cabbage processed into sauerkraut, a rich source of vitamin C, while berries such as cranberries were made into jam. In this context, fishing was also a crucial activity, and the importance of fish governed trade in Scandinavia for a long time. Just as salt enabled fish to be dried and cured to ensure its preservation, so meat was smoked.
From the late Middle Ages onwards, the cities of Stockholm, Visby and Kalmar became important trading posts within the Hanseatic League, a group of merchant cities between the North and Baltic Seas, enriching the local aristocracy. Sweden gradually became a major military power, and by the end of the 17th century, the crown reigned over virtually all of Northern Europe and much of the Baltic. This power enabled the country to embark on military campaigns as far afield as the Ottoman Empire, where soldiers brought back exotic dishes such as kåldolma - cabbage stuffed with meat and rice - brought back by King Charles XII. The word dolma comes from the Turkish word for "stuff".
Swedish cuisine makes generous use of meat (pork, lamb, beef and poultry), fish and seafood, as well as various root vegetables (potato, carrot, turnip, rutabaga) and mushrooms, both cultivated and wild. You'll also find a wide variety of breads, such as the dense rye bread rågbröd, or knäckebröd, a type of thin, very crunchy rusk. Wheat - more fickle than other cereals - was regularly replaced by rye and barley. Swedes are the world's 4th biggest consumers of milk. Butter was everywhere, but olive oil also became very popular. The use of spices remains traditionally moderate, with caraway, juniper and dill, as well as the unmistakable trio of cinnamon, musk and ginger in pastries. However, the Swedes are becoming increasingly open to exotic cuisines, and the country has been an important host country since the mid-twentieth century.
Conversely, husmanskost - which could be translated as "man-of-the-house cuisine" - refers to a trend towards a return to traditional Swedish dishes with local farm ingredients and long-cooked country recipes, in contrast to the more modern cuisine of the city. Wild - or cultivated - apples and berries are prepared in the form of pies, cakes and compotes.
Classics of Swedish cuisine
More than just a dish, smörgåsbord is a symbol of Sweden's culinary identity. This cold buffet features a multitude of dishes: rolls, herring, salmon, shrimp, mussels, oysters, eel, fish roe, hard-boiled eggs, roast beef, sausages, meatballs, chicken, liver pâté(leverpastej), a variety of cold meats, cheese, as well as a multitude of raw vegetables and salads (potato, beet, cucumber, etc.).), not forgetting mayonnaise and the tasty hovmästarsås, a sauce made with mustard, honey and dill. This buffet is also available in the form of smörgås, small slices of rye bread with fillings, which can be found everywhere at lunchtime.
Meat recipes include the inevitable köttbullar or meatballs, made from beef, pork and/or veal - sometimes poultry - served with a cream sauce and cranberry jam, very common with meat. Closely related, wallenbergare is a veal minced steak generally served with mashed potatoes, peas and cranberry jam. There are also various types of sausage, such as fläskkorv or falukorv, similar to a Frankfurt sausage, whileisterband resembles a smoked Toulouse sausage. Prinskorv is used to garnish hot dogs, with sweet mustard(sötstark senap).
Seafood products are common in Sweden. Salmon is prepared as gravlax (marinated with salt, sugar and dill) orinkokt (poached with vegetables), while herring(sill) is marinated with vegetables and spices(inlagd sill), fried in butter(stekt strömming) or in salad with beet, potato and cream(sillsallad). Fish balls or fiskbullar are often served with a cream and herb sauce. From the Bay of Bothnia in the north of the country, löjrom or Kalix caviar is prepared with whitefish roe. The more adventurous can try two specialties reserved for strong stomachs. Surströmming is made from salted herring fillets that are left to macerate in an unsterilized container, allowing bacterial flora to develop and giving it an odor that many describe as nauseating, and which Swedes themselves rarely consume. Another strange dish - albeit less aggressive to the nostrils - is lutefisk, made from salted cod fillet rehydrated in a soda-based solution, giving the fish a gelatinous texture and an ammonia-like odor. It is gently cooked and served with potatoes.
There are also a host of peasant or husmanskost dishes, such as the famous ärtsoppa (pea and bacon soup), rotmos med fläsk (boiled smoked bacon with carrot and rutabaga purée), pitepalt or kroppkakor (boiled potato dumplings stuffed with pork), raggmunkar (potato pancakes), pytt i panna (vegetable and sausage jardinière with fried egg), kalops (beef stew with carrots), bruna bönor och fläsk (brown bean stew with bacon) or blodkorv or black pudding, made with pig's blood.
Desserts and hot drinks
Swedish pastries are rich and varied. Viennese pastries and cakes, often nicknamed kaffebröd, are most often served with coffee during the fika or coffee break, a moment much appreciated by Swedes. In fact, with some 9 kg per capita per year, Swedes are the 6th biggest coffee consumers in the world, and establishments where you can sip coffee with a pastry are to be found on every street corner.
Among the classics, it's impossible to miss kannelbullar, soft cinnamon rolls, unless you prefer kringla, a kind of brioche pretzel with pearl sugar. A Mardi Gras brioche, usually served for dessert on the Monday and Tuesday of Lent, the semla is a small brioche filled with marzipan and decorated with whipped cream. On Saint Lucia's Day, December 13, we prepare lussekatter, an S-shaped saffron brioche with raisins. Last but not least, pepparkakor, a spiced cookie, is eaten during the festive season.
There are a multitude of cakes, tarts and crumbles(smulpaj). The most famous is prinsesstårta, a Genoese cake filled with whipped cream, raspberry jam and covered with green marzipan. Named after the Swedish princesses Märtha, Astrid and Margaretha. Napoleonbakelse is a kind of mille-feuille with whipped cream, while kladdkaka is the local equivalent of a chocolate moelleux. The spectacular spettekaka or spit cake is prepared by pouring dough onto a cylinder over embers, giving the final product a tree-trunk shape.Ostkaka is a type of cheesecake made with fromage blanc. Like many Swedish desserts, it is served with a mixture of red fruits (raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, etc.) and local wild berries such as plaquebière, which resembles an orange raspberry.
Swedes also enjoy sweets such as the amazing saltlakrits, licorice sweets treated with ammonia chloride, giving them a very unusual salty taste. Other sweets are more accessible, such as knäck (soft caramel with almond flakes), polkagrisar (old-fashioned barley sugar) or chokladbollar (small chocolate and oatmeal balls rolled in shredded coconut). Punschrulle is a chocolate and cookie chip sweet flavored with punsch, a liqueur, then wrapped in green marzipan. Daim chocolate bars were also created in Sweden in 1953.
Between beer and aquavit
Sweden is part of the so-called "vodka belt" - along with Poland, Finland and Russia - and distilled beverages have historically been a part of Scandinavian life in general. Brännvin is the Swedish term for a grain and potato based spirit, equivalent to vodka, although the name "vodka" also exists for a high quality brännvin such as Absolut Vodka, a brand created in 1879. Aquavit is a brännvin flavored with caraway seeds, always drunk ice cold.
Swedish beers are usually rather refreshing lagers such as Pripps Blå, Krönleins, Mariestads or Norrlands Guld, although many microbreweries are emerging such as Nils Oscar Brewery, Dugges Ale och Porterbryggeri and Närke Kulturbryggeri. The consumption of wine in Sweden has increased over the last fifty years. There are also some liqueurs such as punsch made from arak (an aniseed-flavored grape brandy) and sugar.
Note that Sweden has a very strict alcohol policy. Outside of bars and restaurants, any alcoholic beverage over 3.5° can only be purchased in state stores or systembolaget, with your identity card proving that you are over 20 years old.
