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Scandinavian cuisine
It was shaped by natural conditions in which the inhabitants of this European region lived. Supplies harvested in the summer and the fall had to serve during the whole long and cold winter – this is why the people had to learn how to preserve and store them. Salted, soured and pickled food was not too sophisticated or rich in vitamins. Inhabitants of Sweden can boast of the most variety of their cuisine. They eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. But the more we move to the north, the more severe natural conditions become, and accordingly – the culinary traditions are poorer.
Marinated and pickled vegetables are the main source of vitamins in the Scandinavian cuisine. Despite long winters and short summers, vegetables are always present on Scandinavian tables.
Vegetables for a long winter
Since winters are long in Scandinavia and weather not too friendly, vegetables are not as frequently on the tables as in warm climate countries. But that does not mean they don’t appear there at all. It is a popular tradition to marinate and pickle them. The most popular are marinated beets, sliced and immersed in vinegar, sugar and cloves. Other vegetables are also marinated, such as carrots, cabbage, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers and aubergines. In Sweden and Norway sweet pickled cucumbers are popular.
Also Norwegia has rich culinary traditions connected with salmon. Norwegians who consider salmon to be a delicacy, serve it in many different ways: fried (stekt laks), smoked (røkt laks), boiled (kokt laks), grilled (grillet laks), marinated (gravet laks), as tartar (laks tartar), in soup (fisze suple) or with noodles.
The Norwegians also love delicacies made of other kinds of fish. The most popular are fiskeboller – meatballs made of minced fish meat, served in white sauce. Very popular are small sardines – brislinger, caught in Stavanger. For centuries sardines have been processed here and then reached tables of nearly all Europe.
The strongest and most aromatic smell comes from stands with dry fish, called „stockfish” by the locals. For some this smell seems to be the most wonderful there might be, for others it is disgusting. Stockfish is codfish dried in the sun. When warmed with sunshine, it gains a specific taste, which, just like their smell, for some is heaven in their mouth, for others is simply inedible. Meat containing no water preserves its taste and all the nutritional elements, and, what is most important, when soaked in water, regains its form, smell and taste from before drying.
The delicacy of Denmark is salmon immersed in a clay pot filled with honey. A tightly closed pot is placed under the ground for a few months where the temperature is low. After this time the salmon meat gains a specific aroma and taste. This dish is served with onion rounds. The idea of digging salmon in the ground was born on Aland Islands.
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