Sweden

Recipes by the places recorded in their sources.

Sweden

16 recipes

Opened shallow can of Swedish surströmming showing silver herring fillets in pale brine, served beside tunnbröd and sliced red onion.
High risk

Surströmming

Salted, barrel-fermented Baltic herring from Sweden, surströmming is packed in shallow tins where fermentation may continue. Its traditional production is a specialist commercial process, not a household formula.

Sweden
Fish and seafood
Modern lamb, pearl barley, turnip and cabbage pottage reconstruction served in a stoneware bowl.

Lamb, barley and cabbage pottage (modern reconstruction)

Lamb shoulder simmered with pearl barley, turnip and leafy cabbage in one pot, a present-day reconstruction built from the animals, grains and vegetables of northern European farming.

Denmark · Modern method
· Meat
Plain filmjölk in a shallow ivory bowl, with a separate unlabelled bottle of milk behind.

Filmjölk

Filmjölk is a Swedish cultured milk with mild acidity and a spoonable body. This recurring batch uses filmjölk from the previous batch to culture fresh milk.

Sweden · Modern method
· Dairy
Swedish-style mustard and dill sauce, a golden thick emulsion flecked with chopped dill.

Swedish-style mustard and dill sauce

Sweet mustard and Dijon whisked with sugar and white-wine vinegar, thickened with oil added slowly and finished with fresh dill: a hovmästarsås-style sauce for salmon.

Sweden
· Condiments
Golden Swedish cinnamon-bun spirals baked in paper cases and topped with pearl sugar.

Kanelbullar (Swedish cinnamon buns)

Soft Swedish wheat buns filled with butter, sugar and cinnamon. This 20-bun home batch uses fresh yeast, two short proofs and pearl sugar.

Sweden · Modern method
· Grains and starches
Thin slices of gravad lax with dill and pepper on a cream platter.
High risk

Gravad lax

Salmon is cured with salt, sugar, pepper, dill and lemon zest under refrigeration.

Sweden
· Fish and seafood
Thin slices of mahogany smoked reindeer meat on a shallow birchwood plate, with a smoked piece behind.
High risk

Suovas

Salted reindeer meat hung in the smoke of a lávvu fire over willow, birch or juniper, then cooled and in some Sámi communities dried outdoors into travelling provisions.

Sápmi · Traditional method
· Meat
Thick barley and oat porridge topped with diced apple and chopped hazelnuts in a stoneware bowl.

Barley and oat porridge (Viking Age)

Crushed or milled barley cooked in water until the starch softens and the mixture thickens, the plainest way a northern household turned stored grain into a meal, here with apple and hazelnut.

Sweden · Modern adaptation
· Grains and starches
Thin golden-brown Swedish rye-and-wheat crispbreads, fork-pricked and lightly flecked with caraway, stacked on an ivory plate.

Knäckebröd

A Swedish home batch of eight thin rye-and-wheat crispbreads, yeast-risen once and baked until hard.

Sweden · Modern adaptation
· Grains and starches
Prepared Swedish pickled herring pieces with red onion in a glass jar, with leek, carrot, allspice, bay leaf and cloves nearby.

5-minuterssill

A Swedish ready-to-dress herring preparation: add the classic sliced aromatics and spices to already prepared herring, then serve or chill for fuller flavour.

Sweden · Modern adaptation
· Fish and seafood
Photograph of Rårörda lingon.

Rårörda lingon

A Swedish uncooked lingonberry accompaniment: frozen berries are mixed with granulated sugar and thawed, with occasional stirring, until the sugar dissolves.

Sweden · Modern method
· Fruit
A shallow ceramic bowl of thick white långfil, with a spoon drawing a soft elastic strand of cultured milk back into the bowl.

Långfil and tettemelk

Långfil and tettemelk are traditional Swedish and Norwegian cultured milks with a mild sour taste and a stretchy texture produced by ropy lactic acid bacteria.

Northern Sweden · Traditional method
· Dairy
A dark-crusted Swedish sirapslimpa rye-and-wheat loaf with a cut slice showing its tender brown crumb.

Swedish syrup rye loaf (sirapslimpa)

Sirapslimpa is a sweetish Swedish rye-and-wheat loaf with dark syrup, honey, fennel and anise, made with an overnight rye scald and a long room-temperature rise.

Sweden
A small surströmmingsklämma with boiled potatoes, red onion and gräddfil

A surströmming meal

A Swedish late-summer meal of commercially prepared surströmming, tunnbröd, potatoes, onion and cultured cream. This is a serving preparation; the specialist fish fermentation is not made at home here.

Sweden
Fish and seafood
A cloth-covered jar and a clear bottle of homemade spirit vinegar on a wooden kitchen counter.

Ättika

A Swedish-style spirit vinegar made by fermenting neutral alcohol with live vinegar bacteria, with a separate guide to commercial ättika strengths.

Sweden · Traditional method
· Condiments
A small glass cruet and tasting bowl of pale-yellow birch sap vinegar on a wooden table with birch bark nearby.

Birch sap vinegar

Vinegar from spring birch sap fermented to alcohol and then acetic acid, usually with added sugar or honey because the sap is so dilute; made in Sweden and described in older eastern European accounts.

Sweden · Modern adaptation
· Condiments