Norwegian cuisine

Pinnekjøtt (cured lamb ribs ) with kålrabistappe ( Rübenmus ), boiled potatoes, potato dumplings and Bacon

The Norwegian cuisine is the national cuisine of Norway and dominated by the traditional diet of fishermen and farmers. Fish and dairy products have long been the basis of this cuisine, supplemented by cereals and whale meat.

General

Norwegian cuisine is strongly influenced by the Scandinavian climate with short summers and long winters. Due to the climate, the preservation of food was very important in the past in order to guarantee the supply during the winter months. Many foods were therefore smoked, salted, pickled or dried.

The modern Norwegian breakfast is very rich and is more like an English than a continental breakfast. Lunch ( lunsj , trad. Formiddagsmat ), on the other hand, is more of a snack and is often cold. Dinner ( middag ) is eaten between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. and is the main warm meal of the day. Sometimes there is a snack around 9 p.m. ( aftensmat or kveldsmat ), which can also consist of coffee and cake.

The introduction of the potato in the middle of the 18th century marked a real food revolution .

Grain

Grain cultivation is only possible in the south of the country and only oats and barley thrive there too . These types are not suitable for the production of yeast bread, so that the hard-dried flat bread Flatbrød , for example the Hardangerlefse , is typical for Norway , comparable to the crispbread . It has the advantage of being durable for a long time.

The soft flatbread is called Lefse , in which potatoes are added to the dough. Today the most popular breads in bakeries are kneippbrød , named after Sebastian Kneipp , and franskbrød , light “French bread”.

Goro is a pastry at Christmas time that is baked with special waffle irons. Kransekake consists of rings stacked one on top of the other. Skolebrød is a yeast dough pastry filled with vanilla pudding. Svele are similar to German pancakes .

Bread basket with Flatbrød
Hardangerlefse
Kransekake
Skolebrød

fish

Fishing has always played an important role in the coastal regions .

Herring has long been a staple food and has been prepared in a variety of ways. The poorer population allegedly ate herring four times a day with every meal. It was salted, dried, pickled or fermented .

Widely used because of its durability was klippfisk . Lutefisk is watered stockfish.

Salmon is Norway's most important export and a contribution to fine dining. Different variations of smoked salmon are very popular . Gravet laks or simply gravlaks are marinated in salt, pepper, sugar and dill and are often served with a dill mustard sauce.

In addition to herring, cod , sardines and mackerel also play an important role and, more recently, shrimp . Fiskeboller are fish balls .

A special fish specialty is rakfisk made from fermented trout . It is very similar to the Swedish fish dish surstromming .

Lutefisk
Rakfisk

flesh

Even small farmers used to have at least one cow; For this purpose, remote or steep pastureland had to be used, so goats and especially sheep were kept.

A specialty is fenalår , cured and mostly smoked leg of lamb. In the west of the country, smalahove , smoked sheep's head, is now considered a delicacy , whereas it used to be seen as poor people's food. B. should no longer give in the house for Christmas. Game also plays a role in fine dining, including elk , reindeer and wild fowl.

Game dishes are often served with sweet and sour sauces and ground juniper berries . Kjøttkaker , meatballs in a dark sauce, are particularly popular .

Whale meat served as an inexpensive substitute for beef well into the 20th century . Norway is one of two European countries besides Iceland that continues to conduct commercial whaling , albeit less intensively than before. Whale meat is available in many restaurants.

Smalahove (smoked sheep's head)
Hvalkjøtt (whale meat) in a restaurant in Bergen

Dairy products

Butter , cheese and other dairy products still play an important role in the Norwegian diet, while whey is less important today. In the past, blande was the traditional everyday drink of the population, consisting of whey and water.

At the end of 2011 the Norwegian butter crisis occurred when the prices for butter rose sharply for a short time due to an extreme shortage of butter.

For the cheese production, sour milk was mostly used according to the "old way", which then results in the Gammelost (literally translated "old cheese", ie "cheese of the old way"): a brown mold cheese.

Pultost is a mature cream cheese with a strong taste.

Very typical is brunost , a whey cheese , which either only of Ziegenmmolke ( Geitost ), only Kuhmolke ( fløtemysost ) or cow and goat whey ( Gudbrandsdalsost ) is prepared.

The Jarlsberg , a semi-hard cheese, has a mild to nutty taste.

The cheese slicer was invented in Norway in 1925.

Gamalost from Vik
Brown cheese with crispbread and cheese slicer

Typical dishes

Typical Norwegian specialties are:

Kjøttkaker (literally meat cake (plural)), meatballs in brown sauce
Fårikål , mutton with cabbage
Sild , pickled herring
Pinnekjøtt , cured lamb ribs
Lutefisk
Rømmegrøt , a porridge made from sour cream and semolina with sugar and cinnamon, but also sometimes with honey

beverages

The most popular drink in Norway today is coffee , which is drunk at any time of the day. The annual per capita consumption is around 160 liters.

Beer is also very popular and used to be brewed by every household, especially as a festive drink at Christmas; In pre-Christian times, the brewing of "Jule beer" was even required by law; failure to do so was subject to a fine.

The production of Norwegian aquavit ( akevitt ), which is distilled from potatoes, is important. Beer and aquavit are traditionally drunk with many Norwegian dishes such as lutefisk , fårikål and cured or smoked foods . A specialty is the Linie Aquavit brand , where the spirit is transported by ship to Australia and back before it is sold, so that the alcohol passes the equator twice . This procedure supposedly improves the taste.