Smalahove

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scorched Smalahove
Smalahove ready to serve

Smalahove , smalehovud or sau (d) ehau (d) are heads of lamb or sheep that are traditionally prepared in western Norway. It is a dish with a long tradition in western Norway, where everything that is edible from animals is typically used. In the past, the dish was considered to be poor people's food, but today it is a popular festival dish and delicacy.

History and traditional preparation

The dish was originally an everyday dish or "poor people's meal". Often it was consumed with sour milk or juice. Beer was often served as a feast. The sheep were usually slaughtered at home on the farm and the remains of wool were scorched on the head over an open flame. The wood used for this had to come from deciduous trees such as alder or birch . After the head was scorched, it was divided in half and unwanted content (e.g. the brain) removed. The head was watered until the next day and soaked in salt for a few days. After that, it was customary to smoke the smalahove for a few hours. This is optional and not a tradition everywhere in Western Norway. Salting (and smoking) was important to keep the smalahove fresh for a few months because there were no freezing options. Nevertheless, care had to be taken to store the meat in a cool place. Immediately before consumption, the sheep's head was boiled or steamed for about three hours and served hot together with turnips and potatoes . In some preparation variants, the sheep's head is not split immediately, but rather cooked with the brain, which is spooned out or removed and fried after splitting.

The name of the dish is made up of the two Norwegian words hove and smale . Hove is the dialect form of hovud , the Norwegian word for main and smale a word for sheep, so the name of the dish can be translated as sheep's head.

Consumption

Smalahove has recently become a feast and is sometimes served in restaurants. It is a traditional pre-Christmas dinner. Traditionally, smalahove is eaten for the first time in November and the last time on the fourth Advent, the so-called “dirty Sunday” ( skittensøndag ) in Norway.

A portion usually consists of half a sheep's head. The ears and eyes are usually eaten first, as they are the most fatty parts of the head and taste best when hot. The tongue is also very popular. The rest of the head is usually eaten starting with the mouth. To do this, the meat is peeled off the bones piece by piece and scraped off. Beer or Akvavit is usually served with the dish .

Reception and perception

Smalahove is often viewed as unappetizing to repulsive. The dish is particularly appreciated by enthusiastic delicatessen fans, but is often also served to tourists . Since it is considered "extreme" food, it usually exerts a special attraction on the latter. Gastronomy in the municipality of Voss (Norway) and the surrounding region benefits from the dish as many tourists want to try it, not only because it is viewed as a nostalgic and authentic rural food, but especially because it is often a culinary one for the more adventurous Challenge and trophy is. ("Not only as a nostalgic and authentic rural dish, but also as a challenging culinary trophy appealing to thrill-seeking consumers.") In Voss, a championship in smalahove dining is held every year.

Legal status

According to an EU directive , the preparation of smalahove with the head of adult sheep has been prohibited since 1998 in order to exclude infection with scrapie . It is a communicable, slowly fatal disease of the brain. Although scrapie is not transferable to humans according to the current state of knowledge, and there has also been no registered case of illness in humans, the preparation of smalahove has only been allowed with the heads of lamb since then .

Smalahove outside Norway

Traditional Þorramatur of Icelandic cuisine : Svið , Hangikjöt (smoked lamb), Hrútspungar (leavened ram testicle ), Lifrarpylsa (lamb liver sausage ), Blóðmör ( blood pudding ) and Hákarl (fermented shark) ( flat bread ) ( flat bread ) with rúgbrauð (dark brown )
Svið , Icelandic variant of the same dish, served with mashed potatoes (in ball shape) and turnip purée

Because of the same cultural heritage, the dish is also known in Iceland and the Faroe Islands . It is Icelandic as SVID and Faroese than Seyðahøvd referred. The preparation is very similar; the sheep's head is flamed and grilled, cleaned, boiled and split.

In many Jewish families , especially Sephardic (Iberian-Jewish) and Misrachian (Arab-Jewish) families, grilled and boiled sheep's head is served as the main course on the Rosh Hashanah festival . The head, which should preferably be of a goat, symbolizes the desire to be active ("May it be your will that we become the head and not the tail.") The expression Rosh Hashanah literally means head of the Year, so that the sheep's head can be seen as a symbol of the festival.

Artistic processing

Web links

Commons : Smalahove  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Smalahove portals. In: dform.no. Retrieved August 21, 2015 (Norwegian).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Knut Pettersen: Smalahove, en førjulstradisjon med sterke meninger. In: matoppskrift.no. December 1, 2007, accessed August 21, 2015 (Norwegian).
  3. ↑ Jerry Hopkins, Anthony Bourdain, Michael Freeman: Extreme cuisine: the weird & wonderful foods that people eat . Ed .: Tuttle Publishing. 2004, ISBN 978-0-7946-0255-0 , pp. 93 ( google.com ).
  4. ↑ Bokmålsordboka / Nynorskordboka. (No longer available online.) Universitetet i Oslo & Språkrådet , archived from the original on April 28, 2012 ; accessed on August 21, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nob-ordbok.uio.no
  5. ↑ Bokmålsordboka / Nynorskordboka. (No longer available online.) Universitetet i Oslo & Språkrådet , archived from the original on April 28, 2012 ; accessed on August 21, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nob-ordbok.uio.no
  6. ↑ a b c d Førjulsmat for tøffinger. Christmas dinner for the brave. Opplysningskontoret for egg og kjøtt, archived from the original on January 22, 2011 ; Retrieved August 21, 2015 (Norwegian).
  7. ^ A b Laurel Miller-Gadling: Bizzare European Delicacies. In: Fox News. March 18, 2011, archived from the original on March 22, 2011 ; accessed on August 21, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Szilvia Gyimóthy: Scary food: Commodifying culinary heritage as meal adventures in tourism . In: Journal of Vacation Marketing . tape 15 , no. 3 , June 24, 2009, p. 259-273 , doi : 10.1177 / 1356766709104271 ( sagepub.com [accessed August 21, 2015]).
  9. ↑ Lene Skogstrøm: Nye EU regulator from January 1, 1998 should be in the middle of the layout and ballistic cap: It will cost hundreds of millions . Ed .: Aftenposten. August 5, 1997, p. 3 (Norwegian).
  10. ↑ Brandon Presser, Carolyn Bain, Fran Parnell: Guide to Iceland . Lonely Planet, Melbourne, Australia 2013, ISBN 3-8297-2310-5 , pp. 352 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  11. ↑ How and why is Rosh Hashanah celebrated? In: kalender-uhrzeit.de , accessed on August 21, 2015