Thread by @Cajsa

I thought it might be fun to introduce you all to the food of my people - and no, I don't mean jello salad with shredded carrots in a ring mold with a mayonnaise-based frosting. So these are the foods I grew up with and make.

Probably most of you have heard of Swedish Meatballs, but if you've only tasted Ikea's you are missing out. The thing with Swedish meatballs is that there is nutmeg & cardamom in the meatballs and cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and allspice in sour cream/beef gravy.

I don't really follow a recipe. I just start making it. But here is my mom's

Martha Stewart has a great recipe for Kroppkakor (Potato Dumplings). Mom & my sister made good kroppkakor. I have only helped them, never made on my own, perhaps because my sister-in-law made them once and they could have been used projectiles in a war.

marthastewart.com/1142474/kroppk…

One of my favorites is torsk. It's not something that needs a recipe. You take Arctic cod and saute it in butter with salt, pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. That's it.

This should never be confused with lutefisk though both are made with beautiful arctic cod. Every family has an unmentionable relative and every cuisine has its own kind of lutefisk. Older generations love it. They serve it in nursing homes for Christmas.

thedailymeal.com/travel/what-he…

Sadly, every Christmas of my childhood was blighted by lutefisk. One of the joys of adulthood is never having lutefisk in the house.

Pepparkakor was something my mom made year round because who would limit this deliciousness to Christmas

Rosettes were mostly for Christmas.

This is what rosettes look like

My aunt made the most amazing Rye Cookies, paper thin and crispy. I have never gotten the hang of rolling them thin enough though mine taste fine.

I make these chocolate cookies, thin and crispy. Swedish cookies are almost always thin and crispy.

They are the two in the front. The one in back is Martha Stewart's Earl Grey shortbread

Lefse is our holy grail, I think. I mean what holiday does not have lefse? My brother and his wife make lefse for Christmas presents and go through 500 pounds of potatoes. I use my brother's ex-wife's recipe. Instant potatoes!

This is how we make scalloped potatoes, for Christmas, Easter. People substitute anchovies for sprat, but not anchovies in oil. Anchovies in water or dried anchovies

sweden.se/culture-tradit…

My favorite, krumkake. I just use the recipe on the back of the Nordicware box the iron comes in except for the lemon krumkake, I add lemon rind as well. I love it stuffed with lemon curd - a British contribution

Another aunt of mine made sylta or head cheese. She made it in the fall with venison and pork. It looks gross but is delicious and is part of smörgåsbord which we had every day - not a big huge one, but for lunch Mom put out lefse, Wasa, limpa (rye bread), with

several kinds of cheese and sandwich meats. So one aunt made the sylta, another made blood sausage, Mom made summer sausage from venison and leverpastej(like liverwurst but more spreadable, and herring. Then there were the sliced pickled beets, boiled eggs, sliced cucumbers, and

all sorts of veggies that were layers on open face sandwiches either on bread or a cracker. So, a slice of limpa, some sliced veggies, meat, and cheese (some homemade). One uncle had a dairy farm, another a cattle ranch, and everyone hunted to make the fixings for smorgas for all

sylta, blodpudding, leverpastej, and then Mom made pickled fish since herring was not local. Dad caught so much fish, walleye and northern pike, and Mom pickled it.

I didn't much care for the meats except Mom's venison sausage. It was delicious. I like pickled fish fine. Some of the cheeses were good. I still make smorgas, but with hard-boiled eggs, green beans, bacon jam or grilled pears and cheese, or cucumbers and lingonberries.

Swedish pancakes are delicious, sort of like crepes but much larger (made on the lefse griddle) and more tender, served with lingonberries and whipped cream. I sometimes put some kirsch (Danish) in the whipped cream.

And the potato pancakes (raggmunk) are also often served with lingonberries. Really just about everything goes better with lingonberries. They are tart and sweet and irreplaceable

And then because of the climate of Sweden and Minnesota, root vegetables are a thing. I remember stopping at a roadside stand and we would pick up some rutabaga, peel them, and eat them like an apple. I still like raw rutabaga.

lots of slaws with cabbage (another good cold weather veggie) and parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas. Lots of soups with the root vegetables, too. The ones that might seem strange are nettle soup, cold cherry soup with dumplings and sour cream, and Blueberry soup

thedomesticdietitian.com/swedish-bluebe…

When I first moved to Oregon, I did not realize how outre some of my family foods are so I brought nettle soup for a teachers' potluck. Wow! No Minnesota nice. Only one person tried it. She liked it and took some home with her, but I took home enough nettle soup for 30 people.