Alright, after a long hiatus it is time for another 🇸🇪 SWEDISH FOOD THREAD🇸🇪.
Today, we will be talking about the Big Cheese of north germanic cuisine: the venerable falukorv, the #1 type of sausage consumed in Sweden.
The history of the falu sausage is interesting and goes back quite a ways. At the time when the copper mine at Falun was one of the world's largest (so during the early modern period), cattle and horse skins were in massive demand in order to make strong ropes.
This massive demand for animal hides meant a lot of slaughtered animals, and so the question naturally becomes what to do with the meat. At first, the miners smoked and cured it, but eventually some germans came over and showed people how to make sausages instead.
Like a lot of modern-day food that traces its ancestry back several hundred years, the falu sausage has morphed a bit over the ages in terms of taste and preparation. Today, it's a sausage using potato starch as a binding agent, and that is made of pork and/or beef.
Unlike a lot of sausages from... ahem... less civilized... parts of Europe, such as the Chorizo, the falu sausage has very mild spices; usually a bit of nutmeg and maybe a pinch of ginger, as well as salt and pepper. It's somewhat similar to a German bratwurst in terms of taste.
The falu sausage is the single most consumed food in Sweden. There are a lot of ways to eat it, kids love it, and it is cheap and easy to cook - it can even be eaten uncooked, as it has already been smoked - so it's no wonder that it's a hit with Swedish families!
My own favorite way to enjoy falukorv has changed as I've grown older. Now I'm a big sucker for the simple stuff: pan-fried falukorv with milk-stewed macaronis and mustard. This is extremely easy and quick to make, but also cheap, very filling, and tasty. A slam dunk!
Two more example dishes. This one is a favorite of my mom and late grandmother: ugnsbakad falukorv. Basically, you take an entire sausage, cut slices into it, stuff those slices with cheese, and then add mustard and ketchup and spices on top before you bake it in the oven.
Finally, there is the #1 classic: the vaunted and ever popular sausage stroganoff. Recipes vary, but at its simplest, this is a quick to make sausage stew based on (sour)cream, with tomato puree and lightly sauteed onions for flavor. Every Swede loves this dish. Simple as, mate.
So if you're a foreigner, where can you get falu sausage? Beats me, tbh. I don't think IKEA stocks this stuff usually, but I have been to specialty stores in London that sell this sort of food. Falu sausage is very much CHUD FOOD, so no fancy dining recommendations this time.
When I was like 20 I was extremely anti-falukorv, because I thought it boring and not as cool as other sausages from the continent. Now that I'm older I realize that the falukorv is the greatest sausage among them all. It is the T-34 of sausages. A real workhorse.
Throughout the decades, literally millions of Swedish moms have wondered what to make for dinner, only to be saved by the timely intervention of the falukorv. Let the meds have their spicy sausages, filled with god-knows-what.
In Sweden, we have the falukorv; in times of hunger, in times of need, it is always there for us. Because it is not, and never will be the star of the show.
It's not hero of North Germanic cuisine. It's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.
Also, great news: if you're a muslim, you don't have to be mad that you can't enjoy this artifact of culinary superiority, just get the 100% beef version!
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