Food Culture and Tradition

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  • Swiss Foods

    FOODS OF SWITZERLAND

    Quality of ingredients and simplicity in preparation and serving of foods are typical of Swiss menus. There is stress on the importance of soups and many dishes made from cheese. Much bread is consumed and is a apart of all meals. Meats and fish are often expensive so are purchased and cooked with care, often extended with vegetables or cereal foods.

    The recent food reform movement stressing fresh vegetable salads and the use of wholegrain breads and cereals has made a definite impression; there is an increase not only in the fresh vegetables eaten and wholegrain bread preference, but also more concern for the cooking of vegetables. Staple foods include bread, potatoes, and cereals with a good consumption of milk and cheese. Favorite methods of food preparation are soups, stews, and simple casserole dishes.

    DAIRY PRODUCTS

    There is no shortage of quality dairy products in the Swiss diet. Fresh milk is almost a staple food in the form of coffee and milk (cafe au lait or milchkaffee) which is served so frequently that it is considered more of a food than a mere beverage. Milk and cheese are almost daily a part of soups or quick dishes that make up light meals, while the fondues and raclettes of Switzerland are well known as a Swiss dish consisting of melted cheese in wine or cider.

    There is scarcely a canton in Switzerland without its own special version of a cheese soup: thick, thin or baked with bread as a pudding or casserole. Cheese is also an integral ingredient in soufflés, sauces, dumplings, fritters, croquettes. and garnishes as well as pies and tarts. One of the oldest traditional dishes is fanz, made like a thick white sauce with flour, milk, and butter and then eaten with bread and cafe au lait.

    FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

    Orchards abound in Switzerland, but when fresh fruits are scarce, much use is made of canned or dried fruits. Fruits are served fresh in season, stewed, or made into puddings or tarts. Apples and cherries are special favorites and these are made into fritters (fnutli, Basel apple fritters, or chriesitutschli, fresh cherry bunches clipped in batter and delicately fried), puddings or fruit soups. A bowl of stewed fruit accompanied with cafe an lait is a popular finish to a meal. More recently fruit and yogurt combinations have been gaining in popularity.

    Green beans, spinach, Swiss chard, turnips, leeks, asparagus, cabbage, squash, and many other vegetables are available in profusion but none can reach the popularity or versatility of the potato. Potato soups, dumplings, baked puddings, pancakes, fritters, cheese and potato casseroles – the number and variety of potato dishes is staggering.

    But one potato dish is supreme: kartoffelrosti. This dish is so popular it is known everywhere as simply rosti. Mealy parboiled potatoes are coarsely shredded, then are packed into a large hot skillet sputtering with butter. When the bottom is crisply browned the whole cake is inverted (easy if inverted on a platter held over the pan, then slid carefully back) to brown the second side. Served in wedges, the crisply browned rosti accompanies almost any meat, fish, or even cheese dish and often stands alone as a light supper.

    MEATS AND ALTERNATES

    Meat, fish, and game are expensive in Switzerland and are purchased, cooked, and eaten with care and respect. The amount consumed depends very much on the family income, but traditional frugality usually results in every part of the meat being carefully used. Fats will be rendered, bones and trimmings will make soups, and meat will be generously accompanied with vegetables or cereals such as rice, cornmeal, or pasta to extend the meaty flavor.

    In many areas, meat is for Sundays only, while the poor may taste it only once in a year. Only recently have rotisseurs (restaurants specializing in expensive broiled or roasted meats) become popular. Part of the reason may be that Swiss cattle are raised mainly as milk cows and work animals with the result that their flesh is too often tough and stringy and best suited to soup-making and the long simmering of stews or the well-seasoned mixtures that make sausages. Swiss sausages are so varied and so popular that they probably represent the favored form of meat, and there is a type of sausage for every taste and use from mild to spicy, whether for snacking, picnicking, leisurely dining or light suppers. Meats used include veal and beef, pork, venison and kid. Chickens, affectionately called guggeli or mistkratzerli (manure-scratchers) in German-speaking Switzerland, form the base of many a soup or stew.

    Fish is not a staple, but is considered a delicacy. It is cooked with simplicity: usually simply baked or poached and served with butter or lemon. Trout, salmon, perch, and pike as well as eels and scampi are available, but largely only in the cities.

    Eggs and legumes are seldom eaten as individual dishes; mostly they are consumed as ingredients. Eggs are a part of most cheese and milk baked casseroles as well as soufflés, omelets and pancakes. Dried peas and beans are used in lesser quantities in soups.

    BREADS AND GRAINS

    It is almost an impossibility to think of a Swiss table set for a meal without bread. Breads and rolls are often the main part of breakfast, they accompany soups, they crumble or cube into casseroles and puddings with cheese or fruits or even vegetables, they are squeezed with water or milk to form stuffing. dumplings, fritters, and chunks of bread are clunked into cheese fondues, and even mop up creamy sauces and gravies.

    Cereals have been a Swiss food staple from earliest times. Gruels, porridges, and soups made from grains and flour are seldom used anymore except for the one traditional dish that has survived: fanz. Now popular mostly with shepherds, it is a thick white sauce made with milk, flour, and butter and served with bread and milchkaffee and is considered a satisfying meal.

    Noodles and many pasta forms are served in the Italian way and also in typically Swiss style: cooked noodles tossed with butter-browned onions and sprinkled with cheese. Pasta is also a frequent ingredient in soups and a popular means of stretching meat dishes. In the area of Ticino (close to Italy), cooked cornmeal or polenta is frequently served as a bread, side dish, or as part of a baked dish with cheese. Rice is gaining in popularity and used as an emergency staple because of its versatility and excellent keeping qualities.

    Not to be overlooked is the increasing use of whole grains in breads, rolls, and especially in the popular breakfast dish of toasted oats, shredded dried fruit, and nuts served with milk or yogurt called muesli.

    FATS

    Considerable fats are consumed in the form of cream and of course in the many varieties of cheese. Butter is favored for baking and cooking because of its flavor and abundant good quality, but the efficient homemaker makes good use of all fats whether beef drippings, chicken fat, lard or bacon fat. Oils are not widely used for cooking but are a salad dressing ingredient.

    SWEETS AND SNACKS

    Confiseries, those exquisite pastry shops, are located frequently enough in the cities to defy any resistance. A definite Swiss sweet tooth does exist, but it is more often assuaged by bread and butter with jam, or a “sweet supper” (pancakes or dumplings with sweet sauce) than with ornate rich pastries. Chocolate, however, to the Swiss mind is more food than treat and will often be a part of a child’s lunch or a hikers pack for “quick energy”.

    SEASONINGS

    Depending on the area and the predominating influence, the spice shelf in the Swiss kitchen may look more familiar to a German, French, or Italian cook. Dill, caraway, garlic, tarragon, white wine or tomatoes, garlic, basil, oregano or even a melange of all may be used in the Swiss kitchen.

    Overall, Swiss foods are well cooked and not strongly flavored. Much use is made of Maggi, a seasoning sauce similar in taste and color to soy sauce, and Aromat or Fondor – popular trade names for monosodium glutamate, all of which are used frequently and sometimes overdone. But the array of bottles, jars, and tubes of condiments, spices, and herbs makes cooking in any language possible and probable in Switzerland.

    BEVERAGES

    The most popular beverage is strong coffee mixed with hot milk called cafe au lait or milchkaffee. It may be served at any meal, to all ages, and fresh cafe au lait will always be prepared for guests. Hot chocolate is also a popular drink, mostly for breakfast. Teas of all types including herbal brews are also popular, especially after the evening meal. Switzerland’s famed cheese fondue may be accompanied with a single small glass of kirsch and followed by hot tea, never with cold drinks of any type as is so often the custom elsewhere. Areas influenced by the French or Italian drink wines, German-speaking areas favor beer. An overall sense of moderation in drinking alcoholic beverages predominates.

  • Swiss Foods, Customs and Culture

    LOCAL CUSTOMS, CULTURE AND FOODS OF SWITZERLAND

    If the Swiss have a gentle but perceptible air of superiority, it is well deserved. For over 675 years, Switzerland has maintained her status as an independent nation – no small feat for a nation in the heart of Europe.

    Switzerland is made up of 22 separate cantons, each almost a country in miniature, with its own history, food specialties, local government, and even a distinctly local dialect. The 6.7 million Swiss profess membership in 18 faiths (but predominantly Protestant), 3 main ethnic groups – Italian, German, and French – and speak 4 languages – German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Although German predominates, most Swiss can speak several languages, and the Latin-based Romansh is spoken mostly in the Grisons area.

    This diversity in ethnic background and languages, as well as the number of distinct areas, is a unique situation, for no other country as small as Switzerland can claim such a patchwork, and a peaceful one at that. In fact, it is probably because each Swiss is a member of a minority group that they are so tolerant of other nationalities, languages, and lifestyles. However, their national tolerance stops short at any indication of autocracy or bureaucracy; it is believed that true Swiss will sell their souls to no one.

    So loyal are the Swiss to their hometown that marriage outside of their canton is considered a “mixed marriage.” Emotional and traditional ties are strong: the family comes first, then the hometown, the canton, and finally Switzerland itself. Swiss society like Swiss loyalty is traditional and well ordered, and perhaps this too is a factor in individual security and self-confidence.

    The Swiss characteristically rise early and work hard and often late hours. Quality and value-for money are basic concepts. They expect this same seriousness from everyone else and will not tolerate either shoddy work or inferior products. More than half the population is engaged in agriculture in small rural areas; the rest are involved in a diversity of specialized industries such as watch making and precision machines and tools. Yet Switzerland suffers from a chronic labor shortage and each year approximately half a million laborers are imported from other countries, even from as far away as Greece and Turkey.

    It is also no accident that some of the finest chef and hotel administration schools are located in Switzerland. Not only do the Swiss have a penchant for education and culture, they are also famed for their hospitality and politeness. Customers are always considered as personal guests and their comfort and happiness are of prime importance. Guests enjoy warm, clean surroundings, bountiful food servings, and a surfeit of “good days” and “thank you” as well as the idyllic scenery of picturesque towns, green valleys, and snow-tipped mountains. Yet although their chef schools teach “haute cuisine” and their hospitality is all-inclusive, the Swiss are quietly reserved in their friendships and domestic life and prefer the simplest of menus.

    Swiss life, as Swiss food, is very much influenced by neighbors: France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. Specialty dishes from each of these countries have long been intertwined with local regional specialties to produce a simple but substantial cuisine centering on soups, breads and nourishing cheese, egg and vegetable dishes. Recent trends in foods have attempted more exotic fare adapted from Chinese and Malaysian cooking but retaining mildness in flavor.

    One of the most successful “food movements” was started by Dr. Bircher-Benner in Zurich. He invented muesli, a combination of toasted oats, shredded dried apples and nuts. His movement stresses the inclusion of fresh salads and wholegrain cereals, but it is muesli that has attained almost a worldwide reputation as a “Swiss breakfast.”

    Switzerland is many things: mountains and lakes, specialized schools and industries, a peaceful mix of people and languages, a huge wheel of Swiss cheese or a chunk of smooth Swiss chocolate. But probably most of all, Switzerland is people – people who have learned more than any other nation in the world the consummate art of blending tolerance and politeness with innate simplicity, to end up with a subtle sophistication entirely Swiss. It is a phenomenon as incredible as their mix of foods adopted from other countries. Somehow, in Swiss hands, these foods become purely Swiss.

  • Swedish Glossary of Foods and Food Terms

    FOOD GLOSSARY AND FOOD TERMS IN SWEDEN

    Akvavit: the clear, faintly caraway-flavored liquor without which there could be no shoal, that formidable Scandinavian ritual of the raised glass, the joint meeting of eyes (as if in agreement to the intent) followed by the downing of the potent brew, a nod, and the raising of the emptied glass. Akvavit may be distilled from potatoes or grains, and though the caraway flavor is available here, many other varieties of herb-, spice-, and even flower-flavored Akvavit are available in Sweden. Always served very cold, the bottle can also be placed in a container of water to be frozen and un-molded for serving, the liquor is then served by tipping the bottle, ice and all. (This is done in Russia using vodka.)

    Appelkaka: apple cake.

    Doppa I Grytan: the Christmas custom of clipping chunks of rye bread into the broth where the Christmas ham and sausages are simmering. This forms the lunch before Christmas Eve.

    Fasan: cut up pheasant pieces placed in a casserole over fruits and oven-baked with white wine. Served with oven brown potatoes.

    Fisk: fish.

    Frukt Kram: a compote of fruit or berries, slightly thickened with potato flour and served with milk or cream.

    Glogg: hot spiced wine punch that includes Aquavit and vermouth. A combination to make any occasion festive!

    Gos: bass.

    Grolangkaalsuppe: a thick hearty winter soup made with salt pork, kale, and potatoes.

    Gronsaks: vegetables.

    Inlagd Gurka: freshly pickled cucumbers.

    Inlagd Sill: pickled herring.

    Julglogg: a hot spiced wine punch with almonds and raisins, served especially on Christmas Day.

    Julhog: an edible stack, consisting of rye bread, a sweet yeast ring, a currant saffron bun, a crisp flat cookie, and finally a red apple on top. Usually consumed at Christmas.

    Julsinka: Christmas ham.

    Kaldolmar: meat-stuffed cabbage rolls.

    Knackebrod: the crisp dimpled Swedish flatbread, made mostly of rye flour.

    Kottbullar: essential on the smorgasbord table. The famed tiny Swedish meatballs made with a blend of beef, potato and seasonings, browned in butter. Usually served dry for the buffet table, a sauce may he prepared to serve them for a meal.

    Krans: turban-shaped yeast coffee cakes fragrant with spices and almonds.

    Lax: salmon.

    Leverpastej: liver pate, usually prepared in a mold and glazed with aspic.

    Limpa: round Swedish rye bread flavored with molasses and finely grated orange peel.

    Lussikator: the saffron and raisin yeast buns served warm with fresh coffee especially for the St. Lucia Day’s breakfast.

    Lutfisk: dried salt cod that undergoes a ritual of special soaking for several weeks before being presented as the main course for the Christmas Eve meal. Gently poached and served with a glaze of white sauce.

    Nors: smelts.

    Ost: cheeses.

    Plattar: light crisp little pancakes made with a simple egg, flour and milk batter and cooked in butter. These are always served with lingonberries, fresh or preserved.

    Rakor: shrimps.

    Saffronsbrod: saffron yeast bread.

    Sjomansbiff: sailor’s beef. A hearty stew of layered, thinly sliced and pounded beef, sliced potatoes, stock and dark beer. Served with pickled beets.

    Smavarmt: the warm dishes of the smorgasbord, eaten only in small sampling amounts. These include omelets, creamed dishes, custards, soufflés of vegetables or fish, livers, mushrooms, sweetbreads, ground meat dishes, rolls, and vol-au-vent specialties.

    Spettkaka: the most original and intriguing of all Swedish cakes. Baked on a rotating spit by dribbling the egg and sugar batter in trickles. The final result is a tall cone of intertwined delicate bakery that dissolves in the mouth with a soft powdery sweetness. Specialty of St. Martin’s Day, November 11.

    Spritsar: rich short butter cookies.

    Stekt Kyckling: butter-roasted chicken served with creamy gravy and boiled or mashed potatoes.

    Svardfisk: swordfish.

    Vaffel: waffles. The specialty of the March waffle festival when they are eaten for the three meals of the day.

  • Meals and Customs in Sweden

    SWEDISH MEALS AND LOCAL CUSTOMS

    Once again, the predominant word for this discussion on meal patterns is “ritual.” Incredible as it may seem for such a sophisticated people, the Swedes delight not only in drinking according to prescribed ritual (as in the shoal tradition) but they eat certain foods in a specifically prescribed way, and they prepare festive foods exactly in the traditional way following centuries-old patterns.

    The ritual of the smorgasbord is but one example. Accompanied by suitable skoals, salty herring dishes with tiny potatoes are always the first foods eaten from the huge array of selections. Each subsequent “course” follows a special order (never varied) and is eaten from a separate clean plate: other fish dishes and cold marinated salads, cold meats and varieties of pickles, a selection of hot dishes containing meats, eggs, fish and finally, on still another plate, a dessert of sliced cheeses and fruits.

    It is even more interesting that this type of ordered procedure also applies to individual dishes. The familiar smaland ostkaka (previously made at home in a copper mold, but now available in stores everywhere in Sweden) is a rich but delicate molded cheesecake savored as a special dessert. Even at a party, the custom is for each person to taste a spoonful of the various ostkakas on display, but to take their taste from the center of the mold so that the cake may be fruit-filled the next day and served as a new dessert.

    The potato dumplings of northern Sweden demand their own special ritual, too. A wedge is cut into the dumpling and the center filling of ground seasoned pork is removed to be immediately replaced with a golden lump of butter. As the butter melts in its warm potato cavern, the diner cuts off small pieces of filling and dumpling and after dunking each into the melted butter, pops them into the mouth.

    Aside from carefully preserved traditions in drinking and eating, the Swedes also have a cherished way of thanking their hostess for a meal. The guest to the left of the hostess expresses thanks first, followed in order by every person around the table.

    There are eating rituals for certain days of the week as well. Traditionally, on Thursday night, it is said that everyone in Sweden, from the king on down, enjoys a supper of yellow pea soup with pork, followed by tiny pancakes with lingonberry preserves. And on every Tuesday during Lent, the dessert can be counted on to be buns filled with almond cream (semlor) enjoyed with a glass of milk.

    The Swedish day begins with coffee, which is essential for breakfast. One or two open-face sandwiches with coffee will likely take the hardworking Swedes happily off to their jobs, but those at home and children will often have yeast coffee cakes or bread and butter with their morning coffee. Children often take milk.

    Lunch is most likely to be a small basic version of the smorgasbord called simply sos, meaning herring, cheese, and bread with butter. Or it may be the full splendor of the smorgasbord itself.

    The evening meal, most often taken at home together with the family, is the hot meal of the day, often featuring a satisfying soup or a hearty meat or fish casserole always accompanied by potatoes. It finishes with a dessert and strong black coffee.

    Throughout the day, coffee and pastry shops, sandwich shops, and fruit stands are all arrayed to tempt the unwary: It is certain that the Swede will have at least one coffee and pastry bread in the day. And at the close of a pleasant evening with guests, there is sure to be an offering once again of coffee and pastries or a savory hot casserole with beer as a nattmatt (nightcap) to assure that the guests will not suffer hunger pangs on the way home!

  • Special Occasions in Sweden

    SWEDISH SPECIAL OCCASIONS

    Although tolerant of all religious beliefs, most Swedes are Lutheran. Church affiliation is begun almost at birth, but holidays and festivities are celebrated more out of tradition and sheer enjoyment than out of any deep religious convictions.

    Perhaps it is to allay the cold and the months of darkness, or perhaps it is an inextricable part of their penchant for ritual and order. Whatever the reason, the Swedish calendar is dotted with important reasons for special celebrations, each demanding special foods.

    It is of particular interest that while Christmas and Easter are undoubtedly the most important festivals, the three most joyous festivals, are pagan in origin — May Day Eve (Valborgsmassoafton), Midsummer Eve on June 24; and most beloved, St. Lucia Day, on December 13. For though Sweden can be classified as a modern sophisticated community, as recently as a hundred years ago almost 90 percent of her people were rural – deeply bound up in the land, the changing seasons, and the path of the sun in the sky. With traditions such a deeply ingrained part of Swedish life, it will likely be a very long time before any of these fade, if indeed their warmth and symbolism are discarded at all.

    CHRISTMAS

    The Swedes accepted Christianity in 1537 and joined the celebration of Christ’s birthday with the ancient festival of “greeting the returning sun.” Christmas actually begins on December 13 with the celebration of St. Lucia’s Day. The early church assimilated the pagan tradition of Lussi Queen of Light with the Italian St. Lucia. In the home, the oldest daughter rises early in the morning and, dressed in a special white gown, a wreath of burning candles in her hair, she delivers to her parents a tray of fragrant saffron buns (lussikator) and fresh hot coffee. In the cities, a Lucia Queen is chosen and a huge party is given at which everyone enjoys the saffron buns and coffee.

    The very next day, the hectic baking and preparations for Christmas begin in earnest. In the Swedish countryside it was always customary to slaughter a pig for Christmas with every portion being utilized: fresh meat cuts, hams and bacon, with the blood, feet, head, and offal all used in soups, sausages, puddings, and pates. In the past these dishes were served specifically in the Christmas season, but today they are readily available in specialty stores.

    In pagan times, pigs, symbol of fertility, were sacrificed during the mid-winter bacchanal, and the Christmas ham of today is a symbol of that tradition. In fact the noon meal before Christmas Eve follows the ritual of Doppa I Grytan: dunking chunks of bread into the broth from the simmering ham and sausages. This too has its origins in the ancient belief that eating certain parts of the animal recaptured the animal’s vigor for the diner. Modern-day Swedes may be unaware of the symbolism; they just happily enjoy the delicious feast.

    The highlight of the Christmas Eve dinner is the lutfisk. There is a ritual to the preparation of this dish too. About three weeks before, the dried salted cod is set to soak in a daily change of fresh water; an immersion in lye and ashes for a period, then it is ready to be scrubbed and again immersed for at least seven days in a daily changing bath of fresh water. Finally it is considered ready for gentle poaching then a glaze of velvety white sauce completes the festive fish. Boiled potatoes accompany the lutfisk and then everyone is ready for the suspense of the dessert. Although it appears to be a simple creamy rice pudding, the dessert has one whole almond hidden in It. The lucky finder of the almond may win a special prize, and, if a girl finds it, she will be wed in the next year. In some homes, no one is allowed to sample their rice pudding until they have recited a poem.

    To complete the cheerfulness of Christmas Eve, the tree is decorated, gifts distributed and everyone enjoys delicious samplings of the many Christmas cakes and cookies all washed down with glogg (hot spiced wine punch with almonds and raisins, made especially for Christmas).

    At each place on the Christmas breakfast table a delectable julhog awaits demolishing: this is an edible stack consisting of rye bread, a sweet yeast ring, a currant saffron bun, a crisp flat cookie, and finally a red apple on top. Add hot coffee and that is a Swedish Christmas breakfast.

    The Christmas ham becomes the center of what is really a magnificent feast: the Christmas smorgasbord. For even today many Swedish women pride themselves in preparing all of the festive foods in traditional Christmas splendor. The centerpiece of fruits and nuts is a reminder of sacrifices made to the gods at this time to bless and provide plenty for the table.

    Once again Akvavit is served with many skoals, although some prefer Glogg (hot spiced wine punch). Meanwhile the children eat, laugh, and play happily with their gifts, comparing those from Jultomte, the Swedish elf-like version of Santa Claus. And the woven straw julbocken (Christmas ram woven of straw) will swing from the chandelier as a reminder that long ago a Swedish Christmas was celebrated with straw strewn all over the floor.

    ANNANDAGEN

    This is the name given to the days between Christmas and New Year’s, days of parties, drinking, eating and, above all, gatherings of family and friends.

    EPIPHANY – JANUARY 6

    This holiday is the solemn commemoration of the Three Wiise Men, celebrated quietly in the home or in the church.

    ST. CANUTE’S DAY

    This falls on January 13 and is also called affectionately if a little sadly, Knut’s Day. This is the day when all the festive decorations of the holiday season are carefully put away. Even the Swedes know that there is a time to return to the realities of everyday living.

    SHROVE TUESDAY

    This is the day before Ash Wednesday, and throughout Sweden light yeast buns filled with almond paste and whipped cream or almond paste and hot milk are served for lunch. Each Tuesday through Lent the dessert will be these same buns, called semlor. It has always been a Swedish rural custom to give gifts of sweets such as buns, cakes, and biscuits for special occasions or just out of appreciation or affection. This may be the origin of the Shrove Tuesday custom of giving sweet treats to children.

    WAFFLE DAY

    Waffle Day takes place towards the end of March, and was originally called Var Fru, meaning “Our Lady”, to commemorate the Virgin Mary’s Annunciation Day. Later the name became Vaffer and finally Vaffel. And for each of the three meals of that day waffles are served.

    EASTER

    Many old country superstitions have full sway at Easter time. After the house is cleaned, the broom is locked up so that the Easter Witch cannot spirit it away. During Lent birch twigs are picked and placed in the house; if they sprout green leaves by Easter it is said to symbolize growth in nature. There are many more such legends, and most are not taken seriously but followed out of fun or for tradition’s sake.

    Good Friday is a quiet, solemn day; simple humble foods are eaten such as herring and boiled potatoes and a sweet soup of cardamom-flavored ale is often the dessert. Easter Eve is celebrated with a smorgasbord but this time the highlight of the table is the mass of hard eggs which the children share in delightful competition, to see who can eat the most. For eggs with all their symbolism of life, growth, and vitality are an important Easter symbol.

    VALBORGSMASSOAFTON

    Also known as Walpurgis Night, the eve of May Day is celebrated with outdoor gatherings, singing, and the lighting of huge bonfires.

    CHRIST’S ASCENSION DAY

    Celebrated forty days after Easter, this occasion usually coincides with the fishermen’s first good catch of the season, so the menu features fresh-caught fish with horse radish sauce.

    PINGST OR WHITSUNTIDE

    A happy flower-filled holiday, just ten days after Christ’s Ascension Day. Most often celebrated with happy announcements of First Communion, engagements, etc. The menu invariably features fresh fish.

    MIDSUMMER EVE

    The festival to celebrate the longest day of the year, June 23, features dancing and the crowning of the Midsummer Queen in most North American Swedish communities. In Sweden, however, this is the special night when spells can be cast and dreams dreamed. With a mystical sun dazzling for almost twenty-four hours and resting for a brief two hours of dusk anything can happen. So this is the night that young Swedish girls gather nine different flowers to tuck under their pillows to conjure special dreams of their lovers.

    AUGUST

    The last of the bright soft summer nights coincides happily with the crayfish season, and outdoor parties abound. Lit by colored lanterns or flickering candles, the diners gather around a table set with a huge platter of crayfish, bibs for everyone, beer and Akvavit. For more reasons than one, it may be difficult to tell whether it is night or day by the time the party ends.

    MARTINMAS OR ST. MARTIN’S DAY

    Martin Luther’s Name Day, November 11, also happens to coincide with traditions much older than Christianity in Sweden. The slaughtering of animals, with all the attendant rendering of fat, smoking, and sausage-making, began, in olden times, towards the end of October in order to prepare for the feast at the end of December. November 11 was the time for the geese slaughter, and to this day, Martinmas is celebrated with roast goose stuffed with apples and prunes, preceded by a rich soup made from the goose blood. The spectacular dessert specialty of the day – spettkaka – is a wondrously intricate cake baked by dribbling an egg and sugar batter on a rotating spit.

  • Swedish Domestic Life and Foods Commonly Used

    DOMESTIC LIFE AND FOODS COMMONLY USED IN SWEDEN

    Swedes enjoy most modern kitchen facilities and appliances, use electricity widely, and should they lack anything, it is sure to be imported. Beautiful tableware is prevalent in all homes and there is scarcely a meal where flowers do not grace the table.

    Enjoying a variety of produce in season and imported fruits and vegetables in the winter months, Swedes are said to be second only to the United States in their consumption of frozen foods. Convenience products, delicatessens, canned and frozen foods all combine to make the Swedish kitchen as up-to-date as any in the world.

    FOODS COMMONLY USED

    The Swedish cuisine, like its people, is a cosmopolitan one. Indigenous Scandinavian cooking makes the most of fine dairy products, rye, wheat and barley grains, domestic meats, game and herring. All are prepared with the combination of centuries-old skills, concern for appearance and natural flavors, and the gentle intermingling of French and German dishes that have filtered down into daily use from the royal courts of old.

    Swedes prefer the robust natural flavors induced and preserved by salting and smoking, stewing and simmering. Seldom are any Swedish foods deep-fried. And the pride of the Swedish cuisine – baked delicacies – take their taste from fresh eggs, butter, and cream gently enhanced with cardamom, ginger, and  freshly grated citrus peel. Great eaters of meat, potatoes, and fish, the Swedes prefer to take their milk in the form of cheese, and their grains in the form of pastries, light rye breads, and crackers.

  • Foods in Sweden

    SWEDISH FOODS

    DAIRY PRODUCTS

    Children may take milk with their meals; adults prefer beer or coffee. The main form of milk consumption is in a wide variety of mostly mild cheeses which are eaten for breakfast, as appetizers, as part of the smorgasbord (sliced cheeses and sliced meats), or for dessert with fruits.

    FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

    A wide variety of fruits and vegetables are used fresh in season, grown locally, or imported. Also used are canned, dried and frozen fruits and vegetables. The most popular of the fruits are apples and lingonberries, while the humble potato still outshines imported artichokes and white asparagus in most homes as the daily standby. Fruit preserves and pickled and brined vegetables are much enjoyed year-round.

    MEATS AND ALTERNATES

    Pork and pork products are most important, but other meats are used: veal, beef, lamb, offal products, chicken, and goose. Game fowl and wild animals are quite plentiful. The Laplander’s domesticated reindeer meat is sold frozen, fresh, or smoked. Herring is the staple fish and is served fresh, salted, smoked, pickled, fried, or with a variety of sauces such as onion, mustard, cream, etc.

    Other fish used include rakor (shrimp), svardfisk (swordfish), smelts, perch, flounder, halibut, sole, haddock, and lax (salmon). Not only herring, but also these other fish are frequently served with sauces of which the most popular are white sauce, mustard sauce, and horse radish. Fish may be prepared by poaching, steaming, grinding, and forming into balls; fish may be pickled, smoked, or smoked then baked, or made into soufflés. Only occasionally is fish served breaded and fried.

    Eggs are consumed in baked goods, as omelets or soufflés, pickled or chopped into salads. The most-used legumes are the dried yellow peas made into the traditional Thursday soup: arter med flask. Small white dried beans are used for Swedish baked beans, a traditional dish which is part of almost any smorgasbord. Nuts, especially almonds, are used in desserts and in sweet bakery and pastries.

    BREADS AND GRAINS

    Rye breads and thin rye crispbreads are very popular. These may vary from very dark, heavy, and sour breads to light breads that are slightly sweet such as the Swedish limpa bread. Cooked cereals, gruels, and porridges are not used by the Swedes. The frequent serving of coffee is always accompanied with a selection of yeast coffee cakes, light plain sponge cakes, and crisp plain cookies – after meals, between meals, and as a form of hospitality.

    FATS

    Butter or pork fat (lard) is used in cooking and baking. Fats are also consumed in the many cheeses, in cream, which is used generously, and in whipped cream, which is enjoyed with desserts. Only occasionally is sour cream used.

    SWEETS AND SNACKS

    The Swedish sweet tooth is well satisfied by all the delicately sweet baked goods that accompany the many daily cups of coffee. A supply of these in any Swedish home is considered as much a staple as bread.

    SEASONINGS

    Brining, marinating, and smoking are ways of flavoring and preserving meats and fish, while dill and onions are the seasonings. Sometimes the addition of creamy sauces mellows the flavors of salt and smoke. Vegetables are cooked in soups or stews or otherwise well cooked then sauced with mustard and/or horse radish. Vegetables are also used in salads with a marinade of vinegar, onions, and spices. Fresh eggs, sweet butter, and cream lend their gentle rich taste to most bakery.

    The centuries-old river trade with Kiev brought the first spices to Sweden: saffron, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, cumin and coriander, anise and even pepper. There is variety on the Swedish spice shelf, but the hand that measures spices has a light touch: natural flavors from good ingredients is the overall preference.

    BEVERAGES

    Coffee is not only a staple in Sweden, it is a ritualized institution. No meal is complete without it, and it must be hot, strong, and black. Similarly, an evening appetizer or the famed smorgasbord is scarcely complete without the ritual of shoal: you hold an icy glass of Akvavit up high, eyeing your companion, say “Skoal!” and down the drink in one gulp with a final nod to your companion as you display the emptied glass. Some Swedes like to follow the Akvavit with beer, most others blithely continue with more skoal punctuated with salty morsels from the appetizer trays.

  • About food and culture in Africa

    It must be impertinence or at the very least, a major injustice, to try to fit within a web page, a topic of the world’s 2nd biggest continent, having a human population exceeding beyond 580 million, conversing over 800 different languages, and residing in over 45 nations!

    Africa’s pure beauty and intriguing sophistication has attracted and mystified travelers, even though her violence, crime, and poverty have terrified. There isn’t any easy method to explain the contrasts that are Africa. Possibly a lot more than many other individuals, Africans, as de Villiers and Hirtie have noted, really are a “job in development, in always-unfinished progression.” Therefore, only times in that continuous movement to progress could be captured.

    To the majority of people of Africa, the historical past can be as immediate as this moment in time. Tales, beliefs, customs, and traditions from the spirit world guide and advise each and every daily activity, every special event, and every decision. In their many thousands of years of historical past, tribal struggles, migrations, violence, and times of peace have threaded through their every day life, melding directly into new tribes as well as new regions, and adopting latest conquests. Practically nothing outdated is really ever shed.

    Over the generations, various other countries have vanquished, discovered, and taken advantage of this continent’s natural resources and its people, who have been regarded as pagans to be transformed or as products to be supplied as slaves to different parts of the world. Even though, in most cases, this predominantly tropical and sub-tropical region is attracted to profoundly embedded social customs of its own, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal have departed remnants of their influence. Following hundreds of years of illness and disregard, efforts are being made – by a new and growing middle-class – to combine ancient cultures and modem advancements for the advantage of the entire nation. Nevertheless transformation does not come effortlessly to any nation or people. The newborn states of Africa are being affected by issues of political and economic turmoil, tribal rivalries, starvation, poverty, and insufficient education.

    From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, primarily in the region of West Africa (present day Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) ended up being shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and also the West Indies. To them, local and tribal differences, and also numerous social backgrounds, soon melded into one typical problem for the suffering all of them experienced. Music, songs, and dances together with valued customary food, served not just to uplift them but additionally quite inadvertently added immeasurably into the culture around these people. In the approximately 300 years which blacks made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their remarkably perfected art of the cuisine so cherished and meticulously transmitted to their children has grown to become part of the excellent culinary classics of these lands. However rarely are the African blacks provided that recognition.

    Of African origins will be such specialties as gumbo and pralines, West Indian callaloo and duckandoo (a meal of veggies and a delicacy based on sweet potatoes), the Brazilian condiments dende oil as well as spicy hot sauces. Jamaica’s bammy breads and the pan breads so much loved in the southern United States are generally believed to have their source within the flat round cassava breads common of Africa. Seeds and also the plants of sesame, okra, several melons, and specific types of veggies as well as yams, along with several methods of bread making, and the use and mixture of spices or herbs, are also all attributed towards the ingenuity of the African cook.

    It may be asserted that every country and each ethnic class features its own soul food. However the modern meaning of the phrase “soul food” refers back to the progressive blending and developing of a distinct type of culinary using its own dictionary associated with food terms: it’s a mixture of West African cooking started in the the southern part of United States and today significantly an integral part of the cultural traditions of African-Americans, presenting all of them proudly to their African history. “Soul food” features an affordable and fulfilling cuisine based upon cereal products, veggies (greens and yams), pork and pork offal and also chicken.

    When they talk of Africa, it is crucial to distinguish between city and rural populations. But not only would be the city folks in most areas still pretty much influenced through European traditions and etiquette, they’re also an integral part of the growing middle-class that’s creating a new, independent African image, tradition, and cuisine. Even though this middle-class is increasing, the prominent issue lies with the three-quarters of the African people that happen to be non-urban and tradition-bound.

    Due to the absence of huge mountain ranges, the weather of Africa is constantly hot with the exception of the southern more temperate zones. The majority of its folks are part of a pastoral community where life involves the seasons, the crops, the neighborhoods, and also the tribes. In many locations a subsistence economy predominates: the issue is regarding survival definitely not profit. This perspective has realistic beginnings. Food is more essential compared to money; livestock in many cases are more valuable as a status icon than as food; food spoilage by rats, humidness, or pests is widespread; transportation to faraway marketplaces for trade or profit is tough and sometimes not possible due to insufficient roads or vehicles or both.

    The issues experienced by those trying to introduce scientific agrarian techniques are further complicated as a result of general weak soil, insufficient storage space facilities, lack of skilled specialists or readily available components for mechanical equipment, and lastly, the issues of a growing population which takes up increasingly more land.

    While Canadians and Americans of African lineage are proudly relearning their historical past and establishing themselves as respected members of their societies, the peoples of their homeland continue to be involved in the very long and tough process of easing themselves – along with their beloved customs, common myths and tales – into the twenty-first century. In contrast to the past history of conquest and exploitation by outside forces, the potential future appears to offer a worried and determined world increasingly conscious of the needs of the worldwide community.