Culinary Traditions of Norway

BACK TO CRUISE PORT ITINERARIES

Norwegian population is one of the healthiest in the world, probably because they eat fish three to four times a week and fish contains a lot of Omega 3 fatty acid. It's the main staple of the Norwegian diet, the same as it was with their ancestors, the Vikings. Norway has a abundant source of fish, including cod, herring and the most popular, Salmon. They poach, grill, bake, fry, marinate, smoke, grind it, salt-and-dry it; just hang-it-up-to-dry; cure it in salt brine, pickle it in wine and spices and more.

Most of the restaurants in Norway serve excellent, flavorful dishes in every price category. Breakfasts are often enormous. In general, you can choose from delicious dishes of fish, game, moose and reindeer or other stimulating culinary dishes. The one difference--all produce and product comes from Norway's own Nature’s Pantry – fresh and clean wildlife areas.

Here are some of the traditional foods that you will find on the menus. Be sure to include one--or some-- so that you can experience a real taste of Norway.

Røkt Laks - (yauks-lux) Smoked salmon fillets. Cleaning, smoking and vacuum packing the fish takes place immediately after it is harvested. Fresh Smoked means fresh here. Smoked salmon exists traditionally in many varieties, and is often served with scrambled eggs, dill, sandwiches or mustard sauce.

Caviar or Kaviar (cav-ee-ar)- For generations, Norwegians have enjoyed caviar. It is mostly used as a sandwich spread. It is usually made by sugar-salting smoked cod roe, which gives it its unique taste and texture. Kaviar is great with sliced hardboiled eggs and also with Jarlsberg (Norwegian Swiss) or Gouda cheese and decorated with Kaviar. This seafood is packaged in tubes for ease of use and storage. These open face sandwiches are eaten with a knife and a fork. The fork is held with the left hand, upside down and the knife is held in the right hand used for cutting and aiding in balancing and transferring the food onto the fork (don't forget the upside down part).

FYI, meals in Norway often include open-face sandwiches of crackers with cheese, salmon, cucumber, tomato, jam, boiled egg, or herring. These are called smorbrod. If you order a sandwich at a restaurant, you will get only one piece of bread.

Norwegian Gravlaks (yev-ral-yux') Similar to smoked salmon is gravlaks, (literally “dug salmon”), is made from fresh or frozen salmon fillets which is salt-and-sugar-cured salmon seasoned with dill and (optionally) other herbs and spices. During the Middle Ages, gravlaks was made by fishermen, who salted the salmon and lightly fermented it by burying it in the sand above the high-tide line. The word gravlaks comes from the Scandinavian word grav, which means literally “grave” or “hole in the ground” (in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Estonian), and lax (or laks), which means “salmon”, thus gravlaks or gravlax is “salmon dug into the ground” Today gravlaks is often sold under more sales-friendly names internationally.

Bacalao Bacalao is a "salted dried cod stock fish casserole" with olives, tomatoes, onions and peppers.

Cod, "the Beef of the Sea", is definitely a Norwegian food because there is tons of cod fish in Norway. It is lean and mild in flavor, which lends itself well in many recipes.

Pickled Herring is herring fillets pickled in sweet-sour sauce; sour cream, wine sauce, in tomato sauce and more.

Lutefisk (loot-ta-fisk')- It is first dried - and then soaked in lye and all of a sudden you have the real thing - Viking Food. Fish that has been soaked in lye? Lye is a strong smelling solution made from birch ashes and water. Adding wood ash lye to the water makes the fish particularly soft and flavorful. The result of this process is the celebrated lye fish (lutefisk), today a Norwegian and Swedish specialty. It is actually good, clean cod - baked in the oven, or wrapped in cheese cloth and poached it in a large pot of water until it appears translucent and jellyfish-like. Butter and white sauce are poured over top.

Whale Meat - - grilled and slightly smoky but still rare inside, served cold, sometimes well done. Many think that whale meat should be eaten like tuna, still rare inside if at all possible. The meat does not taste fishy, more like a very mild steak with a consistency halfway between a tender steak and tuna.

Rakfisk (rak-fisk) A traditional eastern Norwegian fish dish made from trout or sometimes char, salted and fermented for two to three months, then eaten without cooking.

Pinnekjøtt (pin-ee'-shot)(salted lamb ribs) is a traditional Christmas dish in the western parts of Norway. Pinnekjøtt is usually served with potato and mashed rutabaga. Traditionally, beer and akevitt are served with pinnekjøtt, but it has become increasingly popular to drink red wine instead, perhaps since wine is becoming more popular in general. It is difficult to cultivate wine grapes this far north, so wine must be imported, but Norway produces a type of spirits called aquavit (akevitt). Distilled from potatoes, it is usually flavored with caraway. Aquavit and beer are the traditional accompaniments to lutefisk, mutton and cabbage and many salted and smoked dishes.

Seafood bisque is a common breakfast dish, along with the Norwegian’s beloved coffee. In America, fish is not seen as a breakfast food, but in Norway it is just as common as bacon or sausage.

Rømmegrøt - (rem-ee-gret') Sour cream porridge with dried meats was festive food in the olden days and is still considered that today.

This might come as a surprise to you - Norwegians do not only eat fish... They eat beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, venison and more. You will find wonderful roasts baking; soups and stews simmering and chicken grilling in Norwegian kitchens.

Kjottkaker (Chek-kah-ker) Kjøttkaker (meat cakes) is on every Norwegian menu. Authentic Norwegian Meatballs have brown gravy. Kjøttkaker can be served with potatoes, gravy and lingonberry jam, and other vegetables if you don’t like potato.

Får i Kål (four-ee-kol) is a traditional dish here, a stew of lamb and cabbage, (fårikål is almost the same as Irish stew) Fårikål is a traditional Norwegian dish, consisting of pieces of mutton with bone, cabbage, whole black pepper and a little wheat flour, cooked for several hours in a casserole, traditionally served with potatoes boiled in their jackets. Fårikål Feast Day is celebrated on the last Thursday in September each year.

Venison - Deer meat, whether hunted or farmed, is termed venison. Venison, elk, and buffalo (after mastodons) were probably the first red meats of mankind. They made us what we are today...before McDonald's. The word 'venison' first referred to any wild game meat. It now usually refers to deer meat alone.

Reindeer - appears on many menus, particularly further north in Norway. It's similar to beef, but a richer, slightly sweet-flavored meat. Reindeer is often served as a steak with traditional sauces to accent the distinct flavor of the reindeer. You can buy reindeer burgers (it's served without a bun, so it's more of a large meatball patty than a sandwich.)

Norwegian waffles (va-fless) In Norway, they are not served for breakfast, but are a type of dessert, and not served after dinner, only with coffee other times of the day. In Norway, they use a special, heart-shaped, electric iron to make this delicious, traditional treat. To serve, use food scissors to cut around each heart; spread butter and arrange them on a pretty serving plate and place a bowl of strawberry preserves on the table and enjoy. They are delicious with thinly sliced, sweet goat cheese (gjeitost or low fat mysost), also called brunost.

Julekauke - (yu-le-kah-ke) Our Christmas Tradition Bread is called Yulekauke (the kids delighted in pronouncing it...Yu-le- kaka) As part of getting ready for Christmas, we bake several loaves of this traditional and delightful sweet Norwegian bread with cardamon and seedless raisins, topped with a frosting. The best way to eat this bread is still warm from the oven or even better - toasted with real butter on it.

Oslo Kringle - one of the names for this Norwegian dessert. (You might find it among Scandinavian recipes, but with a different name.) the dough is formed into the shape of a pretzel, then
flattened to make the "pretzel" 3" wide. This will make room for the frosting topping.

Crepes-Pancakes-Pannekaker (pahn'-eh-kah-ker)- Filled with anything from favorite berries to seafood. They are thin pancakes made without baking powder and can be served for breakfast lunch or desert (We called them "blettias- Finnish)The Norwegians are also partial to wild berries. Two varieties native to the area are lingonberries, similar to cranberries, and cloudberries, which are like orange-colored raspberries, only they are a little crunchy and have a sharper taste.

Norwegian cheeses include Gouda, Gudbrandsal, Gamalost, Pultost, Jarsberg, and Ridder. Gjetost, a brown - colored cheese made from goat's milk, is a Norwegian specialty. It is an important part of Norwegian breakfast and supper.

Lefse - (lef-sa') the national bread - It looks like a tortilla, but lefse is made from potatoes and butter (or shortening or cream). Also, lefse typically is rectangular, not circular. Most people spread butter on one side, roll it up like a cigar, and eat it. If you have a sweet tooth, sprinkle sugar on the butter. If you are adventurous, try lefse with lutefisk (cod soaked in lye).

HAVE A WONDERFUL VACATION IN NORWAY. IT IS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY...

I hope that this web-tour of Norway was able to provide you with a sneak peak of what you can expect to experience when you visit. Hopefully, it will help you decide on an itinerary for your particular day ashore. Please feel free to send me feedback (click here) to this site --or the rest of my sites, i.e.; things I should change; things I should add. I certainly would appreciate your input and suggestions. Thanks! Sunny