Norwegian Christmas food traditions.

LeifR

We have had a discussion in another thread about fish, especially lyefish. I don't think we actually came to an end of that, so I start another thread about Christmas traditions.

At first a Christmas card for you. This one was printed during WW2, in 1941. That explains the use of all the flags, as well as the flag colours. Red-white-blue. The cards were forbidden by the German administration, and most of them were confiscated. Only a few have survived.



The three figures with red stocking caps are called "nisse". (Gnome?) Nissen was supposed to live in the barn, looking for house and animals during the night. It was extremely important to be friends with this guy. Getting him as an enemy was really bad. At Christmas eve he wanted a plate of christmas porridge. It was a death sin to forget that. Well, this has changed a bit ......?
I think the to-day's nisse has become a mix of Santa Claus and the old nordic gnome or nisse. The shops are full of them, and they are supposed to make christmas mood. Easy to understand what the shopkeepers put into that word.



Now, the lyefish. Lutefisk in Norwegian. The base is dried fish from North Norway. The best is cod, but other types are also used. The Sweedes use pike too. The nordic cod come from the Barents sea to the shore in february-mars to spawn. The drying process and the final quality depends on weather and wind. The winter climate in North Norway is specially good for drying fish. Not too cold, dry wind from the ocean, little rain.



The first days are crucial. The wind will make a haze on the fish which will keep bacteries out later on. In the spring or early summer the fish is ready. It has been a hard wood-like piece. Used as a weapon, one might hit a man stone dead with it.




Inspecting dried fish is a difficult job. Not exactly a lifetime learning, but close to.

Some preparations are of course necessary to eat this stuff. The easiest way needs only a hammer and a piece of wood. Smash the fish to crumbs, and eat it as snacks. There will be a certain need for liquid accessories(!) Evil tongues will argue that people eat this as an excuse for the accessories, mostly because of what might be in the small glasses.

Perhaps we should end this for to night, and go on with the mysterious lye another day.

Leif.

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Therrin

Mmmm, looks like a tasty lot of fish there =)

*Therrin wipes drool from his beard*

Ya know, Osb_mail is sending me some venison jerky, I should get a thing going with dried goods coming in from all over the world. I could set up my own little exchange! Sounds deliscious. I'll pay for shipping =)

And just think, how awesome is that? A piece of fish so stiff and hard that I can whack NG senseless with it, perfect~!

newguy18

Are you mad at me or something Ken?

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old schooler

Therrin

no?? you could PM me you know.

or send me some jerky, and put a note in it =)

Wanting to bash you senseless with a piece of frozen fish has NOTHING to do with not liking you. I only bash ppl with frozen fish who I like. Not that I've had a chance to do it all that often.

newguy18

you didn't get my last 2 pms?

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Therrin

nope.

We're not derailing ANOTHER DAMN THREAD are we?

try saying something "relevant" when you type. It'll bring a whole new meaning to life.

treekiwi

Hi Leif,
I spent a year in Denmark when I was younger, definately miss all the Christmas goodies never could get into Sill (pickled herring)though or that liverpasti(liver patte). But enjoyed the abelskiwa (little apple duplings) or the awesome rice pudding we had for christmas.

LeifR

Hi, treekiwi!
Danish cakes and goodies are famous. In fact, the danes are experts on anything that tasts good.
The Danes and Norwegians have some Christmas traditions in common, I think. My wife is half danish, but most of our Christmas food and traditions are Norwegian.
So, you don't like sild (herring)? You spell "sill", that is Swedish.
You should have tried my wife's tomatoherring. Delicious. Hundred years ago, herring was cheap food for poor people. Now it's gourmet food and not cheap at all.

Tomatoherring and sour cream.



I am not sure about the rice pudding, how that is. We often have rice cream as dessert for Christmas. We eat rice porridge at noon on Christmas Eve. The rest of it is the next day mixed with cream: Ricecream. Served with sweet red sauce (raspberry).


My wife is making rice cream and red sauce.

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newguy18

fine,when i choose to celebrate christmas,we always make about 6 dozen cookies,sugar,choclate no bakes,peanut butter,choclate chip,ginger bread houses,and oatmeal rasin.oh and my mom makes a triffle,which is always good.I always over do the sweets and of course the egg nog,hmm sweets,coffee and egg nog,geez no wonder i'm so f???ed up.Sugar high from hell.

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Garry Brockley

leifr i was brought up on creamed rice with a dollop of homemade bramble jelly on top and mackrels in tomato sauce best foods ever

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treekiwi

Hi Leif,
That rice cream you are talking about is the same as I had in DK 'risalamande' . Awesome stuff What is it called in Norwegian?? Havent got the recipe by any chance??? and aebleshiver lol

LeifR

In Norwegian: Riskrem.

Here is a recipe. First the porridge.
Boil 2 decilitres of rice (here we can buy special porridge rice) with 4 dl water until the water is almost gone. Add 1 litre of milk (not that light stuff) and boil with low heat about 45 minutes until it has become a fine porridge. This makes a quantity for 4 persons.

This dish is called Christmas porridge and is served with an "eye" of butter, cinnamon and sugar. An almond is often hidden in the porridge to make some fun for the children. The one who gets the almond, wins a marzipan pig.


Boiling Christmas porridge. The pig is on the plate.


We often make a bit too much porridge, and when it is cold it is mixed with whipped cream and a spoon or two of sugar. Then you'll get ricecream.

For the sauce we use sweet raspberry juice, mixed with some water, boiled and made thick with potatoflour.
This is a common desert for Christmas Day.


Leif.

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treekiwi

Yummmmm Definately miss the Danish Christmas, have an extra helping for me Leif

LeifR

Bramble jelly sounds good! We call brambles for "bjoernebaer", that means bear berries.
I guess you didn't eat tomato mackrels together with ricecream??
Leif

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LeifR

I have lots of old recipes. Just tell me what you want.

Leif

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LeifR

Now, back to the lyefish.

The question is how to make this wood-like piece eatable. If we only soak it in water, we'll never get it back to its original consistence. It may be eaten, starving people would certainly find it fine. There are recipes too, to make good food from fish that is only softened in water. But I think everyone having eaten such fish will feel a wish for something more. Something really delicious.
So, ages ago some clever guy ( or woman?) tried that crazy idea of using lye. Lye ia a soap stuff. Lye boiled with fat makes soap. The old way of making lye was to boil ashes from the fire with water. Now it is made synthetical, chemical formula is NaOH.

In this picture the fish has been soaked for one week. In earlier times people used a sac, laid the fish ito it, and put it into the river or a brook. I use the drum from a wrecked washing machine. Lye does not penetrate skin, so I take it off.



Making lye: I collect ashes from my stove and from neighbours and friends that want to contribute. The best ashes come from beechwood. But we have little beech in our area, therefore we use the next best: Birch. I fill up a 25 litres can about 1/3 full and pour into it about 10 litres of boiling water. Next day there has been a smooth tea-like fluid that burns on the tongue.

Pouring lye over the fish. The fish shall stay in the lye for 2-3 days.




After that, back in the river for another week.



Now the fish is ready. The fish has become jelly-like, and has swelled up a lot. One kilo dried fish makes five kilos of lyefish.
As you understand, this is a work for the cold season. In summer time the fish will rot. The river here is quite clean, or at least clean enough for this process.

Now it has become late evening, and serving advices will come another time.

Leif.

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OutofMytree

This is what we lose in the race for convenience at any cost. To my great dismay, my wife has not learned to make the traditional Macedonian foods from Baba. Fortunately Baba likes to cook for hungry sons-in-law so I don't miss out. I hope to convince my daughter who enjoys cooking to learn these techniques.

The fish sounds great Leif. Keep the funky Norwegian stuff coming. It is a real treat to hear you describe your way of life and as always, the photo's are great.

LeifR

Several ways of preparing lyefish.

Most people who love lyefish prefer it baked in the stove, served with potatoes, bacon, fat, green pea stew, and several other ingredients. This picture is just taken from a book, but it shows only the fish.



Myself I am not used to eat it this way. I find all these other things too strong, bacon, fat, pea stew (with butter and sugar). I like the fish taste in a simpler way.

First boiling. We don't use water, just put some butter in the kettle. The fish contains a lot of water that will be boiled out. Thus this will be half boiling, half steaming.

Ready for boiling.



Bones must be removed as good as possible. Chewing on fishbones is not funny.... .
The fish is a bit yellow, but not as much as the picture shows. The lamp light plays us a trick. Lyefish bought in the supermarket is much whiter. It has been bleached with calsium. I don't like that, the "real thing", you know.
The fish is put into white sauce.







MMM..... Now I've got the felling of Christmas "Just like the ones I used to know". Yes, we know that song here!

Leif.

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yooper

My wife's grandmother always made lutefisk during the holidays.(She was from Finland) I am not sure what kind of fish it was but I do know she had always purchased it through a supplier from Minnesota (USA) After she had passed on we never had it again. after reading your tutorial I almost want to order some and eat it again. Thanks for the reminder of good times.

Eric Frei

This threads been great!

Dang like to go for dinner at your place.

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LeifR

Thank you, Eric! You are welcome, just give me a couple of days to prepare a few things.... .
Yes, I like old recipes. I have quite a lot of them. I have kept cookerybooks and handwritten notes from the old ladies in my family when they died. A lot of memories, you know.

Here is a picture of my grandmother's milking bench from the barn i Bjoerndalen. It's so ugly that thieves didn't want it, for me it is gold. I remember her sitting here, milking cows, singing a song, probably praying for us lads who were running around.




Leif

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jmcg.insight.gardens

Hi LeifR and everyone

Great thread you started here, do you have potato cake your way, mmm.... I love my grandmothers Kugelis, she is from Lithuania.

Yes, I was raised with her traditional foods when we visited her. Shes still alive at 90. We will celebrate again with her this Christmas.

We eat herring but I,ve never bashed anyone with fish Therrin. You are funny.

Must give it a go sometime

like this thread

Thanks for the pics

LeifR

Thanks for post. Yes, we have potato cake. My mother used to bake a lot of them. Now, my daughter has taken over that tradition. The cakes are called "lefse", they are quite thin and about 25 - 30 centimetres wide. But that depends. Some people prefer them a bit thicker, and much smaller. Then they are called "lompe".
Lefse/lompe may be eaten with butter and sugar, or with several types of fish or meat.
In older days potato cakes were mostly eaten by poor people. My father told me an old story from his school time. A neighbour family was very poor, and they did not afford to give the children bread for lunch at school. They brought with them potato lefse, and were so ashamed about it, that they hid the cake inside the hand and would not show the others what they were eating.
Now, this has turned quite a lot. Many old types of food eaten by poor people are now rather expencive and has become party food.
May be I can make some pics of lefse baking.
Leif.

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jmcg.insight.gardens

Hi LeifR,

yes, post some pics of your version of potato cake,they sound like Rosti.

Ours are done in a full size baking tray taking 20 potatoes, with spec. They are then sliced and fried again and eaten with sour cream.Or something sweet.

Not too good for the arteries but yum. Yes I can see they would be poverty food, their very filling.

LeifR

Hello, again.
I have no pics of lefse baking at the moment. I'll have to ask my daughter when she's going to bake them and make some pics then. But I have one of a woman baking flatbread at the annual animal's show in Seljord. ( A town some kilometres from here.) I don't know the woman, but I asked her about her opinion on size and shape of rolling pins.
For lefsebaking, we use the same tools as shown here. The bread is baked on an electric baking plate. The original one was made from cast iron and heated by wood.
The recepies wil of course vary a bit, but the common way is about this:
Grind or crush boiled potatoes when warm. Add a teaspoon salt pr. kg potatoes. The potatoe type shold not be too dry, or "short". Stay cool until the next day. Mix in flour, the less the better, until the dough may be rolled.
Flour mix: 1. Only rye. 2. Two parts fine rye flour, one part fine wheat. 3. As 2, but one part barley flour in addition.
Some people add butter and/or cream in the dough.



Leif.

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jmcg.insight.gardens

Hi there Leifr

I,ll have to take some photos when Mum makes some Kugelis at Christmas, yours does sound different.

You know we have to be careful we're not banned from Treeworld for turning it into a cooking show.

I'll make sure to add a couple of photos of our beautiful native trees.

regards
Julie