Cuisine

Scandinavian and Nordic

Northern cooking shaped by long winters and short summers: cured and pickled fish, rye bread, potatoes, dairy, berries, game, and cardamom-scented baking.

Flavour character: Clean, salty-sweet and sour: dill and juniper, cured and pickled fish, sweet-sour lingonberry, butter and cream sauces, rye's dark sourness, cardamom and cinnamon in baking.

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History

Preservation defined Nordic food: dried stockfish, salted and pickled herring, fermented fish, cured salmon (gravlax, originally buried to ferment), smoked meats and crispbread that kept through winter. The Hanseatic trade in herring and stockfish linked the region to the rest of Europe. Cardamom and cinnamon became fixtures of Scandinavian baking through trade. In 2004 a group of Nordic chefs, including René Redzepi of Noma, signed the New Nordic Cuisine manifesto, focusing on local, seasonal ingredients.

Well documented

Geography and influences

Long coastlines and fjords, forests, lakes and Arctic north: fish, rye, barley, potatoes, berries, mushrooms, reindeer and elk; Denmark is flat and agricultural.

Hanseatic trade
Preservation traditions
French court cooking (18th–19th centuries)
New Nordic movement

Regional variations

Sweden: Meatballs with lingonberries, husmanskost home cooking, fika and cinnamon buns.
Norway: Fårikål, dried and salted cod, brown cheese, flatbread.
Denmark: Smørrebrød on rye, frikadeller, roast pork and pastries.
Finland: Karelian pies, salmon soup, rye bread and berries.
Iceland: Skyr, lamb, fish and fermented shark.