Customer Reviews

Scandinavian Feasts: Celebrating Traditions throughout the Year

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4 star:		(1)
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This book is filled with great recipes. One of our favorites is the spice rye bread recipe that takes rye bread and infuses it with essence of orange and molasses.

The book is not laid out traditionally with one section for beverages, one for appetizers, one for main dishes etc. That means if you are seeking inspiration for what dessert to bring to a gathering you need to have an idea of what you are looking for and consult the index.

If you are interested in learning more about the cooking in Scandinavia as part of their culture and celebrations this is a great resource. For each season there are several menus revolving around specific celebrations. Most of the menus include drinks, appetizers, main dishes, and dessert.

So far we have enjoyed every recipe we've made!

I should have been a chef. My friends say much nicer things about my cooking than my singing, that's for sure. Mostly I cook in my own franco-italo-thai style, but once in a while I suffer an irrational craving for the kind of food my grandmothers made. Hey, even vikings crave comfort food now and then! So, although I have shelves of exotic cookbooks, mostly gifts from relatives who have stayed home, this book of artful recipes and photos of Scandinavian Feasts is the book I rely on to transubstantiate nostalgia into food. And yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, who lives on lingon and laks.
Here's my grandmother's recipe for Swedish meatballs, which is exactly like Beatrice Ojakangas's in this cookbook:
6 tablespoons of butter
1 small minced onion
2/3 cup of bread crumbs
1 cup of water
3/4 pound of ground veal
1/4 pound of ground pork
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon of ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon of sugar

Saute the onion in one tablespoon of the butter until soft. In a very large mixing bowl, mix the onions, bread crumbs, and water. Let them stand a while. Add all the other ingredients, and beat them together until very smooth and fluffy, using an old-fashioned egg-beater for the exercise. (The book recommends an electric mixer.) Using two spoons that you've frozen in the snow (the book suggests using ice-cubes), shape the meat mixture into tiny meatballs (köttbullar) no bigger than kumquats. Use the remaining butter to fry the meatballs, shaking the pan constantly so that they brown evenly on all sides. Drain them and keep them warm on a platter. Use flour and good beef broth to make a gravy. Pour the gravy on the meatballs and serve hot, with Swedish mashed potatoes (potatismos) and lingonberries. Härlig!

And good Yule to one and all!

I have started to really appreciate Scandinavian cooking as a great culinary tradition, and this book brings this to life in a way that few other cookbooks do, by focusing on celebratory meals. Unlike other cookbooks, this is organized by celebration rather than by category. In other words, one gets complete meal plans rather than the normal organization by category approach. This is then a great resource for what one might serve for a specific occasion or seasonal festival.

However, what this book could really use is a second index organized by category. Currently it's very difficult to locate a recipe unless you have a pretty good idea what it's called.

As a whole, this is an outstanding work all things considered. I would highly recommend it as a Scandinavian cookbook.

Beatrice Ojakangas proves again why she is the foremost expert on Scandinavian cooking. A great find and a good buy!