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If you are a member of the Museum, you will receive our newsletter Flaggan. I write a column in the newsletter called Curators Corner. Below please find my column from the latest issue of Flaggan.
As a goodbye to summer, there are two dishes—fermented herring and crayfish—which have become typical of Swedish food traditions. Even though these gastronomic delicacies are celebrated in different parts of the country, they are both equally popular.
If you are from northern Sweden, there is a good chance that you were brought up with the surströmming (fermented herring). The fermented herring is a throwback to the time when people could afford only enough salt to let the fish ferment instead of becoming rancid. Nowadays, the herring is caught in the spring, when it is just about to spawn. The herring is fermented in barrels for one to two months, then packed in tins where the fermentation continues.
Six months to a year later, gases have built up sufficiently for the once cylindrical tin to bulge into a more rounded shape. The tin should preferably be opened under water, because the smell is quite distinctive, or as the southerners would describe it, dreadful! It tastes best when eaten with boiled potatoes, onion, and butter, on a very thin crisp bread called tunnbröd.
If you live in the mid- or south part of Sweden, you are probably part of the crayfish hysteria instead. It breaks out the first week in August. Crayfish cages are put out in the evening, and, with great anticipation, emptied in the morning. This custom dates back to a century ago, when Swedish authorities allowed crayfish to be caught for only two months a year starting in August to save them from becoming extinct. When the crayfish-eating Swedes had to go without this delicacy right up until late summer, the return of crayfish to the table became a cause for celebration and the August crayfish party was born. The crayfish should be arranged on large dishes decorated with fresh dill. They are accompanied by toast with butter; a strong Swedish cheese may also be served.
Both these Swedish culinary traditions usually take place outdoors with paper bibs, paper napkins, and paper plates—preferably brightly colored ones—and funny paper hats. Paper lanterns are hung around the table. So wrap yourselves in blankets, especially you up there in the north, and enjoy the party with a wistful farewell to the short Swedish summer.
If you have a story from the past that you would like to share with our members and friends, send it in to me and I will consider running it in one of my next “Curator’s Corner” articles. ~ Karin Andersson
