Desserts (Desserter)

Packaged family favourites include compote (kompott), which is stewed fruit, either apricot (aprikos) or prunes (sviske) eaten with custard, over ice cream or just by itself, however it is not firm enough to use as a pie filling. Flavours of jelly (gele) in powder form include gooseberry (stikkelsbær), lemon (sitron), orange (appelsin), raspberry (bringebcer) and strawberry (jordbœr). Another favourite is rødgrøt, a red coloured jelly-like dessert made from thickened fruit juices of grapes (druer), cherries (kirsebœr) and blackcurrants (solbœr).

Sweet souffle (fromasj), lemon flavoured, is available ready to eat in the dairy section or in ready-to-mix packets. Cream (kremfløte) contains 35% fat and is suitable for whipping. Artificial whipped cream is made from vegetable fat in spray cans or pouring “cream”; popular brands are tastou krem topping, merikomel cuisine whipping.

Puddings are available ready to eat in the dairy section, or in ready to pour packets. Flavours include almond (mandel), caramel (karamell), chocolate (sjokolade), mocha (mokka), rum (rom) and vanilla (vanilje). Vanilla and caramel puddings are also sold frozen in a presentation mould, so when thawed, they can be turned out on a plate and decorated. When served, puddings are usually covered by a sauce (puddingsaus), for example strawberry or raspberry. Try chocolate or caramel sauce for pouring over ice cream. These sauces are available in squeezable plastic bottles or in sachets for mixing.

Sour cream porridge (rømmegrøt) and rice pudding (risgrøt) are delicious and can be made from scratch or bought ready to serve from the chill counters in the supermarket. Rice cream pudding (riskrem) is found in the freezer section.

Yoghurts made from full fat milk are popular and are sold flavoured and unflavoured with other dairy products.

Diabetic diet (Kosthold for diabetikere)

The selection of diabetic food products in supermarkets is modest, principally because persons with diabetes are advised to learn the basic facts about foods and to read and interpret food labels, as many ordinary products meet the requirements of a normal healthy diet. For dietary and other information on diabetes, contact The Norwegian Diabetes Association (Norges Diabetesforbund), Østensjøveien 29, PO Box 6442 Etterstad, Tel: 23051800, Fax: 23051801, www.diabetes.no, norges-diabetesforbund@diabetes.no.

Fats and oils (Fett og olje)

The principal fats used in cooking are butter and margarine. There are some varieties and mixes of them, such as bremykt, a spread containing 70% butter and 30% soya oil. Harder fats like flott (100% fat), delfia (100% coconut fat) are used for deep-fat frying and batters like doughnuts. Delfia is used in a very popular cake, the recipe is written on the packaging. Soya oil (soyaolje), corn oil (maisolje), olive oil (olivenolje) and safflower oil (solfrøolje) are stocked by most supermarkets. Less common oils like ground nut oil (jordnøttolje) and walnut oil (valnøttolje) are available in fruit and vegetable shops, larger supermarkets and ethnic food shops (Chapter 40). Formfett is vegetable oil in spray form, used for greasing waffle irons, cake tins and baking tays. Unlike other fats, the spray can should be stored at room temperature. Another oil that you will hear a lot about is cod liver oil (tran) although this is not used for cooking, but traditionally is taken in the wintertime, usually in the morning, in liquid form by the tablespoon or in gelatine-coated capsules to promote health in winter.

Fish and shellfish (Fisk og skalldyr)

Fish and shellfish are sold fresh by fish mongers (fiskehandler) and the seafood counters of supermarkets and frozen by most food shops. “Fresh” is no longer expressed in days, as it was before refrigeration became common. Freshness is now an expression of quality and means that fish is not processed, salted or smoked. Fish retains its fresh quality for many days, provided it is continuously refrigerated in storage and transport at temperatures of 0° to 1°C, but preferably not over 1°C. Consequently, frozen whole fish can also be regarded as fresh. Some fish are canned: mackerel is sold fresh, frozen or canned in tomato paste, while sardines are sold only in cans, as is tuna (tunfisk), which is imported. Some fish, principally cod, salmon and trout, are also sold cured, smoked, salted or dried.

Many saltwater and freshwater fish are available, led by the North Atlantic varieties caught by commercial fishermen, with cod being the leading fish, today as throughout history. From Viking times on, dried cod was the prime provision for ships. Norway’s maritime trade was built in the Middle Ages. Bergen then was a pivotal city of the Hanseatic league and exported split cod, salted and dried on wooden racks, called flakes, on rocky flats (klippfisk) and salted cod (sprengt torsk) to Great Britain and the Continent and imported salt to salt the cod that it exported. Throughout Europe, from the mid-16th to the mid-18th centuries, cod accounted for more than half of all fish consumed. So common was the fish, that the word acquired other meanings in the language. As in English, in which the word “cod” means a hoax or prank, the word tosk, a variant of torsk in Norwegian, means “fool”. Cod remains so important that Norwegian commercial fishermen and fish shops and counters throughout the country distinguish between nine principal species – torsk, kolmule, sei, brosme, kolje or hyse, lysing, lange, lyr and hvitting – and for Atlantic cod, between coastal cod (kysttorsk) and winter-spring cod (skrei). Cookery books distinguish between the varieties of fishes as well as between saltwater fish (havfisk) and freshwater fish (ferskvanns fisk) and between fat fish (fett fisk), such as herring and mackerel, and lean fish (mager fisk), such as those of the cod family. Most of the fish sold is caught by fishermen and is now called “wild”, to distinguish it from farmed fish (oppdrettsfisk), which now accounts for about a tenth of the annual Norwegian production of some three million tons.

The principal farmed fish are Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout. Although fish farming is commercially competitive and is a thriving export industry, farmed and wild fish are not identical, mostly because a growth environment contrived by humans is not the same as that of nature. Consequently, opinion on farmed fish varies. Gourmets prefer the wild varieties. As author Mark Kurlansky observed in Cod, “Gastronomically, a wild salmon and a farmed salmon have as much in common as a side of wild boar has with pork chops”.* Nonetheless, farmed salmon and trout are cheaper and more consistently available in shops than their wild counterparts.

A comprehensive brochure with large colour drawings of the principal fish and shellfish and extensive tables of nutritional content, entitled Facts About Fish is usually available in fishmonger shops and at the fish counters of supermarkets. It is published in 11 languages for free distribution by the Norwegian Seafood Export Council (Eksportutvalget for fisk); Skippergt 35/39, 9291 Tromsø, Tel: 77603333, Fax: 77680012, www.seafood.no, mail@seafood.no.

Food Portal (Matportalen)

The Food Portal is a single source for consumer information on foods from public agencies and research institutes. Its principal focus is on healthy, safe foods, and it offers numerous downloadable brochures and other publications on foods, preparation and storage as well as the latest national and international news on foods. For further information, contact Matportalen, PO Box 383, 2381 Brumunddal, Tel: 23217000, www.matportalen.no, redaksjon@matportalen.no.

Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet)

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority promotes human, plant, fish and animal health, environmentally friendly production, and ethically acceptable farming of animals and fish. It also oversees cosmetics and medicines and inspects animal health personnel. It has three Centres of Expertise: The National Fish and Seafood Centre (Nasjonalt senter for Fisk og Sjømat) at Bergen, The National Centre of Animals and Food (Nasjonalt senter for dyr og animalsk mat) at Sandnes and the National Centre of Plants and Vegetable Food (Nasjonalt senter for planter og vegetabilsk mat) at Ås. It is responsible for implementing EU directives on the production, distribution and sale of foods and related products, as well as for implementing EEA harmonised legislation. It has a head office in Oslo, eight regional offices and 64 district offices across the country. For further details, contact a local office listed in the Pink Pages or the collective address for all offices, Felles postmottak, PO Box 383, 2381 Brumunddal, Tel: 06040, Fax: 23216801, www.mattilsynet.no, postmottak@mattilsynet.no.

Fruits, berries and vegetables (Frukt, bær og grønnsaker)

Consumption of fresh produce is low compared to other European countries. In a typical year, the average resident consumes 82 kg of fruit and berries and 102 kg of vegetables, of which 42 kg are potatoes. The average resident of a country in the European Union (EU) consumes slightly more fruit and berries and twice as much vegetables. The independent Information Centre for Fruit and Vegetables (Opplysningskontoret for frukt og grønnsaker) points to six causes of the relatively low consumption, including lack of tradition, custom of only one warm meal a day, northerly climate and relatively short growing season, limited availability outside of larger cities, varying quality and high prices. Potatoes once were the basis of a warm meal, but consumption is declining and now is half of what it was in the 1950s. The decline is due in part to a rise in the consumption of pasta and processed potato products and to changing eating habits, as the daily family dinner is less and less regular. Fruits are more popular than vegetables, partly because they are eaten as convenience foods between mealtimes. Apples are the most popular fruit; some 20 kg per year per person are consumed in the country. Eating habits are gradually changing, as more Norwegians travel abroad, citizens of other countries immigrate to and settle in Norway and ethnic restaurants have opened in cities and towns throughout the country. The most commonly sold fruits, berries and vegetables are listed below. For further information, contact Opplysningskontoret for frukt og grønnsaker, PO Box 187 Økern, 0510 Oslo, Tel: 23249400, Fax: 22644163, www.ofg.no, post@ofg.no.

Game (Vilt)

Game is sold by game dealers (vilt in Yellow Pages) and by butchers that deal in it (kjøtt og vilt). The hunting of wild animals and the farming of tame animals supply it. European elk (elg in Norwegian, Alces alces in Latin), red deer (hjort, Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (rådyr, Capreolus capreolus) are hunted in the autumn. Reindeer (rein, Rangifer tarandus) is farmed in Finnmark county and is hunted in the winter. In season, meat is sold fresh, and out of season it is sold frozen in larger markets. The more common game birds include willow grouse (lirype, Lagopus lagopus), ptarmigan (fjellrype, Lagopus mutus), black grouse (orrfugl, Lyrurus tetrix), large European grouse, or capercaillie (storfugl, Tetrao urgallus) and hazel grouse (jerpe, Testrastes bonasia). Some wading birds, including duck (ender), geese (gjess) and sea birds (sjøfugl) are hunted, as are small mammals such as hare (hare) and beaver (bever).

Goat’s cheese (Geitost)

Norwegian goat’s cheese is in a class by itself. In its various varieties and offspring cheeses, geitost is an indelible part of everyday life; few homes are without it. It travels to work and school in packed lunches the country over. It is a standby on cold tables in mountain lodges and city hotels. Sometimes it appears at teatime, and often is served with waffles. By far, it is the leading cheese, accounting for a fifth of all cheese sold. Unlike other goat’s cheeses, such as the French chevret or rigottes, geitost is semi-soft and brown, as well as sweet. The consistency, colour and sweetness are due to the way it is made. All cheese making begins by separating milk into semi-solid curds and watery liquid whey, high in milk sugar. Traditionally, the curds are used to make cheese, while whey has either been discarded or used to feed livestock. But in Norway, goat’s milk whey was boiled down to make “whey-butter” (prim) and lean whey cheese, both perishable and nearly tasteless.

Then, in the Gudbrandsdal Valley in the mid-19th century, budeia (farm maiden) Anne Haav working a seter – a summer pasture farm like a croft in Scotland – added cream to a vat of boiling goat’s milk whey and let it solidify to a solid mass at one-tenth its original volume. The result was a tasty, fat cheese that kept well and therefore could be sold. The recipe spread, and soon other seter were making their own varieties of geitost. Modern dairy processes have long since replaced the seter farms as the country’s prime source of dairy products, and more productive cows have replaced goats as milk producers. Yet the seter tradition lives on. Norwegians continue to boil whey down to a brown, sweet cheese while in other countries it is regarded as a by-product of cheese making and, aided by modern chemistry, turned into milk sugar, lactic acid, glycerine and alcohol.

There are three types of geitost that differ by their content of goat’s milk and in hue of the finished cheese, from a dark, coffee brown to a creamy, almost yellow tan. The colour is governed by the degree of caramelisation of the lactose. Real goat’s cheese (ekte geitost) is the darkest, sharpest variety, and as the name states, is made completely from goat’s milk. Next in percentage and lighter and milder is Gudbrands Valley cheese (Gudbrandsdalost), made from 10% goat’s milk and 90% cow’s milk and named after the valley where geitost was first made. Cream whey cheese (fløtemysost) is lighter and milder yet, and is made wholly from cow’s milk. Properly speaking, the three varieties classify as brown cheese (brunost), as only one is made wholly from goat’s milk, but geitost persists in the everyday language. The cheeses are made in varieties differing by percentage fat content in dry matter, indicated by a two-digit number after a cheese identification letter. In order of increasing fat percentage: BG20 (blandet geitost, mixed goat and cow’s milk cheese, 20% fat in dry matter), H20 (halvfet, half-fat cream whey cheese, 20%), F33 (fløtemysost, cream whey cheese, 33%) and G35 (Gudbransdalsost, 35%). Moreover, there are slight local variations of all types of brown cheese, mostly by shade. On the west coast, a darker cheese is preferred, while a lighter, almost yellow cheese is favoured in the north. Eastern and central preference lies between these two extremes. G35 Gudbrandsdalost is the biggest seller in supermarkets and is exported under the Ski Queen label. All the varieties are sold in plastic-wrapped, uniform rectangular blocks of 500 g and 1 kg weight. You can open the wrapper at the top and close it again to keep the cheese fresh. But covers made for the purpose seal better and keep the cheese fresher.

With the tradition of geitost goes the custom of how it is eaten. It is best enjoyed wafer-thin, on slices of coarser-grain breads or on rye or wheat biscuits, or alternatively as a sweet, in folded, buttered waffles. The wafer-thin slices are most easily produced with a cheese plane, one of the better-known Norwegian inventions (Chapter 5). Skilled users can cut 175 slices from a 1 kg block of geitost.

Grains, nuts and pulses (Korn, nøtter og belgfrukter)

The baking and health food sections of supermarkets as well as ethnic food shops or health food shops (Chapter 40) offer wide selections of grains, nuts and pulses, of which the principal varieties are listed in Table 17.

Halal meat (Halal kjøtt)

Halal beef and lamb are slaughtered by Muslim butchers at Norwegian abattoirs and thereafter shipped to Halal shops. Halal chicken is slaughtered under Muslim supervision at chicken processing plants and is packed in distinctive plastic shrink-wrap bags and then frozen and distributed to shops. Fish is considered Halal but is not subject to Muslim practice in slaughter, so it may be bought fresh or frozen, at any fish shop (fisk, detalj) or supermarket. Proper Halal meat is stamped or marked, usually with the word Halal twice, once in Latin letters (as here) and once in Arabic letters. There are two ways to find shops selling Halal meats. First, look for the word Halal in the names of shops listed under kjøttforretninger in the Yellow Pages. Second, and in most cases quickest, enquire at the nearest mosque (Moské), which will have information specific to the needs of newly arrived Muslims.

Herbs and spices (Urter og krydder)

Herbs and spices are sold, dried as well as fresh, in supermarkets, butchers, fishmongers and ethnic food shops (Chapter 40). Ground spices have the word malt on the packaging, while whole spices have hel.

Ice cream (is)

There are three major producers of ice cream with countrywide distribution. Norsk Iskrem leads, having slightly more than half the market with its popular Diplom-Is brand and high-end Mövenpick Swiss and Bertelli Italian brands, which are exported as well as sold in the country. Hening-Olsen has about a quarter of the market, Nestlé-Drammens Is 13% and several smaller, local producers together about 2.5%. Most food shops sell ice cream in one-, two- and three-litre containers, as well as ice cream bars, sandwiches, cones and the like, which also are sold by kiosks and petrol stations. Food industry regulations set requirements for ice cream ingredients. The principal types are:

• Fløteis: ice cream, containing at least 9% butterfat and 34% non-fat milk solids by weight.
• Fløteis mykis: soft ice cream, containing at least 9% butterfat and 34% non-fat milk solids by weight (or 8% butterfat if it contains fruit or berries), as well as glycerol to make it softer to ease serving at freezer temperatures.
• Fromasj: mousse, containing sweetened and flavoured whipped cream or cream and gelatine.
• Fruktis: fruit ice, containing at least 10% fruit material and 20% non-fat solids by weight.
• Lett is: light ice cream, with an energy content (in calories) at least 30% lower than fløteis; usually contains less fat than does fløteis, but can contain sugar.
• Melke is: ice milk, containing 4–9% butterfat and at least 27% non-fat milk solids by weight.
• Luksus iskrem: premium ice cream, containing more butterfat than fløteis, typically 11–18%.
• Sherbet: sherbet, containing at least 10% fruit material, 20% non-fat solids and 1% butterfat by weight.
• Sorbet: non-dairy sherbet, containing at least 10% fruit material and 20% non-fat solids by weight.
• Vannis: light fruit ice, containing less than 10% fruit material by weight.
• Yoghurtis: frozen yoghurt, similar to lett is, but made from yoghurt instead of milk, and usually containing about 3% butterfat by weight.

Juice making (Safting)

Home juice making is in decline but is still commonplace, particularly in rural households and with people who prefer to raise and harvest their own fruits and pick their own berries. Accordingly, most kitchenware shops and departments of larger shops offer a good selection of juicers. Most common and smallest are the electrical appliances that squeeze, grind, press or centrifuge fruit to extract juice. But if you’ve been berry picking or have harvested the berry bushes in your garden, you will need more efficient means of extracting juice. The traditional Nordic steam juicer (saftkoker) is the ideal utensil.

The steam juicer resembles a double boiler with an additional pan. Steam from water boiled in the lowermost saucepan is directed upwards through a cone in the middle pan to the uppermost steamer pan filled with berries. There, the steam gently opens the cells of the berries, and warm juice drips downward to the middle extractor pan, which is fitted with a hose and clamp or valve so juice can be drained off. Four brands of stainless-steel steam juicers, in capacities ranging from five to 10.5 litres, are offered in kitchenware shops: Polaris of Norway, Schou of Denmark, Hackman of Finland and Mehu-Liisa by OPO of Finland.

If you have a larger quantity of fruit or berries, the easiest way to make juice is to deliver them to a commercial press, listed under frukt- og bœrpresseri in the Yellow Pages. The presses take in deliveries of fruit and berries and sell juice in 0.7 litre glass bottles or multi-litre plastic containers. The oldest – founded 1936 – and now largest press is at Askim, east of Oslo about midway to the Swedish border, convenient for people living in Oslo, Akershus and Østfold counties and towns across the border in Sweden. It’s most known as the country’s principal apple press, taking in some 90 tons a day in season, but it also presses and makes jellies of all other garden varieties. Contact Askim Frukt- og Bœrpresseri, Osloveien 99, 1815 Askim, Tel: 69819800, www.afb.no.

Kosher foods (Koscher mat)

The Kashruth dietary rules of Judaism dictate that foods should be Kosher, a word that comes from Yiddish and is the term in English and in most European languages. Kasher, the Hebrew word, is also used. Muslims dietary rules also permit eating Kosher foods. Shechitah, the slaughtering of animals by a certified person in the prescribed manner, is prohibited in Norway. Consequently, Kosher meats are imported, mostly from Canada. Likewise, Norwegian cheese is not Kosher, but Kosher cheese is imported from Denmark. Kosher meats, cheeses and other items are imported from Israel. Some Norwegian foods, such as the traditional King Oscar Brisling Sardines, are authorised as Kosher. Some supermarkets sell Kosher products, usually placed on shelves near the dietary foods.

Lunch (Lunsj)

Visitors and new residents, even those from neighbouring Sweden, find the lack of accustomed midday meals perplexing. They see Norwegians getting along at midday on what appear to be picnic snacks. Lunch as it’s known internationally remains rare on the eating scene. How can Norwegians survive their school or working days? Easy, say Norwegians, who have learned to anticipate the question, overstating the national habit by remarking that “we eat no lunch here”. What most Norwegians eat away from home at midday are their packed lunches (matpakke), home-made snacks of open-faced sandwiches (smørbrød).

The matpakke or skolemat (“school food”) or nistepakke (“travel provisions”) is no second-rate substitute. Unlike the packed lunches of the UK or the brown bags of the USA, the matpakke connotes neither lack of rank in a company nor lack of time to eat lunch. The matpakke is a bulwark of daily nutrition. It consists of slices of bread, decked with cheese, sliced meat or spreads, collectively known as pålegg (literally “lay-on”). Preparation includes stacking the pålegg-decked slices of bread, each covered with a small rectangle of sandwich paper called mellomleggspapir (“in-between paper”), and the whole wrapped in matpapir (“sandwich paper”). The bread and pålegg are much like the fare at breakfast. Indeed most matpakke are made at the breakfast table, with the result that lunch often is a packaged version of breakfast. In consuming the matpakke, the wrapping paper is folded out in lieu of a plate, and the small sheets of mellomleggspapir are plucked off, one by one. The matpakke tradition is acknowledged in regulations that oblige employers to furnish lunchroom facilities and offer beverages, usually coffee, tea and milk, at reduced prices. (Serving alcoholic beverages is prohibited in workplaces.) One of the prerequisites offered by larger employers is a well-appointed lunchroom, often a cafeteria selling cold and warm meals to matpakke-less employees.

The matpakke has become the very symbol of everyday school and working life. Conservationists, traffic experts and irritated motorists alike decry matpakke kjørere (matpakke drivers), cars carrying only their commuting drivers, clogging roads at peak hours. Literature documents the matpakke: Agnar Mykle, known for powerful description, details “the industrial worker’s scepter, the valise containing a matpakke and a thermos”. Humourist Kjell Aukrust maintains that party sandwiches differ from the matpakke variety only by being cut on a diagonal instead of straight across. There are even matpakke jokes. One standby is the tale of a gruff fellow who always opens his matpakke with a curse and gives away or discards a slice of bread decked with pungent gammelost cheese: “If you cannot stand gammelost, why not tell your wife to use another cheese?” his lunchmates ask. “Mind your own business,” he growls: “I make my own matpakke!”

Meals (Måltid)

Though eating habits are changing and fast food is increasingly popular, tradition prevails, and most ethnic Norwegians have four meals a day, three light and one major. The language reflects the pattern: it does not distinguish between “meal” and “mealtime” as does English, but makes do with one word, måltid (literally “time for food”). Breakfast (frokost) starts the day. Heavier than the European “continental breakfast” but lighter than the UK variety, it needs an early sequel. Lunch (lunsj) is a late-morning snack, usually taken to and eaten at school or one’s workplace. Dinner (middag) is the main and often only hot meal of the day, traditionally served sometime between 4 and 6 pm, at the end of the working day. With dinner that early, there’s usually a light follow-up supper (aftens) later in the evening, prudently before bedtime. At weekends, the pattern changes insignificantly, though supper may be replaced by a longer after-dinner coffee (ettermiddags kaffe) and cake session, particularly when there are dinner guests.