København, known to the rest of the world as Copenhagen,
wonderful Copenhagen, became the capital of Denmark in 1415, but several
of its fine old buildings date from the reign of King Christian IV, from
the late 16th to the mid-17th century.
Because of its rarity, salt
was long an expensive commodity in Scandinavia, a commodity to the rich,
but a source of envy to the poor. When the price of salt dropped, those
who could suddenly afford the condiment scrambled to buy it and tended
to use it with such zeal in preserving their foods that they gave
themselves violent thirsts.
The specter of starvation that once drove
fishermen and farmers to salt their fish and meats and hoard them
against winter no longer motivates Scandinavian housewives, but the
desire for salted food lingers and is expressed in multitudinous ways.
In Finland, where body salts are likely to be sweated out in the heat of
the sauna, there is actually a condition sometimes called "salt
hunger." In Sweden the smorgasbord would be a barren thing without
its array of salty fish. And in both Sweden and Denmark, many a
housewife will still buy meat or poultry with the intention of pickling
it-not, as of old, to store, but to eat right off. Cooks in either
country will submerge a goose or duck in brine. Sometimes a bit of
saltpeter will be added as a preservative and coloring agent. The bird
is then left to soak for a couple of days. This helps to break down the
muscle tissue and gives the meat its most marked characteristic, a
tender smoothness. A goose so treated is called "burst" by
both the Danes and Swedes.
In Denmark the cook will boil a goose in clear,
fresh water with a little thyme, and serve it in moist, thick slices
with sharp mustard, dark sour rye bread and yellow pea soup containing
leeks, carrots, parsnips, onions, celery root and potatoes-and it will
be washed down with fiery gulps of ice-cold aquavit and foaming beer. In
Sweden a "burst" goose will be boiled and served hot with a
crisply frozen whipped-cream sauce, in which there is a sting of
horse-radish.
The Danes often use duck as a less expensive
substitute for goose. After pickling, it can also be cooked with celery
root, carrots and the green blades of a leek. The duck is served cut
into pieces, with separately boiled leeks and ss carrots, green peas,
spinach, parsley potatoes, melted butter and-to spark :o and tie all
these various flavors together-the frozen horse-radish whipped cream
sauce.
When salt was in short supply or too expensive
to buy, people had to resort to other methods of preserving perishable
food, some of them very odd indeed. Often they stored meat and butter in
whey; the Vikings did this and the Icelanders still do when preparing
one of their national dishes singed sheep's head. On other occasions, in
a primitive attempt at refrigeration, they buried fish in the ground or
left it hidden in clefts in the rocks.
Every year about 95 000 people die in
Sweden and, according to the law, everyone must be buried. There must be
room for everyone in the cemeteries, therefore the future needs of space
have to be predicted. Because of this funerals must be part of the
planning process.
In
the early Middle Ages, driven by famine at home and the promise of
wealth to be had in other lands, the Vikings set out from Scandinavia to
conquer parts of England, Ireland, France, Russia, and even Turkey.
Bolstered by their successes, the Vikings pushed westward, eventually
crossing the North Atlantic and founding settlements in Iceland,
Greenland, and Newfoundland in Canada. Read
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Because of its rarity, salt
was long an expensive commodity in Scandinavia, a commodity to the rich,
but a source of envy to the poor. When the price of salt dropped, those
who could suddenly afford the condiment scrambled to buy it and tended
to use it with such zeal in preserving their foods that they gave
themselves violent thirsts.
In
the early Middle Ages, driven by famine at home and the promise of
wealth to be had in other lands, the Vikings set out from Scandinavia to
conquer parts of England, Ireland, France, Russia, and even Turkey.
Bolstered by their successes, the Vikings pushed westward, eventually
crossing the North Atlantic and founding settlements in Iceland,
Greenland, and Newfoundland in Canada.