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Swedish Summer: Feast a Night Away
By Katherine Tallmadge
Katherine’s Swedish Bio
Article About Katherine’s Swedish Decor
The Washington Times
For weeks on end the sun never sets in Sweden’s summertime. It’s daylight round-the-clock.
Every ear, during one of those “white nights” – the Friday nearest the 24th of June – the nation turns out to feast until morning. After long winter months of what seems like never-ending darkness, sun-starved Swedes join the rest of Scandinavia in celebrating the summer solstice – the year’s longest day.
It is more than just a holiday, however. Midsummer Eve, often lasting through Saturday – and sometimes the whole weekend – is the national excuse for the biggest parties of the year. The revelry is non-stop.
Beginning Friday morning, families gather to set the scene. Every spare piece of furniture is moved outdoors, setting up a festival atmosphere. Large wooden crosses are turned into maypoles decorated with flowers, ribbons and leafy branches.
Young boys impatiently put on their newly starched white knickers and black vests while the girls wear dresses of sky blue and gold. Soon the fiddlers arrive and the music begins.
The maypoles are raised, and hours of dancing, singing and community wide camaraderie get under way. By late afternoon the revelry has served its purpose. Gnawing hunger has prepared the celebrants for the main event: the feast, Sweden’s famed smorgasbord.
Smorgasbord is a Swedish invention and is literally a table of open-faced sandwiches. Though its origin was a simple array of hors d’oeuvres, smorgasbords today are exhaustive buffet-style spreads, the Swedish version being the best known.
There are appetizers, salads, main courses and desserts. The dishes signal summer’s first harvests: freshly clipped dill, tender root vegetables, fish and other seafoods, and strawberries grown in the country.
There are cured ingredients, as well. Pink rolls of cured salmon are wrapped around dill sprigs, with yellow mustard sauces and peppercorns alongside. There is marinated herring and coarse salt, as well as dill and other pickles. Dairy products also are important, including eggs, cheese and cream.
The traditional drink is aquavit, Swedish vodka spiced with anise and caraway. It is served in tiny schnapps glasses. The Midsummer toast, which loses something in translation, usually amounts to a unanimous gulp followed by a chant of “rah, rah, rah, rah.”
Actually, preparation of Midsummer food usually begins a couple of days before. Local fishermen stack their just-caught salmon in rickety wheelbarrows, roll them into town and go door to door displaying their wares for inspection by anxious cooks.
The fish are carefully examined in solemn transaction, the cook signaling the final selection with an abrupt, “This will do!” The fisherman nods, satisfied, and carries the fish to the kitchen where it lands on the table with a thud. The smell of the sea enters the house with the day’s catch. The best knife has been sharpened for this moment: the start of Midsummer Eve cooking.
According to Beate Sydhoff, cultural counselor to the Swedish Embassy in Washington, Midsummer wasn’t always a joyously awaited celebration.
“The idea of staying up all night probably began out of fear of the solstice, of what mystic powers might be at work turning night into day,” she said.
She suspects the pagans who began the holiday attributed the solstice to supernatural causes and were either too scared or too excited to sleep through it. The night soon took on special powers of its own. Dew collected on Midsummer Eve was said to cure illness. The night also held secrets to the future. To this day, young men and women pick seven flowers on Midsummer Eve and place them under their pillows in hopes of dreaming the identity of their future bride or groom.
Pagan rituals still remain a part of the festivities despite the fact that the holiday died with the beginnings of Christianity in the ninth century. Only in the late 1800s was Midsummer restored, this time as a lively outdoor festival. A result of Europe’s Romantic Revival, it then took on educational and decorative meaning. Now, staying up all night is in celebration of the night’s beauty and the summer’s feast and bounty. If there is foreboding or fear, it is of the calories that will be toted up the next morning.
SWEDISH
RECIPES
Gravlax and Mustard Sauce
2-1/2 pounds fresh salmon
4 Tbsp Sugar
5 Tbsp Coarse Salt
1 Tbsp White Peppercorns, coarsely ground
1 Bunch Fresh Dill
Lemon and additional dill for garnish
Mix sugar, salt and pepper in a bowl. Set aside.
With half of the dill, cover the bottom of a shallow baking pan just slightly larger than the fish. Pour two-thirds of the sugar, salt and pepper mixture evenly over the dill and place salmon on top, skin side up.
Cover the salmon with the remaining mixture and remaining dill. Cover pan with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for two days (at least 24 hours).
To serve, scrape off the marinade, slice fish thinly and roll. Garnish with lemon pieces and dill. Serve with mustard sauce on the side. Serves 8 to 12.
Mustard Sauce
All ingredients should be at room temperature. Place mustard in a small bowl, add sugar. Blend in the oil slowly. Add the dill and mix thoroughly.
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