Smörgåstårta
HISTORY
Scandinavian cuisine is
based on a simple cooking style, full of flavor but not very spicy. Breakfast,
lunch and dinner are the main meals of the day all over the Scandinavian
Peninsula. Although most European countries consider lunch the main meal of the
day, Scandinavian countries place more importance on dinner, which is the most
consistent meal of the day nowadays. Many of the cooking styles and dishes used
by the Vikings are still present in the Scandinavian cuisine today, and Scandinavians
are proud of their Viking heritage, a fact that is also noticed in the way they
preserve the authenticity of such foods.
The Scandinavian Cuisines
consist of:-
•
Norwegian –
The cuisine is characterized by a sense of practicality and economy. Norwegians
love their meat, whether it is Pork, Veal or fish meat.
•
Danish –
The cuisine of Denmark is characterized by high levels of meat and animal fat
and a rather low level of plants and vegetables. The long winters from the
Scandinavian Peninsula shaped the face of the Danish cuisine.
•
Swedish- In
both major inhabited regions of Sweden – Gothenburg on the west coast and
Stockholm on the east – the abundance of fish, mainly Herring, had its
influence on traditional cooking. Although the salted Herring, which was
used as trading goods hundreds of years ago, is not part of modern Swedish
dishes, we will still find it in several cookbooks as one of the national food
elements.
Definition
Smörgåstårta in
Swedish means "sandwich cake" is a dish
of Swedish origin popular
in Sweden, Estonia ,Finland and Iceland.In Sweden it
is called “Smörgåstårta”,In Finland it is called “voileipäkakku”, In
Estonia it is called “võileivatort”, and In Iceland It is called “brauðterta”.
• It is a savory cake that is similar to a
sandwich, but with large amounts of filling and garnish, similar to a layered
cream cake.
• A smörgåstårta is normally made up of several
layers of white or light rye bread with creamy fillings in between.
• It is a standard dish at family gatherings
such as birthday parties, weddings, or funerals.
Components
Smörgåstårta consists
of five main components to build the cake:-
Ø Breads
Ø Fillings
Ø Adhesive
Ø Garnish
Ø Cheese
Breads
•
Four grain types
dominated in the Nordic countries: barley and rye are the
oldest; wheat and oats are more recent
•
The loaves
were oblong in shape, made from ground whole rye, leavened
with sour dough and sometimes sweetened with malt syrup.
•
The loaves
weighed up to 15–16 kg. They were baked once a month, as heating the oven
was both time-consuming and used a lot of firewood
•
Rye flour is
mostly used in the making of the breads for the Smörgåstårta
•
Some of the names
of the bread made from rye flour are hiivalepa, ohraleipa, ruisleipa
•
Another bread
used in smorgastarta can be soda bread,
white bread, brown bread etc.
Fillings
Filling can be of various categories:-
Ø Meats
Ø Fish, Shellfish
Ø Pickled Vegetables and salads
Ø charcuterie products
Meats
•
The are various
meats preperation in scandanavian countries are used cold in smorgarstarte.
Some of the meats are cristmas ham, roast chicken, roast turkey, roast beef,
roast pork etc
•
These meats are
prepare hot but are then cooled and
sliced thin to decorate on top or in the savory cakes.
Fish and Shellfish
•
Scandinavian
countries consist of a huge fishing industry. Most of the protein consumed here
is from the seafood that is caught
•
Some of the
seafood used in these cakes are shrimps, prawns, lobsters, eels etc. these can
be either pickled or smoked.
•
Fishes such as
cod, herring, haddock, salmon, and trout are also used in the making of this
cake
Adhesive
•
The cream is used
is used as a spreads and as well as a icing on the cake. Few of the creams used
in the spread and the icing are Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, sour cream, cream
cheese, whipping cream.
•
For the filling
it can be mixed with different fresh herbs such as chives and parsley.
•
Greek yogurt,
mayonnaise ,and whipping cream are mixed together to ice the cake.
Cheese
Ø This plays a very important role as it gives a
different kind of texture to the cake. These cheeses also give a hint of
spiciness to the cake also due to the pinch of red paprika powder added
to it.
Ø Some of the cheeses are:-
Ø Carlsberg cheese- Hard cheese, holes present in them, originated from Norway
•
Gudbrandsdalsost-
Hard cheese, made from both cow and goats milk, sharp and strong flavor.
•
Snøfrisk cheese-
white creamy semi soft cheese, name translates as “snow fresh”, first
introduced in the Winter Olympics 1994
•
Ridder cheese-
Made from cows milk, semi hard creamy
cheese, invented by cheese maker Sven Fenelius from Norway
Garnishes
Garnishes
can be classified into four types:-
Ø Cured and smoked meats
Ø Cured and smoked fish
Ø Pickled vegetables
Ø Salad vegetables
Ø Egg and cheese
Ø Cured and smoked meats :
These meats are cured or smoked and are
generally sliced very thinly. They can be later rolled into different shapes
and sizes and used as a garnish Example thinly sliced pork belly.
Ø Cured and smoked fish :
These fishes are also cured or pickled
or smoked. Some of the fishes are herring, salmon, cod, haddock. Caviar is also
added as a garnish.
Ø Pickled vegetable :
These vegetables have specific names in
the Scandinavian cuisines which are Agurkesalat (pickled cucumber), rødbeder(pickled
red beet slices), rødkål(sweet and sour cabbage)
Ø Salads :
Some of the salads used are Russian
salad, German potato salad. Even grapes are used as they are an important part
of the smorgatarte
Ø Egg :
Hard boiled eggs are used as a garnish.
They can be either sliced, quartered, sieved etc.
Charcuterie
•
As Scandinavian
region has a very cold climate they usually preserve the meats and fish for
further use.
•
This preservation
also provides a different flavor to the smorgastorte
•
These products
can also be used as a garnish
•
Some of the meat
products are pickled ham, cured ham, smoked turkey, smoked chicken, pork
sausage, blood sausages
•
Fish products
such as cured salmon, smoked salmon, smoked eel, pickled herrings, smoked cod,
Danish herring
Classification
The classification of smorgastarta are :
Ø Covered
Ø Un-covered
Ø Tart
Ø Covered :
This smorgastarte is covered with a
mixture of Greek yogurt, mayonnaise ,and whipping cream. It is layered first
with the filling and then covered with the icing. When cut all the layers
should be visible.
Ø Uncovered :
This cake is not iced and is only filled
with the filling. This filling should be visible and be attractive to look at
Ø Tart :
In this the bread is cut out in a tart
shape and is also filled with the filling. It is not iced and is covered by the
garnish.
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