4 Traditional Nordic Foods You (Probably) Won't Find Outside Scandinavia

If you were to ask a random person outside of the Scandinavian region about a Nordic dish, what you'd most likely get are meatballs (thanks IKEA!). 

Don't get me wrong, they delicious, but they're not THAT special. They're crowdpleasers, and there's nothing wrong with that, but today I want to talk to you about the real stuff. 

The stuff you'll find in kitchen cupboards in Oslo and Helsinki that never made it to any international menu.

Forget about the exported meatballs for a moment and let me show you some true Nordic staples.

Authentic Nordic Foods

The thing that I like about Nordic cuisine is that these recipes are passed down through countless generations, and what I like even more is how important family is here. 

There are many places in the world where elders in particular are treated with the utmost respect, and Scandinavia is one of them. 

I was talking to a friend of mine recently who lives in the U.S. To be more exact, she lives in Indiana. It can be heatbreaking to see how old are treated in some places. And I guess it isn't helped by the fact that she has both her parents in a care facility – a place where you'd expect her parents to be taken care of – but she's deep into looking up past Indiana resident safety violation claims, because there've been A LOT of complaints, and nothing was done about them. So, instead of her parents being happy, she's actually thinking about involving a lawyer in the entire debacle.

And… It's sad. I am not going to pretend that things are perfect here in the Nordics, but (in my experience), people tend to include their elderly in everything. It's more of a strong family mentality. Or at least that is what I have seen and this translates to those dishes that are so traditional that they are passed down from mother to daughter through the generations.

But yeah, not to get too off topic, she and her parents will be coming to Norway soon and it made me think about the differences you can expect when you are visiting and of course one of those is food. If you have Nordic heritage it might be that your grandmother or great-grandmother regularly served some of these dishes and foods.

Here are four of my favourites that are not too strange, but certainly not the norm:

Brunost (Norway)

In short, this is a type of cheese that tastes like dessert. The closest would probably be fudge or dulce de leche.

It takes unsuspecting tourists by surprise, but it's delicious.

You make brunost by boiling whey and milk until the natural sugars in them caramelize. At that point, the whole thing becomes dense and brown. It becomes so firm that it becomes a block, and the taste is mostly sweet with a hint of saltiness.

The texture… Oh, the texture. It's soft, fudgy, and almost sticky. It melts on your tongue. Most Norwegians get a paper-thin slice of brunost and eat it on bread or crackers. What I'd recommend you do is put it on freshly-made waffles with a dollop of raspberry jam. It's the dream combination.

But yeah, you'll have a pretty tough time finding brunost outside of Scandinavia. This mainly has to do with the way it's made and how dependent it is on a very specific Norwegian fresh whey process. I'd recommend putting it on fresh waffles, though.

Sure, there are a couple of imitations out there, but they're either too sweet or not sweet enough; the texture is off; it tends to be gritty. It's not authentic. And if you're Scandinavian, you wouldn't be fooled even for a second. So you have to get the real thing if you want it to pass off as traditional.

Kalakukko (Finland)

If you didn't know better and you saw it, you'd think Kalakukko is just a dense dark loaf of rye bread. Not very exciting.

But you don't get to see its MAGIC until you actually cut it. Once you do, you see that there's a steaming filling made of fish and pork in there.

How Kalakukko originally came to be (at least that's the official story) is that hunters/fishermen needed a meal that they could take with them and one that could last them a couple of days. That sounds so familiar to foodies. It's just like the history of foods such as Cornish pasties.

What the rye crust does is keep all the juiciness inside. And it does its job so well that the fish inside stays tender for a long time. And the pork fat makes the entire dish complete by adding this richness to it. The downside is that the baking process (usually) takes HOURS. The taste is also very…. Let's say in particular. In a good way, but it may surprise you if you aren't expecting it.  You won't really find kalakukko outside Finland. So I think it will be a big surprise.

Rakfisk (Norway)

If you want food that you'll smell from across town, look no further – go with rakfisk. And once the smell gets crazy enough that it travels, the dish is ready. I once watched an episode of Gordon Ramsey trying rakfisk and it had barely got onto the plate before he refused to taste. And he is a foodie!!

Rakfisk is made by salting raw fish, packing it into barrels, and then leaving it to ferment for months in cold temperatures. 

It's eaten raw, usually on flatbread with sour cream, chopped onions, and a little mustard. As much as I'd want my guests to try this, I feel like the taste would be too funky, but I figured I'd still mention rakfisk here because it's so unique.

This doesn't really get exported because the process of fermentation is very particular, and it's hard to adjust it for commercial purposes.

Smörgåstårta (Sweden)

This is a Swedish sandwich cake that looks like dessert, but isn't. It's layered, and it looks like cake, but it tastes of shrimp, dill, and mayonnaise. Imagine telling someone it's cake and then having them try it.  What a laugh!

It's made of layers of bread all stacked with creamy fillings. 

The fillings are made of seafood, ham, eggs, or liver pâté. The whole thing is coated in a thick layer of cream cheese and sour cream and then decorated with slices of cucumbers, lemon wedges, and fresh herbs. Locals get a real kick out of the way outsiders react to this. And I have to admit, it always looks spectacular.

And so...

I don't know about you, but I could really go for warm waffles with brunost now (and maybe a coffee!). As you can see, these recipes are clearly very unique and definitely not in the same league as cinnamon buns. They might even seem weird to some of you, but hey – don't knock it till you've tried it.

There's a lot of history in these dishes, which I think is my favorite thing about them. So, if you find yourself around these parts, skip the basics and visit a local supermarket. You'll be happy you did.