How to breakfast like a Scandi
Scandinavians don’t tend to skip breakfast. First, the fuel is needed to brave the outdoors and, second, there’s the coffee need. We rarely and barely function without coffee – it is what wakes us up and keeps us going. Don’t believe us? We drink more coffee than anyone else in the whole world. Strong, dangerous filter coffee – cup after cup.
Back to food, though. What is quickly evident is the lack of focus on refined sugars at our breakfast table (except on weekends); instead breakfast is a little bit of sweet and little bit of savoury. Did we mention coffee?
The dairy part
The Nordic people enjoy a centuries-long love affair with dairy products. Right back from the Vikings, we have loved drinking milk and we also love it when it goes sour – then we call it fil or afil/A38 (and it’s even better for our tummies). We also love Skyr, which is actually a young cheese cleverly disguised as a yoghurt. Skyr comes from Iceland, where this is a staple of all things breakfast. Nowadays you can buy Skyr across the shops in the UK, mostly made by the great big dairy conglomerates. This Skyr has never been to Iceland and to be fair, is not always what you should base your opinion of Skyr on. A close alternative is Quark.
Cereals
The Swedish term fil och flingor means ‘soured milk [yoghurt] and flakes’, so any type of cereal foes here, really. We love cereals and are especially fond of porridges, too – from your basic porridge to ones with added rye or ancient grains.
One thing is that Danes (and some other Scandies) eat oats cold with milk and sugar. Yeah, we know – it is a little odd to some other people who are used to having oats in form of porridge, but it is actually quite nice, you know. One in six Danes eat oats for breakfast during the week (but not so much on weekends).
The bread
Not such an easy bit to explain. Do we all eat crispbread? No. Do we all eat Rye? Yes. Okay, but who eats what for breakfast?
The Swedes are the main crispbread lovers. Also, they are really good at making it. Norwegians may join in now and then, but Danes, well, not so much (it’s more of a cheese thing).
The Finns favour really rye heavy bread – the best of them all being what is known as reissumies (Fazer Råg in Sweden – same thing). So much fibre you will be more regular than the bus service from Helsinki central to the airport. Danes, on the other hand – it is all about proper rye bread if we do eat bread in the morning. But some nice white bread might also sneak in there.
If the Swedes have other bread, it tends to be the much loved Lingon bread called Lingongrova. Don’t be too fooled by the healthy brown look of the bread: it’s quite sweet. In fact, a lot of Swedish bread is sweeter than you would first expect – things like the main sliced loaves tastes delicious but are most certainly not as good-for-you as say the Finnish rye Reissumies.
The fruit part
Berries often feature on the breakfast table, too, when in season. We have so many berries during the warmer months that, in the summer especially, you’ll be served berries with quite a lot of meals. If it’s not summer, then you’ll have jam or compotes instead. Or defrosted berries. Or any other way that anyone would have thought of to preserve berries of any kind.
We make a huge array of lovely jams in the Nordics, and you’ll find these on our breakfast table too. High fruit content, too – so it’s really worth trying.
Contrary to what people think, we don’t eat lingonberry jam or cloudberry jam on our toast in the morning. Lingonberry is for meatballs, cloudberry is dessert or cheese (it’s very expensive).
And yes, we absolutely eat jam on cheese on our sandwiches. Rye bread, cheese and a dollop of raspberry or strawberry jam is delicious.
The fishy bit
Swedes and Norwegians can’t get through the morning routine without their beloved creamed cod roe – in Sweden, the most popular of which is Kalles Kaviar, or just Kalles. It is by far the most popular morning item on the Swedish breakfast table. While it is an acquired taste, it’s easy to get used to. On buttered crispbread add sliced, hardboiled egg and a good squeeze of the cod roe. Alternatively, add a dollop to your boiled egg and eat it like that. Kalles a great way to start the day. If you like creamed coe roe, that is. Most people either love it or hate it. Once you start your day with Kalles Kaviar, you’re on your way to true Swedishness – or so the Swedes say.
In Norway, the equivalent is called Mills Kaviar. Is it the same thing? Well, not if you ask Norwegians: It just taste different. The rest of us can’t taste the difference, but we accept that Norwegians have more caviar developed senses. Both are good, so whichever you can get, do give it a try. You can also get Kalles with different flavours – there is one called Randiga, which means stripy. Please do not confuse this with toothpaste. We recognise that the packaging (tubes) and the picture (a boy with white teeth) is confusing, but we assure you, it doesn’t work well as a toothpaste.
Do we eat Salmon in the mornings? Not really, unless it’s on a fancy weekend buffet of brunch thing. Same with pickled herring: It’s for lunch, unless you’re at a hotel breakfast buffet in which case, go ahead.
Photo: Brunch at Mad og Kaffe in Copenhagen
Brunch
Since breakfast is such a major early morning ritual during the week, come the weekend Scandinavians (like most other people) love to go out for breakfast and in cafés all over you will find great breakfast/brunch spreads. Less of the heavy eggs Benedict, more of the platter with rye bread, fruit salad, boiled eggs, jams and cheeses – and fil soured milk, of course. In some places, they add a bit of bacon on the side for a real treat. Scrambled egg and salmon is very popular in Norway, where we have more than enough salmon. Think of weekend brunches like tapas plates of lots of different things you love.
In Denmark a very different tradition holds strong on the weekend: the local baker (bageren). Here, you will find queues of hastily dressed people who have rushed down to the baker on a Sunday morning to queue for freshly baked bread. Denmark has a long tradition of bakers and weekend mornings are the time for rundstykker – bread rolls. If you ever holiday in Denmark, seek out your local baker and be sure to pop by for fresh bread and pastries – it’s worth the walk in your PJs. It’s a real occasion for the whole family to sit down together and overdo the white bread. What a treat.
Photo from the lovely BRØD bakery in Cardiff, Wales. Worth a detour, say, from London.
Pastries
These need their own section. Why? Because Danes especially are really good at making these. We call them Wienerbrød, which means Vienna Bread, and not Danish pastries. We eat these as a treat on weekends or at a coffee morning – you probably wouldn’t have it on a weekday for breakfast. Same with cinnamon buns: these are treats, not breakfast.
