Marzipan pigs (Marsipangris)
When Christmas nears, some Scandinavians abroad (especially Norwegians) will start to search high and low for little marzipan pigs.
The pig has always been a big thing at Christmas time across the Nordics. In the Old Norse religion, it was believed that in Valhalla, warriors ate the same pig at a feast every night before it came back to life the next day – only to be slaughtered and eaten again and again. Back in Viking times, Jul (yule – the end of the year) was when a pig would be slaughtered, and a big feast would take place.
In the 19th century, pigs were common farm animals and they became popular meat to eat for Christmas eve. To this day, many families in Norway eat pork belly (ribbe), in Denmark, they eat pork loin (flæskesteg) – and in Sweden, the traditional Christmas meat is a big juicy cooked ham (julskinka).
We also use the pig in our Christmas decorations – you often find little pepperkakor (ginger biscuits) in the shape of a pig.
Little marzipan pigs in Norway are given as a gift to the kids. In Denmark, these are often the gift if you find the almond in the rice pudding.
We stock three different kinds of marzipan pigs in our shop – a large one (for those who REALLY love marzipan) and two smaller ones – one with a chocolate covering. These are from the Norwegian sweet company Nidar.
If you fancy making your own, we suggest you use the high-quality 63% almond marzipan from Odense Marcipan – it is excellent and quite easy to make shapes (google it – there are plenty of videos with great suggestions).
