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mom > recipes potatakurv - swedish customs by the late 30's the american barn generation of
swedes in gowrie seldom spoke swedish. only a few
of the older immigrants conversed privately in
their native language, and even the Lutheran church
only observed juloto - the christmas service - not
necessarily in swedish. the strongest visible custom was food - lutefisk
and potatocurr with lingonberries and rye bread -
at christmas and castakaka - a baked milk and egg
mixture set with rennet and served with berries and
real whipped cream - oyster stew was the supper for
christmas and new years eve, with pickled herring
on the side - and always the rye bread. sugar
ginger cookies - firm things to be dunked in milk
(for the children) and coffee. then there was
skorper - the leftover, white bread rolls sliced,
buttered, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar
sometimes, and slowly baked in the oven to make
hard crunchy toast - great again for dunking, and
for baby's teething biscuits. these were always served by ancient aunt anna at
coffee time. on friday sale days i would not go
home on the bus, but would walk the few blocks to
aunt anna's where mom visited while dad went to the
farm livestock auction. coffee time there meant
peach sauce, skorper, hard sugar cookies, coffee,
(for me with lots of milk in it) and peppermint
candies. there was usually some kind of cheese,
bread and jelly served too. the lutefisk was received in barrels of brine,
and scented everything around. the grocers only had
to content with it for the short season before
christmas, but then the cook had to keep it at home
until time to prepare it - you couldn't keep it in
the refrigerator, or outside, so you hoped for cold
weather as it would keep cold enough on the porch.
so when the time came, the lutefisk was steamed, a
while milk gravy made, and then served hot with
butter, salt and lots of pepper - and rye
bread. my recollections is that this was part of the
large formal breakfast served xmas morning - before
gifts - fresh grapefruit halves, carefully
sectioned and centered with a maraschino cherry -
then the lutefisk, scrambled eggs, rye bread, bacon
and lingonberries to dress the potatakurv. the meal
was topped with a beautiful coffee cake drizzled
with white icing and sprinkled with green and red
sugars. later a plate of holiday cookies - spritz
and ginger, and the traditional fruit cake. a dark
moist heavy loaf cake loaded with dried fruits and
laced with brandy. this had been made several weeks
before in order to "age" properly. so the potatakurv production occurred well
before christmas, at least since the days of
freezers - the supplies include ground pork and
beef, onions, potatoes, salt, pepper spices and the
"gut" casings into which the meat an potato and
onion mixture is stuffed. equipment - large bowl or roaster for mixing, -
the old hand cranked grinder with the stuffing
nozzle to be attached - of course the potato peeler
and paring/ chopping knife. then pans to hold the
sausage rings as it is stuffed and tied off in
12-15" sections. then the kettles for simmering the
sausages until cooked - then more pans for cooling
it, and bags for freezing it. the challenge in making potatakurv is simply the
time and endurance to follow thru. one does not do
it alone, for the companionship is necessary and
the muscle power and taking turns. what's the recipe? more or less?? depends on how
much you are making. 5 pounds of potoatoes, 5
pounds of meat (2 pounds ground beef, 3 pounds pork
or sausage), large yellow onion (since the grinder
is so tedious, the modern electric blender has
proven a real time and work saver for chopping the
potatoes and onions), salt pepper, sage or allspice
to taste -- that means you fry some test patties.
you need the rest. time out. if ok, then the
stuffing begins. clamp the grinder to a kitchen
chair, put a pan on the floor to catch spills,
another on the chair seat to catch the sausages.
one person cranks and another stuffs the mixture
into the top of this antique machine. there are
more modern, efficient machines but there's
tradition! po ta ta kurv for break fast... |
