Norwegian cuisine

[citation needed] Cafeterias commonly feature salad bars, warm meals, and dairy products like yogurt, skyr and kvarg.

[citation needed] Preserved meat and sausages come in a variety of regional variations, and are sometimes accompanied by sour cream dishes and flatbread or wheat/potato wraps.

Svinekoteletter – Pork chops: simply braised and served with potatoes and fried onions or whatever vegetables are available.

Svinestek – Roasted pork: a typical Sunday dinner, served with pickled cabbage (a sweeter variety of German sauerkraut), gravy, vegetables, and potatoes.

Cabbage and mutton are layered in a pot along with black peppercorns and salt (and, in some recipes, wheat flour to thicken the sauce), covered with water and simmered until the meat is very tender.

Historically syltelabb is served with the traditional Norwegian juleøl (English: Christmas ale), beer and liquor (like aquavit).

Smalahove is a traditional dish, but really more of a local oddity,[citation needed] usually eaten around Christmas time and made from a sheep's head.

saucepan meal) are stews with ground meat from cow or lamb, rice (sometimes replaced with pasta), tomato, mild spices, and small amounts of other vegetables like paprika, onion, kidney beans or champignon.

These meats are often hunted and sold or passed around as gifts, but are also available at shops across Norway to be served at social occasions.

Offal is eaten extensively, leverpostei (liver pâté) being one of the most common spreads for sandwiches, along with cold cuts such as sylte (brawn) and tunge (beef tongue).

Smoked salmon exists traditionally in many varieties, and is often served with scrambled eggs, dill, sandwiches and mustard sauce.

This was partly due to the abundance of fish and the time involved in catching shellfish as compared to its nutritional value, as well as the fact that such food spoils rather quickly, even in a northern climate.

The Atlantic cod variety known as skrei because of its migrating habits, has been a source of wealth for millennia, fished annually in what is known as the Lofotfiske named for the island chain of Lofoten.

A large number of fish dishes are popular today, based on such species as salmon, cod, herring, sardine, and mackerel.

A number of the fish species available have traditionally been avoided (especially those perceived as scavengers, due to a fear of indirectly eating friends or family members who had died at sea) or reserved for bait, but most common seafood is part of the modern menu.

Rakfisk must be prepared and stored very hygienically, due to the risk of developing Clostridium botulinum (which causes botulism) if the fish contain certain bacteria during the fermentation process.

Spekesild – salt cured herring which for centuries was used to fight hunger, along with boiled potatoes, beets, raw onions, dill, butter and flatbrød.

Sandefjordsmør – a traditional butter and cream sauce typically served with fish dishes such as salmon, garnished with fresh dill and peppercorn.

Gravet elg – sweet and salt-cured moose: this treatment may be used for all red meat, but works best with game and beef.

[citation needed] During Christmas (jul), the traditional Norwegian holiday season, many different dessert dishes are served including Julekake, a heavily spiced leavened loaf often coated with sugar and cinnamon, and Multekrem (whipped cream with cloudberries).

[5] A soft flat bread called lefse made out of potato, milk or cream (or sometimes lard) and flour is also very popular.

Both the German Hanseatic League and the Danish colonizers influenced Norwegian cuisine, bringing continental habits, taste and produce.

Oats are used in addition to wheat and rye and constitute perhaps the most unusual cereal employed in bread-making, as compared to continental Europe and the UK.

[citation needed] Cheese is still extremely popular in Norway, though the variety of traditional products available and commonly in use is severely reduced.

In 2018, Norway had the fourth highest per capita coffee consumption in the world,[6] and it plays a large role in Norwegian culture.

[citation needed] Coffee is included in one of the most traditional alcoholic beverages in Norway, commonly known as karsk, from Trøndelag.

[citation needed] Distilled beverages include akevitt, a yellow-tinged liquor spiced with caraway seeds, also known as akvavit or other variations on the Latin aqua vitae – water of life.

[citation needed] In rural Norway, it is still common to find hjemmebrent (moonshine, literally "home burnt").

Only "true" grocery stores are allowed to sell beer; gas stations and so-called "Fruit & Tobacco" marts (Frukt og Tobakk or kiosk in Norwegian) are not.

Ingrid Espelid Hovig was a high-profile public figure within Norwegian cuisine, hosting TV cooking programs and authoring dozens of cookbooks.