Lingonberry jam is a staple food in Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n cuisine

Cuisine

Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...

.
Because lingonberries are plentiful in the forested areas of the inland, the jam is easy to prepare, and has good keeping qualities, it has always been very popular with traditional dishes such as kroppkakor

Kroppkakor

Kroppkaka is a traditional Swedish dish, namely potato-dumplings with a filling of onions and pork or bacon. Potatoes, wheat flour, onion, salt and minced meat/pork are common ingredients in kroppkakor...

, pitepalt

Pitepalt

Pitepalt is a palt, a dish related to kroppkakor, and the specialty of the city of Piteå, though it is not eaten only in Piteå. This Swedish dish has almost as many variants as households in Piteå. Pitepalt are mostly made out of raw potatoes and barley flour, which is not the case with kroppkakor....

, potato cake, kåldolmar, mustamakkara

Mustamakkara

Mustamakkara is a type of Finnish blood sausage traditionally eaten with lingonberry jam. It is nowadays available in many stores across Finland, but is held in the position of local delicacy and speciality of Tampere...

 and black pudding. Today, it is served as jam, for instance with oven-made thick pancake

Pancake

A pancake is a thin, flat, round cake prepared from a batter, and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. Most pancakes are quick breads; some use a yeast-raised or fermented batter. Most pancakes are cooked one side on a griddle and flipped partway through to cook the other side...

s, as well as a relish with meat courses such as meatball

Meatball

A meatball is made from an amount of ground meat rolled into a small ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as breadcrumbs, minced onion, spices, and possibly eggs...

s, beef stew

Stew

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables , meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef. Poultry, sausages, and seafood are also used...

 or liver

Offal

Offal , also called, especially in the United States, variety meats or organ meats, refers to the internal organs and entrails of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but includes most internal organs other than...

 dishes; regionally even with fried herring

Herring

Herring is an oily fish of the genus Clupea, found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Three species of Clupea are recognized. The main taxa, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring may each be divided into subspecies...

. It is also often used on mashed potato

Mashed potato

Mashed potato is made by mashing freshly boiled potatoes with a ricer, fork, potato masher, food mill, or whipping them with a hand beater. Dehydrated and frozen mashed potatoes are available in many places...

 and the traditional oatmeal porridge, sometimes together with cinnamon

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...

, and, perhaps, a little sugar or syrup

Syrup

In cooking, a syrup is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but showing little tendency to deposit crystals...

.

Fine lingonberry jam is prepared only with berries, sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 and, optionally, a small amount of water. Cheaper varieties are diluted with apple

Apple

The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

s and/or pectin

Pectin

Pectin is a structural heteropolysaccharide contained in the primary cell walls of terrestrial plants. It was first isolated and described in 1825 by Henri Braconnot...

. The finest lingonberry "jam" is prepared fresh by just mixing berries and sugar, without boiling; this is called rårörda lingon or rørte tyttebær (raw-stirred lingonberries). Before the use of refined sugar became common in Sweden, lingonberry jam was prepared with lingonberries as the only ingredient. Because of the benzoic acid, which is found in high amounts in lingonberries, the berries keep well without any sugar or other preservatives.

Lingonberry jam has been popularized in North America by the well-known IKEA

IKEA

IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...

 superstores where it is sold in large quantities, including buckets.

Lingonberries

Vaccinium vitis-idaea

Vaccinium vitis-idaea is a short evergreen shrub in the heath family that bears edible sour fruit, native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to North America. In the past it was seldom cultivated, but fruit was commonly collected in the wild. ...

 are known as 'lowbush' cranberries or partridge berries in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 from Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 to Labrador

Labrador

Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...

and have the botanical name of Vaccinium vitis-idaea.