Smörgåsbord
Encyclopedia
Smörgåsbord (ˈsmœrɡɔsˌbuːɖ) is a type of Scandinavia
n meal served buffet
-style with multiple dishes of various foods on a table, originating in Sweden
. In Norway
it is called koldtbord, in Denmark
it is called det kolde bord, in Finland
seisova pöytä and in Estonia
rootsi laud. Smörgåsbord became internationally known as Smorgasbord at the 1939 New York World's Fair
when it was offered at the Swedish Pavilion's "Three Crowns Restaurant." It is typically a celebratory meal and guests can help themselves from a range of dishes laid out for their choice. In a restaurant
, the term refers to a buffet-style table
laid out with many small dishes from which, for a fixed amount of money, one is allowed to choose as many as one wishes.
In English
and also in Scandinavian languages, the word smörgåsbord (or in English, more usually without diacritics as smorgasbord) refers loosely to any buffet
with a variety of dishes — not necessarily with any connection to the Swedish Christmas traditions discussed in this article. In an extended sense, the word is used to refer to any situation which invites patrons to select whatever they wish among lots of pleasant things, such as the smorgasbord of university courses, books in a bookstore, etc.
smörgåsbord consists of both hot and cold dishes. Bread, butter, and cheese are always part of the smörgåsbord. It is customary to begin with the cold fish dishes which are generally various forms of herring
, salmon
, and eel
. After eating the first portion, people usually continue with the second course (other cold dishes), and round off with hot dishes. Dessert
may or may not be included in a smörgåsbord.
A special Swedish type of smörgåsbord is the julbord which is the standard Christmas dinner in Sweden. Julbord is a word consisting of the elements jul, meaning Yule
(today synonymous with Christmas
) and bord, literally table. The classic Swedish julbord is the highlight of Swedish cuisine, a traditional smörgåsbord starting with bread dipped in ham broth
and continuing with a variety of fish (salmon, herring, whitefish and eel), ham, small meatballs, head cheese
and sausages, potato, boiled or potato casserole
, soft and crisp bread, butter and different cheeses, beetroot salad, cabbage (red, brown or green) and rice pudding and beverages.
As with the smörgåsbord, the traditional julbord is typically eaten in three courses. The dishes include local and family specialties.
The first course would typically be a variety of fish, particularly pickled herring and lox (gravlax
). It is customary to eat particular foods together; herring is typically eaten with boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs and is frequently accompanied by strong spirits like snaps
, brännvin
or akvavit
with or without spices.
Other traditional dishes would be (smoked) eel, rollmops
, herring salad, baked herring, smoked salmon and crab canapé
s, accompanied by sauces and dips.
The second course is often a selection of cold sliced meats, the most important cold cut being the Christmas ham
(julskinka) with mustard. Other traditional cuts include homemade sausages, leverpastej and several types of brawn. It is also common to serve the cold meats with sliced cheese
, pickled cucumbers and soft and crisp bread
s.
The third course would be warm dishes. Traditionally, the third course begins with soaking bread in the stock
from the Christmas ham. Warm dishes include Swedish meatballs (köttbullar), small fried hot dog sausages (prinskorv
), roasted pork ribs
(revbenspjäll), and warm potato casserole, matchstick potatoes layered with cream, onion and sprats called Janssons frestelse
(literally "Jansson's Temptation").
Other dishes are pork sausages (fläskkorv
), smoked pork and potato sausages (isterband
), cabbage rolls (kåldolmar), baked beans
, omelette
with shrimps or mushrooms covered with bechamel sauce. Side dishes include beetroot
salad in mayonnaise and warm stewed red, green or brown cabbage
.
Lutfisk, lyed fish made of stockfish (dried ling
or cod
served with boiled potato, thick white sauce) and green peas that can be served with the warm dishes or as a separate fourth course. Lutfisk is often served as dinner the second day after the traditional Christmas Yule-table dinner.Julbord desserts include rice pudding
(risgrynsgröt), sprinkled with cinnamon
powder.photo Traditionally, an almond
is hidden in the bowl of rice porridge and whoever finds it receives a small prize or is recognized for having good luck.
Julbord is served from early December until just before Christmas at restaurants and until Epiphany in some homes.
In Denmark a typical tradition resembling the Swedish "julbord" is "Julefrokost" ("Christmas lunch"), which involves a wellstocked Danish smörgåsbord with cold as well as hot dishes, and plenty of beer and snaps. It is distinct from the Danish Christmas dinner which is served on December 24, and is served as a lunchtime meal, usually for family and friends on December 25 or 26. It is a tradition for most Danish workplaces to hold an annual Julefrokost some time during the months of November to January as well.
table (brännvinsbord), a small buffet presented on a side table offering a variety of hors d'oeuvres served prior to a meal before sitting at the dinner table. The most simple brännvinsbord was bread, butter, cheese, herring and several types of liqueurs, but smoked salmon, sausages and cold cuts were also served. The brännvinsbord was served as an appetizer for a gathering of people and eaten while standing before a dinner or supper, often two to five hours before dinner, sometimes with the men and women in separate rooms.
The smörgåsbord became popular in the mid-seventeenth century, when the food moved from the side table to the main table and service began containing both warm and cold dishes. Smörgåsbord was also served as an appetizer in hotels and later at railway stations, before the dining car
s time for the guests. Restaurants in Stockholm at the 1912 Olympic Games stopped serving smörgåsbord as an appetizer and started serving them instead as a main course.
to indicate any diverse group, synonymous with a vast array
.
In Canada
, Chinese smorgasbord is a buffet style used for Canadian Chinese cuisine
. This tradition dates back to Gastown
, British Columbia
, which later became Vancouver
, when Scandinavian-immigrant mill workers and loggers encouraged their Chinese cooks to arrange Chinese food as it was done in their homelands.
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 meal served buffet
Buffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
-style with multiple dishes of various foods on a table, originating in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. In Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
it is called koldtbord, in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
it is called det kolde bord, in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
seisova pöytä and in Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
rootsi laud. Smörgåsbord became internationally known as Smorgasbord at the 1939 New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
when it was offered at the Swedish Pavilion's "Three Crowns Restaurant." It is typically a celebratory meal and guests can help themselves from a range of dishes laid out for their choice. In a restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
, the term refers to a buffet-style table
Buffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
laid out with many small dishes from which, for a fixed amount of money, one is allowed to choose as many as one wishes.
Etymology
The Swedish word smörgåsbord consists of the words smörgås (open-faced sandwich) and bord (table). Smörgås in turn consists of the words smör (butter) and gås (goose). Gås literally means goose, but later referred to the small pieces of butter that formed and floated to the surface of cream while it was churned. These pieces reminded the old Swedish peasants of fat geese swimming to the surface. The small butter pieces were just the right size to be placed and flattened out on bread, so smörgås came to mean buttered bread. In Sweden, the term breda smörgåsar (to butter open-faced sandwiches) has been used since at least the 16th century.In English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and also in Scandinavian languages, the word smörgåsbord (or in English, more usually without diacritics as smorgasbord) refers loosely to any buffet
Buffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
with a variety of dishes — not necessarily with any connection to the Swedish Christmas traditions discussed in this article. In an extended sense, the word is used to refer to any situation which invites patrons to select whatever they wish among lots of pleasant things, such as the smorgasbord of university courses, books in a bookstore, etc.
Smörgåsbord and Julbord
A traditional SwedishSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
smörgåsbord consists of both hot and cold dishes. Bread, butter, and cheese are always part of the smörgåsbord. It is customary to begin with the cold fish dishes which are generally various forms of 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...
, salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
, and eel
Eel
Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...
. After eating the first portion, people usually continue with the second course (other cold dishes), and round off with hot dishes. Dessert
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...
may or may not be included in a smörgåsbord.
Julbord
Yule
Yule or Yuletide is a winter festival that was initially celebrated by the historical Germanic people as a pagan religious festival, though it was later absorbed into, and equated with, the Christian festival of Christmas. The festival was originally celebrated from late December to early January...
(today synonymous with Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
) and bord, literally table. The classic Swedish julbord is the highlight of Swedish cuisine, a traditional smörgåsbord starting with bread dipped in ham broth
Broth
Broth is a liquid food preparation, typically consisting of either water or an already flavored stock, in which bones, meat, fish, cereal grains, or vegetables have been simmered. Broth is used as a basis for other edible liquids such as soup, gravy, or sauce. It can be eaten alone or with garnish...
and continuing with a variety of fish (salmon, herring, whitefish and eel), ham, small meatballs, head cheese
Head cheese
Head cheese , or brawn , is a cold cut that originated in Europe. A version pickled with vinegar is known as souse. Head cheese is not a cheese but a terrine or meat jelly made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig , and often set in aspic. Which parts of the head are used can vary, but the...
and sausages, potato, boiled or potato casserole
Casserole
A casserole, from the French for "saucepan", is a large, deep dish used both in the oven and as a serving vessel. The word casserole is also used for the food cooked and served in such a vessel, with the cookware itself called a casserole dish or casserole pan...
, soft and crisp bread, butter and different cheeses, beetroot salad, cabbage (red, brown or green) and rice pudding and beverages.
As with the smörgåsbord, the traditional julbord is typically eaten in three courses. The dishes include local and family specialties.
The first course would typically be a variety of fish, particularly pickled herring and lox (gravlax
Gravlax
Gravlax or gravad lax , gravet laks , gravlaks , graavilohi , graavilõhe , graflax is a Nordic dish consisting of raw salmon, cured in salt, sugar, and dill...
). It is customary to eat particular foods together; herring is typically eaten with boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs and is frequently accompanied by strong spirits like snaps
Snaps
Snaps is a Danish and Swedish word for a small shot of a strong alcoholic beverage taken during the course of a meal. A ritual that is associated with drinking snaps is a tradition in Scandinavia, especially in Denmark and Sweden, where it is very common to drink snaps at holidays such as...
, brännvin
Brännvin
Brännvin is a Swedish word for liquor distilled from potatoes, grain, or wood cellulose; it may be flavored or unflavored. The term includes vodka and akvavit, but akvavit is always flavored....
or akvavit
Akvavit
Akvavit or aquavit is a traditional flavoured spirit that is principally produced in Scandinavia, where it has been produced since the 15th century....
with or without spices.
Other traditional dishes would be (smoked) eel, rollmops
Rollmops
Rollmops are pickled herring fillets, rolled into a cylindrical shape around slices of onion, pickled gherkin, or green olive with pimento. Rollmops can be served held together with one or two small wooden skewers....
, herring salad, baked herring, smoked salmon and crab canapé
Canapé
A canapé is a small, prepared and usually decorative food, held in the fingers and often eaten in one bite.- Details :...
s, accompanied by sauces and dips.
The second course is often a selection of cold sliced meats, the most important cold cut being the Christmas ham
Christmas ham
A Christmas ham or Yule ham is a traditional ham dish associated with modern Christmas, Yule and Fennoscandian Jul. The tradition is suggested to have begun among the Germanic peoples as a tribute to Freyr, a god in Germanic Paganism associated with boars, harvest and fertility. It was later...
(julskinka) with mustard. Other traditional cuts include homemade sausages, leverpastej and several types of brawn. It is also common to serve the cold meats with sliced cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
, pickled cucumbers and soft and crisp bread
Crisp bread
Crisp bread or hard bread is a flat and dry type of bread or cracker, containing mostly rye flour...
s.
The third course would be warm dishes. Traditionally, the third course begins with soaking bread in the stock
Stock (food)
Stock is a flavoured water preparation. It forms the basis of many dishes, particularly soups and sauces.- Preparation :Stock is made by simmering various ingredients in water, including some or all of the following...
from the Christmas ham. Warm dishes include Swedish meatballs (köttbullar), small fried hot dog sausages (prinskorv
Prinskorv
Prinskorv is a small Swedish sausage, somewhat similar to the Vienna sausage . It is usually fried and served with mustard, and is especially popular at the julbord ....
), roasted pork ribs
Pork ribs
Pork ribs are a cut of pork popular in North American and Asian cuisines. The ribcage of a domestic pig, meat and bones together, is cut into usable pieces, prepared by smoking, grilling, or baking – usually with a sauce, often barbecue – and then served....
(revbenspjäll), and warm potato casserole, matchstick potatoes layered with cream, onion and sprats called Janssons frestelse
Janssons frestelse
Janssons frestelse is a traditional Swedish casserole made of potatoes, onion, pickled sprats, bread crumbs and cream. It is commonly included in a Swedish julbord, but can be eaten on other occasions as well.-Preparation:...
(literally "Jansson's Temptation").
Other dishes are pork sausages (fläskkorv
Fläskkorv
Fläskkorv is a Swedish sausage made largely or entirely from pork. Traditionally it is sold raw , and is often served during the Christmas smörgåsbord ....
), smoked pork and potato sausages (isterband
Isterband
Isterband is a coarsely ground, lightly smoked sausage from Sweden. It is made of pork, barley groats and potato. There are many varieties of isterband, such as "småländska isterband" from the region of Småland, "syrliga isterband" with a slightly sour taste, and "lättisterband" with a low calorie...
), cabbage rolls (kåldolmar), baked beans
Baked beans
Baked beans is a dish containing beans, sometimes baked but, despite the name, usually stewed, in a sauce. Most commercial canned baked beans are made from haricot beans, also known as navy beans – a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris – in a sauce. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, a tomato...
, omelette
Omelette
In cuisine, an omelette or omelet is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat , or some combination of the above...
with shrimps or mushrooms covered with bechamel sauce. Side dishes include beetroot
Beetroot
The beetroot, also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet or informally simply as beet, is one of the many cultivated varieties of beets and arguably the most commonly encountered variety in North America, Central America and Britain.-Consumption:The usually deep-red roots of beetroot are...
salad in mayonnaise and warm stewed red, green or brown cabbage
Cabbage
Cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne of the Family Brassicaceae and is a leafy green vegetable...
.
Lutfisk, lyed fish made of stockfish (dried ling
Ling
Ling may refer to:*-ling, an English diminutive suffix*Ling , a traditional Chinese medicine concept of shamanic power and spirituality*Ling County, in Shandong, China*Ling, the legendary Kingdom, ruled by king Gesar, in Mongol-Tibetan myth...
or cod
Cod
Cod is the common name for genus Gadus, belonging to the family Gadidae, and is also used in the common name for various other fishes. Cod is a popular food with a mild flavor, low fat content and a dense, flaky white flesh. Cod livers are processed to make cod liver oil, an important source of...
served with boiled potato, thick white sauce) and green peas that can be served with the warm dishes or as a separate fourth course. Lutfisk is often served as dinner the second day after the traditional Christmas Yule-table dinner.Julbord desserts include rice pudding
Rice pudding
Rice pudding is a dish made from rice mixed with water or milk and sometimes other ingredients such as cinnamon and raisins. Different variants are used for either desserts or dinners. When used as a dessert, it is commonly combined with a sweetener such as sugar.-Rice pudding around the world:Rice...
(risgrynsgröt), sprinkled 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...
powder.photo Traditionally, an almond
Almond
The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree...
is hidden in the bowl of rice porridge and whoever finds it receives a small prize or is recognized for having good luck.
Julbord is served from early December until just before Christmas at restaurants and until Epiphany in some homes.
In Denmark a typical tradition resembling the Swedish "julbord" is "Julefrokost" ("Christmas lunch"), which involves a wellstocked Danish smörgåsbord with cold as well as hot dishes, and plenty of beer and snaps. It is distinct from the Danish Christmas dinner which is served on December 24, and is served as a lunchtime meal, usually for family and friends on December 25 or 26. It is a tradition for most Danish workplaces to hold an annual Julefrokost some time during the months of November to January as well.
History of the smörgåsbord
The members of the Swedish merchant and upper class in fourteenth-century Sweden and Finland served schnappsSchnapps
Schnapps is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage. The English word schnapps is derived from the German Schnaps , which can refer to any strong alcoholic drink but particularly those containing at least 32% ABV...
table (brännvinsbord), a small buffet presented on a side table offering a variety of hors d'oeuvres served prior to a meal before sitting at the dinner table. The most simple brännvinsbord was bread, butter, cheese, herring and several types of liqueurs, but smoked salmon, sausages and cold cuts were also served. The brännvinsbord was served as an appetizer for a gathering of people and eaten while standing before a dinner or supper, often two to five hours before dinner, sometimes with the men and women in separate rooms.
The smörgåsbord became popular in the mid-seventeenth century, when the food moved from the side table to the main table and service began containing both warm and cold dishes. Smörgåsbord was also served as an appetizer in hotels and later at railway stations, before the dining car
Dining car
A dining car or restaurant carriage , also diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant....
s time for the guests. Restaurants in Stockholm at the 1912 Olympic Games stopped serving smörgåsbord as an appetizer and started serving them instead as a main course.
Other use of the term in English
The term is also used as a metaphorMetaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
to indicate any diverse group, synonymous with a vast array
Array
In computer science, an array data structure or simply array is a data structure consisting of a collection of elements , each identified by at least one index...
.
In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Chinese smorgasbord is a buffet style used for Canadian Chinese cuisine
Canadian Chinese cuisine
Canadian Chinese cuisine is a popular style of cooking exclusive to take-out and dine-in eateries found across Canada. It was the first form of commercially available Chinese food available in Canada. This cooking style was invented by early Cantonese immigrants who adapted traditional Chinese...
. This tradition dates back to Gastown
Gastown
Gastown is a national historic site in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the northeast end of Downtown adjacent to the Downtown Eastside. Its historical boundaries were the waterfront , Columbia Street, Hastings Street, and Cambie Street, which were the borders of the 1870 townsite survey, the proper...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, which later became Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, when Scandinavian-immigrant mill workers and loggers encouraged their Chinese cooks to arrange Chinese food as it was done in their homelands.
See also
- Cuisine of SwedenCuisine of SwedenDue to Sweden's large north-south expanse there have always been regional differences in Swedish cuisine. Historically, in the far North, meats such as reindeer, and other game dishes were eaten, some of which have their roots in the Sami culture, while fresh vegetables have played a larger role...
- BuffetBuffetA buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
- Zakuski