{"id":15950,"date":"2020-08-18T07:02:35","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T05:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stufvenas.se\/the-restaurant\/christmas-dinner-at-kalmar-strait\/the-history-of-the-swedish-christmas-food\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T11:19:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:19:44","slug":"the-history-of-the-swedish-christmas-food","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/the-restaurant\/christmas-dinner-at-kalmar-strait\/the-history-of-the-swedish-christmas-food\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Christmas Food"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Classic Christmas Dinner at Stufven\u00e4s G\u00e4stgifveri<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The History of Christmas Food<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The History of Christmas Food<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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At Stufven\u00e4s G\u00e4stgifveri’s classic and flavorful Christmas dinner, we strive to preserve the traditional Sm\u00e5land Christmas dishes. Some of these dishes have a long history, while others have more modern origins. <\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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We have created two different quality labels to ensure you, as our guest, have the best dining experience with us.<\/p>

Enjoy your meal!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Made by Stufven\u00e4s is our own quality label indicating which food is prepared from scratch, with carefully selected ingredients, in our kitchen by our skilled kitchen team.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Close by Stufven\u00e4s is our quality label for truly excellent and carefully selected locally produced products and ingredients.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t

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Christmas Bread<\/strong><\/h3>

Christmas bread differed significantly from everyday bread. Primarily, it was baked as a loaf. Additionally, wort was used as a liquid for the dough, and if one was truly well-off, dried fruits such as apples, figs, and raisins were added. The bread was also flavored with syrup, cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom. <\/p>

Dipping in the Pot<\/strong><\/h3>

The countdown to Christmas is called ‘the day before dipping day’. During Christmas preparations, it was practical to quickly dip some bread in the ham broth from the Christmas ham, which often stood on the stove. Originally, ‘dipping in the pot’ was not a typical Christmas dish but something that had to be done to soften old, hard bread so it could be eaten. Almost like today’s fondue. <\/p>

Porridge<\/strong><\/h3>

Christmas porridge was practical festive food when the family was to eat together. Porridge was not only a main course at Christmas but also at harvest and haymaking feasts. However, in the past, barley porridge was eaten instead of rice porridge. <\/p>

Pickled Herring and Baltic Herring<\/strong><\/h3>

Our contemporary pickled herring originates from the salted herring that was eaten daily in the past. Salted Baltic herring was on the dinner table almost every day in the Sm\u00e5land villages back then. It was eaten significantly more often than meat. Thus, a common everyday dish has been transformed into a delicacy in our time with the help of spices, sauces, and various flavorings. <\/p>

Christmas Drinks<\/strong><\/h3>

The oldest Scandinavian term for Christmas celebrations was to “drink Christmas.” Christmas beer was to be of the best quality. As a precursor to today’s Christmas dinner at restaurants, one can see the village farmers’ pre-Christmas feast, when they went around the farms tasting each other’s Christmas beer. Since home brewing ceased, various mixed drinks like mumma have emerged. The most famous and beloved is Julmust, which was launched in 1910. <\/p>

Mulled wine (Gl\u00f6gg) has existed since the Middle Ages and was created because wine had to be spiced to mask its poor quality. It was then heated to kill mold and other impurities. However, it was not until the late 1800s that it was mentioned as a special Christmas drink. Nowadays, mulled wine is a warming year-round beverage. <\/p>

Christmas Candy<\/strong><\/h3>

Hazelnuts and apples have a long tradition as Christmas candy in Sm\u00e5land. Exotic fruits such as figs, dates, raisins, foreign nuts, and chocolate and marzipan figures arrived with the development of colonial trade during the 19th century. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Christmas Ham<\/strong><\/h3>

The reason we eat so much pork at Christmas is that during the time of self-sufficiency, only salted meat was eaten during the rest of the year. But at the autumn slaughter, one or two pigs were usually saved, slaughtered just before Christmas, and enjoyed fresh, which was considered a great delicacy. However, Christmas ham did not belong on the Christmas dinner table in the peasant society. Hams were usually saved until summer and cut into smaller pieces. Most pork was boiled in the past, and the fatty broth was used, for example, for ‘dipping in the pot’. The Christmas ham originates from the late 17th century, but was then primarily eaten by the upper classes. <\/p>

Jansson’s Temptation<\/strong><\/h3>

According to some sources, the dish has been attributed to the 19th-century opera singer Per Adolf “Pelle” Janzon. He became known for serving a ‘sexa’ (a light supper) with beer, schnapps, and anchovy gratin, which is said to have given rise to the name Jansson’s Temptation for this type of gratin. He was reportedly inspired by anchovy boxes with similar contents. However, the dish’s name was not generally accepted until 40 years after Janzon’s death, well into the 20th century. <\/p>

Meatballs<\/strong><\/h3>

Our most Swedish national dish. But meatballs exist all over the world under different names and in various flavors. Today, it is most common for us to fry our meatballs, but during the 18th and 19th centuries, they were boiled as fricadelles. It is a rather modern phenomenon to grind meat into mince. However, finely cut meat for sausages and other products has historically been a common method to utilize all cuts of meat and to facilitate for people with poor dental health. <\/p>

Lutfisk (Lye-cured fish)<\/strong><\/h3>

Lutfisk, also called stockfish, was a Christmas dish in many Sm\u00e5land homes. Fresh fish was difficult to obtain during winter. In the past, lutfisk was eaten as dried fish. Thin slices were cut, pounded to make them easier to chew, and dipped in butter. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Source: The Taste of Eastern Sm\u00e5land & \u00d6land, Nationalencyklopedin, Nordiska museet<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Classic Christmas Dinner at Stufven\u00e4s G\u00e4stgifveri The History of Christmas Food The History of Christmas Food At Stufven\u00e4s G\u00e4stgifveri’s classic and flavorful Christmas dinner, we strive to preserve the traditional Sm\u00e5land Christmas dishes. Some of these dishes have a long history, while others have more modern origins. We have created two different quality labels to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6361,"parent":15912,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15950","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38020,"href":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15950\/revisions\/38020"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stufvenas.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}