This past week was Shrove Tuesday and the beginning of Lent. Lent, especially in the Middle Ages if you were Catholic, involved a lot of rules and fasting when it comes to food. Basically, you were supposed to not eat any animal meat or animal products from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, except on Sundays. (Fish did not count as “animal” and sometimes there were some interesting logical contortions to classify something as a fish: beaver, for example, has a scaly tail so OBVIOUSLY it was a fish. OBVIOUSLY.) Since it is a fast, you’re not supposed to really enjoy the food you are allowed to eat, nor have that much of it.
If you think about food in terms of harvests and growing cycles, this makes sense. By the late winter and very early spring, nothing is growing yet, the meat you preserved back in the fall is either running out or is spoiled, the hens aren’t laying, and the cows are dry. There’s very little milk or butter or cheese, and there probably isn’t much dried or root vegetables left. One of the things humans do in the face of unpleasantness that can’t be avoided (if there’s no food, there’s no food) is turn a necessity into virtue: even if we had the meat and butter and milk, we wouldn’t eat them because it is holy to abstain. So it’s fine that we don’t have it.
Of course, traditionally, the day before the Lenten fast begins, you have a blow-out meal to use up the last of the milk, eggs, and butter. Most European cultures have a baked thing that does just that. I think it also makes sense, in terms of human psychology, that you’d save a little bit of milk and eggs to make sure you have one last nice thing to eat.
In Sweden, the traditional bun is semlor, a cardamom flavored bun filled with a bit of almond paste and whipped cream. In 1771, King Adolph Frederick of Sweden died of “digestive problems” after a dinner he ended with 14 semlor (I mean, the lobster, caviar, champagne, sauerkraut and herring probably had something to do with it, as well…).
For Christmas, I was given The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nillson. It’s a MONSTER of a book, and has recipes for like, everything (no, EVERYTHING), from all the Scandinavian countries. There are several different versions of the Shrove Tuesday buns, and this is specifically the Swedish version. He starts with a basic sweet bun recipe (which he admits is his wife’s recipe, of uncertain provenance), and then uses a bunch of variations on a theme to make various kinds of buns.
This works pretty well unless you glance at the wrong variation during the shaping phase and end up with 24 small buns instead of 12 large ones.)
(Not that I’d know.)
(No, I do know that.)
His recipe is fairly similar to this one from the Local Sweden. Nillson uses WAY more cardamom, however, and when I make this again – and I will – I’ll cut down on the cardamom a bit. (Aside: I need to make a database of what is actually in my spice cabinet. Otherwise I’ll end up with five things of chipotle and no cardamom.)
The filling has as many variations as you can come up with for almond paste. I used store bought marzipan, and mixed it with a bit of milk to soften it up. You can also hollow out the buns and mix the crumbs in with your almond goo. I also did not add any sugar to the whipped cream, thinking the sweet almond paste was sweet enough. I think I was correct in that estimation.
While the recipe may not be historic, the sentiment of eating something tasty before Lent is. Holiday traditions often have logical, practical historical roots, and I think that understanding why we eat the things we do is important for understanding the human condition. Also, food is tasty!
As I don’t like marzipan or almond paste, I prefer a variation with jam in it. So a tip for anyone trying out this recipe, you can leave the almond paste out, and try with a raspberry or strawberry jam instead, and still be correct (according to Finnish and Norwegian tradition).
Another medieval reason for not eating eggs during Lent was economic. Most rents were due to the lord of the manor at Easter, and they very often included a set number of eggs. By forbidding eggs during Lent, the Church made sure the peasants saved whatever eggs they had for their rent so they didn’t get turned out onto the road. Plus the rents often went to the Church, itself, as the largest landowner. The sudden glut of rent-eggs at Easter is why you can find recipes for noble tables that start, “Take a thousand eggs or more…”
So little filling…
I usually hollow out most of the inside and fill with “mandelmassa” (make it from almond flower, powdered sugar and cream) mixed with the hollow from the bun, and then lots of wipped cream and a dusting of powdered sugar on top of the bun! Yum!!
Thanks, RedHeadedGirl — lovely post! And while you’re perusing The Nordic Cookbook (I have it, too, and am enjoying it to bits) DO take a look at Flygande Jakob, or Flying Jacob, so named because the originator worked in air freight. It’s apparently THE iconic recipe from 1980’s Sweden. Involves chicken, dry Italian salad dressing mix, bananas, 1 1/2 cups heavy cream mixed with 1/3 cup plus one Tablespoon Heinz Chile Sauce. And you top it with chopped up peanuts and bacon bits. It sounds like one amazing casserole, and I’m from Ohio, so I know my casseroles. There are some recipes out there that call for canned pineapple instead of the bananas, but that’s clearly wrong, because nothing goes with packaged salad dressing like bananas. Everyone knows this.
Have fun, and thanks again!
@judy: Whoa! Good Seasons, bananas AND chili sauce? Someone (not me) needs to make this and see how it comes out.
@roserita — be brave, girl! Go for it. (Just don’t use pineapple; it would be wrong spiritually.) There are many, many recipes for it on the Internet, but I say stick with the classic version.
It never occurred to me to wonder about the reasons behind Shrove Tues and Lent – thank you, that’s fascinating.
Crazy–my SIL and I were just going through this book last weekend, as Husband was waxing on about the jellied meat by-products his Swedish aunt used to make him eat as a child. This recipe sounds much more pleasant!
Was your husband’s aunt talking about Sylte? I LOVE SYLTE AMD THE SCANDINAVIAN DELI HAS BEEN OUT OF IT THE PAST TWO CHRISTMASES. I am bereft.
My family stands firmly in the jam-in-semlor tradition (and also in the we-don’t-really-need-that-much-cardamom-either tradition). I’ve started a can’t-we-just-have-cinnamon-rolls tradition, because I don’t much care for whipped cream.
Anyway, I still remember my first experience of almond paste in semlor with shock and horror. (I wasn’t expecting it, and it wasn’t good almond paste. I’d be willing to try again with good almond paste!)
Also, instead of digging a hole into the bun, we just cut the pulla in half so if you let the kiddies (and greedy folk) assemble their own laskiaispulla, the end result is a mess with the fillings escaping every-which-way with each bite. Ah, memories!
I hear there are folks who use *gasp* both almond paste and jam with the whipped cream in laskiaispulla. I’ll have to taste test some before I can tell you how I feel about it. 😉
I’ve been really getting into the idea of Hygge-so now I am all about Scandinavian everything. I love the concept of comfort and coziness, and I realize I’ve been trying to achieve that my whole life, but didn’t have a name for it! I’ve been buying lots of cookbooks, along with other books-my favorite so far being “The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living” by Meik Wiking. So this is a long winded way of saying, thanks for adding another book to my must buy list!!
interesting…looks tastier than some things from the past
A friend in Stockholm told me about Semlor this year – alas not in time to make them for Shrove Tuesday. She swears it is only correct if they are served in steamed milk, with cinnamon sprinkled over.
Oops. Hot milk, not steamed milk.