Meat
Kjøttkaker - meatcakes: rough and large cakes of ground beef, onion and salt and pepper. Roughly the size of a child's fist. Generally served with sauce espagnol. Potatoes, stewed peas or cabbage and carrots are served on the side. Many like to use a jam of lingonberries as a relish. The pork version is called medisterkake.
Kjøttboller - meatballs: A rougher version of the Swedish meatballs. Served with mashed potatoes and cream-sauce or sauce espagnol depending on localization.
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 the German sauerkraut), gravy, vegetables and potatoes.
All good cuts of meat are roasted, as in any cuisine. Side dishes vary with season and what goes with the meat. Roast leg of lamb is an Easter classic, roast beef is not very common and game is roasted for the bigger occasions.
Lapskaus - stew: resembles Irish stew, but mincemeat, sausages or indeed any meat except from fresh pork may go into the dish.
Fårikål - mutton stew: very simple preparation: cabbage and mutton is layered in a big pot along with black pepper, salt (and, in some recipes, wheat flour to thicken the sauce), covered with water and simmered until the meat is very tender. Potatoes on the side.
Stekte pølser - fried sausages: fresh sausages are fried and served with vegetables, potatoes, peas and perhaps some gravy.
Syltelabb is usually eaten around and before Christmas time, made from boiled, salt-cured pig's trotter. They are traditionally eaten using one's fingers, and served as a snack and sometimes served with beetroot, mustard and fresh bread or with lefse or flatbread. Historically syltelabb is served with the traditional Norwegian juleøl (English: Christmas Ale), beer and liquor (like aquavit). This is because Syltelabb is very salty food.
Pinnekjøtt is a main course dinner dish of lamb or mutton ribs, and this dish is largely associated with the celebration of Christmas, and is rapidly gaining popularity in other regions as well. 31% of Norwegians say they eat pinnekjøtt for their family Christmas dinner. Pinnekjøtt is often served with puréed rutabaga and potatoes, beer and akevitt.
Smalahove is a traditional dish, usually eaten around and before Christmas time, made from a sheep's head. The skin and fleece of the head is torched, the brain removed, and the head is salted, sometimes smoked, and dried. The head is boiled for about 3 hours and served with mashed rutabaga and potatoes.
Sodd is a traditional Norwegian soup-like meal with mutton and meatballs. Usually vegetables such as potatoes and/or carrots also are included.
Read more about this topic: Norwegian Cuisine
Famous quotes containing the word meat:
“We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten. We can receive anything from love, for that is a way of receiving it from ourselves; but not from any one who assumes to bestow. We sometimes hate the meat which we eat, because there seems something of degrading dependence in living it.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Being American is to eat a lot of beef steak, and boy, we’ve got a lot more beef steak than any other country, and that’s why you ought to be glad you’re an American. And people have started looking at these big hunks of bloody meat on their plates, you know, and wondering what on earth they think they’re doing.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)
“Eating too much meat gives you indigestion and evil thoughts make you eat too much meat.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)