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TRADITIONS

Five odd Swedish things to taste at Midsummer

The Local brings you the low-down on the five weirdest Swedish foods we hope you try during Midsummer Eve celebrations.

Published: 18 June 2015 12:47 CEST
Updated: 14 June 2017 11:49 CEST
Five odd Swedish things to taste at Midsummer
Strange Swedish Midsummer food for young and old. Photo: Lena Granefelt/imagebank.sweden.se

1. Inlagd sill – pickled herring

Sweden brought the world meatballs which we all know are among the yummiest things ever. It also has amazing access to fresh salmon and some of the most delicious cream cakes in the history of pastry. So why is it that pickled herring of all things is at the heart of every Swedish holiday celebration? If you missed trying this soaked-in-vinegar-and-left-to-sit-for-several-days Swedish delicacy over Christmas or at Easter, here's your third chance in just six months.

Pickled herring (inlagd sill) is basically herring fillets that have been cured in salt and vinegar along with various flavourings, including onion, mustard, garlic, lingonberries and so on. The list is endless. Endless. As in, there is no end to the madness. You must try them all (your Swedish host will make sure you do), after which you must pick your favourite and engage in a vigorous argument with fellow Midsummer revellers about which one is the best. It's tradition.


Swedish herring pickled with ginger, lemon and red onion. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT

2. Jordgubbar – strawberries

The Swedish word for strawberries, jordgubbar, literally means “little earth men”. But what's odd is not so much the fruit itself, but the Swedes' unparallelled obsession with it. It's one of the most popular berries and Swedes stubbornly insist they are the best in the world. Apparently the cold climate and the long summer days are believed to pack in extra sweetness and flavour.

READ ALSO: How to make Swedish strawberry cordial

These red, juicy offerings are considered an integral part of Sweden's Midsummer celebrations, so much so that when the head of the Federation of Swedish Farmers one year warned the unusually chilly summer weather could cause a strawberry shortage he labelled it “a disaster for the Swedish people“.


Anyone for Swedish strawberries? Photo: Lena Granefelt/imagebank.sweden.se

READ ALSO: How to make Swedish strawberry cream cake

3. Akvavit – snaps

Take this advice from the expats at The Local: akvavit is the only way you're going to survive that five-hour Midsummer's Eve dinner with the in-laws (just remember not to drink and dive). 

You're in luck, though. As soon as pickled herring is served up in Sweden, there will be akvavit (snaps or 'nubbe' in Swedish) to accompany the occasion. And as soon as there's akvavit, there are drinking songs. There are few things more awkward than to lip sync along to a song which you don't know (and can't understand), so make sure you learn the lyrics to at least one before you hit those Midsummer parties.

READ ALSO: Sweden's best drinking songs

Akvavit is made from a vodka base and a huge variety of herbs and spices, although either dill or caraway must be included by EU decree. However, there are several regional variations and many Swedes make their own. Why not try this recipe by food writer John Duxbury. 


Don't forget to learn some Swedish drinking songs. Photo: Gorm Kallestad/NTB scanpix/TT

4. Gubbröra – old man's mix

Swedes are not big fans of surprises and prefer to lead a life where things happen much as they have in the past few decades. So just like pickled herring and akvavit, gubbröra is another dish that crops up more or less every time Sweden celebrates any kind of holiday, be it Christmas in the depths of winter or Midsummer.

Gubbröra consists of anchovies chopped up with eggs and sour cream. It's fishy, salty, easy to make, and actually works really well as a starter or a late-night snack.

The name literally translates to “old man's mix”. It comes from the word 'gubbe' which can be used flexibly in pretty much any context: as an endearing term for cute little babies or as a reference to the dirty old men your mother used to warn you about.

READ ALSO: How to make Swedish gubbröra


Swedish gubbröra is a surprisingly great snack. Photo: Jakob Fridholm/imagebank.sweden.se

5. Nattamat  – night snack

Nattamat (also known as 'vickning') is a tradition as common at Swedish parties as hugging your host or taking off your shoes. It literally means 'night food' and, helpfully, that is precisely what it is. This is the food that your Swedish host serves up in the wee hours of the morning after all that pickled herring and strawberry cake has settled and you're starting to feel a little peckish.

For obvious reasons (see number three in this list) the nattamat tends to be fat and salty, to combat the imminent Midsummer's hangover. The Swedes are known for their healthy lifestyle, but apparently on festival days or at least after midnight, those extra calories don't count. At least that's what your Swedish friends will tell you as you gorge yourself on nattamat.

Classic dishes include Jansson's Temptation, sausage sandwiches, or indeed the previously mentioned gubbröra. They are all helpfully washed down with another round of akvavit (with obligatory singing).


Prepare for a second round of food late at night. Photo: Susanne Walström/imagebank.sweden.se

READ ALSO: Ten Swedish dates every visitor must discover

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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