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RECIPE

Recipe: How to make a delicious Swedish spiced berry compote

Looking for a way to preserve all of those berries that seem to be everywhere in Sweden during the summer? Try food writer John Duxbury's recipe for delicious Swedish spiced berry compote.

Published: 28 July 2017 06:59 CEST
Recipe: How to make a delicious Swedish spiced berry compote
This spiced berry compote is a great way to make berries last longer. Photo: John Duxbury/Swedish Food

This is delicious and interesting compote for grown-ups, but is not suitable for small children because of the spices left in the jam. It is excellent on scones, in porridge or on toast. The exact quantities don't really matter, so long as you use a total of 1 kg (2¼ lb) of fruit.

Ingredients

500 g(1¼ lb)strawberries, preferably smallish berries

300 g(½ lb)raspberries

100 g(¼ lb)blueberries

100 g(¼ lb)blackberries

2-3 star anise

8 juniper berries

1 lemon, juice finely grated zest

1 kg(5 cups)jam sugar

1 tsp butter, if required

Method

1. Hull the strawberries, leaving them whole using a drinking straw as shown in the tips above.

2. Mix all the ingredients in a large pan. Stir thoroughly and leave to macerate for a couple of hours or overnight, until the juices have dissolved most of the sugar.

3. Heat gently, stirring frequently, until the sugar is all dissolved.

4. Increase the heat bringing the mixture to a steady boil.

5. Boil rapidly for six minutes or until a setting point is reached, stirring only occasionally to prevent burning.

6. Turn off the heat, leave the compote to cool for five minutes and then skim off the scum with a slotted spoon. If some scum persists stir in a little butter, which should help disperse the remaining scum.

7. Wait another 10 minutes or so, stir, ladle the jam into sterilised jars and cover. Use within 12 months.

If you want to test for a setting point, place three saucers in a freezer before you start heating. When you think you have reached a setting point, turn off the heat and place a teaspoon of the jam on one of the saucers. Wait one minute and then press the surface with your finger. For a firm set, when the setting point is reached the surface should wrinkle. If it doesn't, boil the compote for another minute and repeat the test again, always remembering to turn off the heat whilst testing.

Sterilising jars

Put the clean jars and their lids into a preheated oven at 140ºC (275ºF, gas 1, fan 130ºC) for 10 minutes to sterilise them.

Recipe published courtesy of John Duxbury, founder and editor of Swedish Food.

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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