If you think that potato dumplings were a big thing for grandmothers and great-grandmothers to cook in northern Minnesota then watch out for foods like lefse, cabbage rolls, spritz cookies, flat bread, Norwegian meatballs, sandbakkels, Swedish limpa, Rommegrot, Julekage, Lutefisk, Rosettes, Fattigmand, and Norwegian Fruit soup.
Do any of those ring a bell? If they do then let’s talk about them. For those of you who read the blog and have not eaten these foods, I will assure you of one thing; most of them are white and most have sugar and cinnamon on them or in them. Oh, and don't forget the butter.
I’m going to start with lefse. It is made with potatoes according to Zion Cookbook, 1951 edition. “Mash potatoes, whipped until their smooth and fluffy. Add two tablespoons of butter and a half cup of sweet cream.
add flour to roll out very thin. Bake on top of stove first on one side and turn and be on another.”
Does this give you enough information to make lefse? Probably not. It is after all, a cookbook published by a group of women who had been making these Norwegian products they didn’t think in terms of people in 2008 wanting to follow the recipe. Doesn’t that sound like genealogy? Doesn’t this sound like Shirley showing Kelsie and Jordan how to make potato Klubb?
My grandfather and grandmother made lefse so for Christmas every year. Their lefse was thin, and about the size of a dinner plate. Like fine china, one could almost see through it. I thought that was the way it was always supposed to be. I have since learned that the thickness and the size are a matter of personal taste depending on the part of Norway at your family lived. There is one method where the lefse is more like a cake.
The first thing I did when I sat down to Christmas supper at my grand parents house, was to unfold a piece of lefse, spread out of my plate, butter it with soft butter, sprinkle it with sugar, and it roll it up into a long cylinder putting the end farthest away from my mouth slightly up so no sugar with spill out. That was the best treat of the whole meal!
As they grew older, and didn’t make as much Lefse, grandma would split the pieces down the middle and it just wasn’t as much fun to eat! Lefse is baked flat on a griddle, after it cools, it is customarily folded in half, then folded in thirds.
Another fond memory I have of lefse is when Pearl and her neighbor set up a lefse baking operation in the basement of their house. The rules of the city included whitewashing the walls and wearing baker-like clothing, including hairnets. When Betty and I would come home from school in the fall, we would stop at the basement bakery and Betty’s mother would give us lefse which wasn’t nice enough to sell. It was certainly good enough to eat!
One of the greatest gifts I got from mother for Christmas while I lived in Kansas was a box of lefse which she would buy, freeze, then airmail. She would always say to open it immediately. When I would call her, she was so was concerned that it was rotten by the time I got it! It was a great gift!
Lefse is available in Fargo year-round. There are a couple of brands that seem to hold steady. Both are made in a factories, frozen, and shipped. What brand is available in the dairy case the other in the frozen food department. The dairy case brand is thinner by the frozen food brand is fresher.
A few years ago, two of my children came for Christmas at the same time. One of their missions was to go to a market and buy lefse. I think I remember them saying they ate the lefse in the car because they were so hungry for it!
There are numerous recipes and methods available on the Internet for lefse. Although you don’t need specific equipment to bake it, a flat surface which can retain a temperature of 450 degrees, a rolling pin, and something to flip it with are necessary. A work colleague of mine makes hers with instant mashed potatoes. Although this is a perfectly acceptable method, it just isn’t the same as peeling, boiling, gnashing, mashing, mixing, and baking. Oh, the cleanup.
When Arne and Marit crossed the ocean in summer of 1851, Marit hid a rolling pin above her soon to be born son, Nels. We know she kept the rolling pin after his birth on July 7 because it came down through the family and is now is part of Juanita’s kitchen décor. Old Trunks asked Juanita’s mother if it was used for lefse, it is not--at least at this time.
What did the Norwegian say when he saw his first pizza? "Who threw up on that lefse?"
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