ABSTRACT

The cooking of the Mediterranean shores, endowed with all the natural resources, the colour and flavour of the South, is a blend of tradition and brilliant improvisation. The Latin genius flashes from the kitchen pans…

The ever recurring elements in the foods throughout these countries are the oil, the saffron, the garlic, the pungent local wines; the aromatic perfume of rosemary, wild marjoram and basil drying in the kitchens; the brilliance of the market stalls piled high with pimentos, aubergines, tomatoes, olives, melons, figs and limes; the great heaps of shiny fish…all manner of unfamiliar cheeses from sheep or goat’s milk…

(David, 1955:9)

That is the food of the south, now that of the north:

Fish and freshness, above all salmon, herrings and prawns… dark, purple-brown reindeer meat…smoked pork loin… close rye bread…sweet pale cloudberries…sugar and spice in unexpected foods…aquavit and unfailingly good coffee… great discs of rye bread, flat and crisp…tunbrod, baked pancake-thin on a griddle; you cut this into wedges and roll them round slices of pickled herring…Smoked filleted eels …tubs of pickled herrings in many varieties…black-streaked squid, freshwater pollan and pike…Another major Scandanavian food…is pork…The best…is the boned, smoked loin known as hamburgerryg…Wherever you find pork, you will find cheese and butter, as pigs are, or were, fed on the skim milk and whey…The skill of the pastrycooks in Scandanavia …the fine skill and lightness, the lovely unusual notes of aniseed, cardamon and cinnamon…the swirls and curls of well-buttered dough.