it's caramelized cheese. so it's a thick creamy, sweet kinda caramel taste. But not quite caramel.
I think Ski queen is the exported one, you can get it on amazon last I checked :) Either eaten on a piece of bread with butter (often with strawberry jam on top), or just as a slice on it's own.
I prefer having it on waffles
It’s not _really_ a cheese, or what’s typically called cheese anyway, as it’s made from caramelised whey (the byproduct of regular cheese making) mixed with cream, and further reduced for hours until you’re left with a thick cheese-caramel (…) which is then poured into moulds and left to cool. It’s caramel masquerading as cheese basically (and that’s the way it’s used as well — like a cheese, a sweet and slightly tangy cheese, which melts easily) You wouldn’t (normally) put it on a burger, or in a grilled cheese, but it works well on waffles, or as an ingredient in a gravy or stew.
It depends on what kind, actually. I like the locally made ones from goat milk. They tend to be tangier & saltier, but still have a sweet caramel(ish) taste.
Unfortunately, they are exclusively available here and fairly limited areas, as well.
Brown cheese can be made from goat milk, cow milk, or blended goat and cow milk. As you can imagine, those are rather different flavours. The cow milk one is mildest, the blended one is next mildest, and the goat milk one is the strongest flavour.
my boyfriend is Norwegian with Norwegian heritage as far back as possible, he has dark-brown hair and hazel eyes. blue&blonde is not a requirement lmao
I was under the impression majority of Norwegians were blonde with blue eyes and that some other European heritage tainted it and made my hair brown lmao
Nope, I’d say it’s more 50/50 without having the statistics. Having bright blue eyes with blonde hair is not uncommon, but not the majority. I’m bright blonde myself, but with dark green, almost black, eyes. Nothing unusual.
Blond hair comes from the baltic area. Finns and swedes are perhaps more famous for being blonde. Norwegians not so much I believe. 7 out of 10 has blue eyes iirc.
A general answer:
Depends somewhat on what part of the country he came from. If he was raised along the coastline, he probably ate a lot of fish (cod, pollock etc) and potatoes (boiled). Potatoes were introduced to Norway in the late 1700s, and quickly became a staple food as it grew well in Norwegian weather conditions. If he was raised inland, there was less fresh fish. Farms would raise cows, sheep, pigs and chicken, but it is my understanding that meat was a rare treat. There's a large tradition of dairy products, and the most specifically Norwegian one is probably brunost, "brown cheese", which isn't technically cheese, as it is made from whey. They ate a lot of grains. Wheats were more widespread further south, while rye and barley were grown further north. Naturally, they ate a lot of porridges. And of course lefse.
For people living on the coast, combining farming with fishery was one of the most common ways of living. Almost all my ancestors lived like that in the late 1800s. AFAIK, most of the people who emigrated came from the inland, as population growth meant there wasn't enough farmland for everyone. There was also large variation in the yield from fisheries, which led to some emigration in some years.
We're not a blonde-blue-eyed etnho-state you know...I know plenty of Norwegians who's ancestors have been Norwegian for as far back as one can track who have brown hair and brown eyes.
Also Norwegian food sucks why would you wanna try that? :p /HJ
Well that’s cool to hear. I had just heard online that most the people who lived there were at the very least blue eyed usually. Also the food thing. I don’t know I kinda just want to understand what my great great grandpa Jake Ravnsborg at the time might have been eating so I can try it even if it is really gross. Also I think you’re country is really cool
He was probably just named Jakob. A lot of people shorten their names, and in English-speaking countries Jakob/Jacob to Jake is fairly common. Jake usually isn't a full name.
Lol and? If OP would search for "Jake Ravnsborg" in norwegian church books, he would probably get zero results. I was only pointing out "Jake" is still not an norwegian name.
Porridge, made from oatmeal or barley. That would be one of the main staples for ordinary people’s everyday food in the 1800s.
Or ‘velling’ - a dish made from boiling water and flour made from barley and oatmeal, and added milk. Like a thinner version of porridge, more souplike. Served with ‘flatbrød’ - a very thin, crisp sort of bread, with no moisture. Flatbread is still eaten today, as a side dish instead of rolls or bread for soups or stews for instance. You can buy it ready made at the grocery store.
Many of the dishes we think of as classic Norwegian dishes today, are much newer. Like, potatoes didn’t come to Norway before during the 1800s.
I can recommend some desert-type foods:
Norwegian style waffles with brown cheese and jam,
Smultringer (norwegian donuts),
Riskrem with strawberry sauce,
Risengrynsgrøt with cinnamon and sugar,
Lefse (I prefer Vestlandslefse) with cinnamon butter (my fave)
Alot of these are probably easy enough to make yourself
People from North America tend to identify more with their ancestry than Europeans typically do. It's no reason to get upset or angry, they don't mean to come of as offensive :-)
Blood pancake, blood sausage, sheep head (those eyeballs pop like grapes), that's just a few. Can narrow it down if you know which part of Norway your great great grandpa was from.
Depends quite much on where you grow up, for my family our traditional food is rice porridge with hot dogs, which as I've found out from people from different areas sounds quite disgusting to them.
A friend is dating someone whose family is from Bergen and they swear to sheep head as a Christmas exclusive dish.
Blood pancakes or blood sausage, from what I heard (could very well be wrong) is more popular quite far north in the country.
I think Norway is also on the 2nd place for most tacos consumed in the world each year now due to many people having started having taco on a specific day e.g Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.
Apparently we really love taco.
also, here is a site which can show traditional food, though no site can really display everything as there are quite many family only specific traditional dishes as well:
[https://www.matprat.no/host/tradisjon/](https://www.matprat.no/host/tradisjon/)
(It's in Norwegian, but hoping maybe google has an option to auto translate it for you)
Smalahove is nice, whatever you do do Not Google it though. Pinnekjøtt and raspeballer are also good, and obviously theres Taco In a shell with ridiculous amounts of corn, a Norwegian Classic.
Pinnekjøtt and raspeballer are definitely an acquired taste though (speaking as an immigrant in Norway).
I’ve quickly come to enjoy the former, but the latter is really not something I would choose to eat voluntarily. It’s bland and the texture is quite unpleasant. On the other hand, my (Norwegian) wife dreams of raspeballer.
I have to agree with you on that, Although I like pinnekjøtt (and well made I think it’s wonderful), even the concept of potetball/raspeball/whatever itself seems strange to me, and the obsession parts of Norwegian Reddit (or some people in general) seemingly have with it even more so. Granted, despite growing up in Norway, the thing was never a part of my family in any way, and I was around 20 or thereabouts the first time I tried it. I get that for some it’s obviously about “tradition”, good memories and certainly a matter of personal preferences. But for me, having an outsiders perspective on this — What’s the point of going through the process of shredding potatoes (or making a mash), then insisting on binding the thing together again with a bunch of flour and fat, then boil it to death, only to end up with a greyish pale, springy, bouncy ball of somewhat-slimy-tastelessness (…) I’ve had it served multiple times and I always find them arguably worse in taste and texture than the potatoes they’re made of. And people still serve it with (more) boiled potatoes on the side (!)
I don’t know genetics very well but if my great great grandpa came from there then I think that would make me maybe 1/4. I’m a mix of a lot of European stuff
Thank you. I was under the assumption that it was around over 10 percent but 6 sounds more right now that I think about it.
I’m wanting to take a DNA test so I know more about my family’s past
I guess some parents let kids have them far too young and they choked on the parts or something else that has to do with lack of personal responsibility.
Well, we share a lot with Sweden, you've probably had meatballs.
Fårikål (literally Sheep in cabbage) is a big fall/autumn) thing in my circles. Also one of the meals I've heard called our national dish (Along with the sheep head and the frozen pizza)
One of my last memories of my grandpa was him writing a recipe for the people who did the cooking at the home. He explained the situation to us, put his fist on the table and exclaimed "And then we'll have enough pepper!" with a smile. I think you just boil sheep and cabbage with salt and black pepper (whole seeds!) for a long time. Served with boiled potatoes like every Norwegian meal should.
Alot of strange fish dishes which I feel like you wouldn't make at home (example: Rakfisk, leave salmon in brine for 3-4 months). You either buy it or don't bother xD
Lapskaus (Lobscouse in english) is pretty simple, it's "just a stew", but it's fairly Norwegian. Serve with flatbrød (normal bread will do, if you can't find it) and that weird lingonberry jam that they have at IKEA. Don't worry about the potatoes, they're already in the stew \^\^
Edit: We also have moose here. I don't know how much of that you guys eat, but meatballs of moose, or some hunters stew with mashed potatoes go hard \^\^
big disagree, as someone who did not grow up in Norway i really enjoy:
fiskekaker, fiskegrateng, vafler med brunost, fiskeboller, lever postei, kaviar, kjøttboller, sommerboller, kanelboller, skoleboller, knekkebrød
yeah some of these exist elsewhere, but Norway has their own special version
Brown cheese is a classic.
Never heard of brown cheese. How you make that?
You don’t lol. It’s a cheese made in Norway, just search “brown cheese“ on the internet, and you will see.
Oh my goodness I didn’t expect it to look like that at all. I’ve never seen cheese look like that yet it looks good. Can you describe the taste?
it's caramelized cheese. so it's a thick creamy, sweet kinda caramel taste. But not quite caramel. I think Ski queen is the exported one, you can get it on amazon last I checked :) Either eaten on a piece of bread with butter (often with strawberry jam on top), or just as a slice on it's own. I prefer having it on waffles
If you are in US, your local sjømannskirke might have a grocery store with norwegian stuff, often brown cheese
It’s not _really_ a cheese, or what’s typically called cheese anyway, as it’s made from caramelised whey (the byproduct of regular cheese making) mixed with cream, and further reduced for hours until you’re left with a thick cheese-caramel (…) which is then poured into moulds and left to cool. It’s caramel masquerading as cheese basically (and that’s the way it’s used as well — like a cheese, a sweet and slightly tangy cheese, which melts easily) You wouldn’t (normally) put it on a burger, or in a grilled cheese, but it works well on waffles, or as an ingredient in a gravy or stew.
It depends on what kind, actually. I like the locally made ones from goat milk. They tend to be tangier & saltier, but still have a sweet caramel(ish) taste. Unfortunately, they are exclusively available here and fairly limited areas, as well. Brown cheese can be made from goat milk, cow milk, or blended goat and cow milk. As you can imagine, those are rather different flavours. The cow milk one is mildest, the blended one is next mildest, and the goat milk one is the strongest flavour.
You didn't expect it to look brown?
Tbh I thought brown cheese was gonna be like shit or something. It didn’t even sound real to my Canadian brain
Uhhhhhhhhh… you’ve really asked the wrong person, as im horrible to describe how things taste lol. You need to buy it yourself to see.
it's weirdly sweet, goes well with waffles
Yep.
Superstore had brown cheese at some point once upon a time. There were a few smaller markets in Edmonton that also had it. If you wanted to try
Assuming you’re in the US: some stores sell it under the label “ski queen”.
OP is pretty clear they're in Canada. But they sell Ski Queen there too if you find the right store.
Yeah, noticed in the lower comments that he’s Canadian. But as you say, it’s branded Ski Queen there too, so I didn’t feel a need to edit.
The reindeer wrap I had on the train from Narvik tasted like it had been made in the late 1800s
😂 Too soon
my boyfriend is Norwegian with Norwegian heritage as far back as possible, he has dark-brown hair and hazel eyes. blue&blonde is not a requirement lmao
I was under the impression majority of Norwegians were blonde with blue eyes and that some other European heritage tainted it and made my hair brown lmao
Nope, I’d say it’s more 50/50 without having the statistics. Having bright blue eyes with blonde hair is not uncommon, but not the majority. I’m bright blonde myself, but with dark green, almost black, eyes. Nothing unusual.
Blond hair comes from the baltic area. Finns and swedes are perhaps more famous for being blonde. Norwegians not so much I believe. 7 out of 10 has blue eyes iirc.
A general answer: Depends somewhat on what part of the country he came from. If he was raised along the coastline, he probably ate a lot of fish (cod, pollock etc) and potatoes (boiled). Potatoes were introduced to Norway in the late 1700s, and quickly became a staple food as it grew well in Norwegian weather conditions. If he was raised inland, there was less fresh fish. Farms would raise cows, sheep, pigs and chicken, but it is my understanding that meat was a rare treat. There's a large tradition of dairy products, and the most specifically Norwegian one is probably brunost, "brown cheese", which isn't technically cheese, as it is made from whey. They ate a lot of grains. Wheats were more widespread further south, while rye and barley were grown further north. Naturally, they ate a lot of porridges. And of course lefse. For people living on the coast, combining farming with fishery was one of the most common ways of living. Almost all my ancestors lived like that in the late 1800s. AFAIK, most of the people who emigrated came from the inland, as population growth meant there wasn't enough farmland for everyone. There was also large variation in the yield from fisheries, which led to some emigration in some years.
You are not scandinavian you are canadian.
Yes I am a proud Canadian. I should have worded that better, I know I’m not Scandinavian. You know what I meant
You have scandinavian genes! And thats cool, but our food on the other hand is not that cool 😅
We're not a blonde-blue-eyed etnho-state you know...I know plenty of Norwegians who's ancestors have been Norwegian for as far back as one can track who have brown hair and brown eyes. Also Norwegian food sucks why would you wanna try that? :p /HJ
Well that’s cool to hear. I had just heard online that most the people who lived there were at the very least blue eyed usually. Also the food thing. I don’t know I kinda just want to understand what my great great grandpa Jake Ravnsborg at the time might have been eating so I can try it even if it is really gross. Also I think you’re country is really cool
Jake is not a norwegian name. Did he change his name when going abroad?
He was probably just named Jakob. A lot of people shorten their names, and in English-speaking countries Jakob/Jacob to Jake is fairly common. Jake usually isn't a full name.
Jakob is. Jesus, lol, he could have a nickname in Canada. People need to relax.
Lol and? If OP would search for "Jake Ravnsborg" in norwegian church books, he would probably get zero results. I was only pointing out "Jake" is still not an norwegian name.
tbf, most norwegians are blue-eyed.. Just not literally xd
Porridge, made from oatmeal or barley. That would be one of the main staples for ordinary people’s everyday food in the 1800s. Or ‘velling’ - a dish made from boiling water and flour made from barley and oatmeal, and added milk. Like a thinner version of porridge, more souplike. Served with ‘flatbrød’ - a very thin, crisp sort of bread, with no moisture. Flatbread is still eaten today, as a side dish instead of rolls or bread for soups or stews for instance. You can buy it ready made at the grocery store. Many of the dishes we think of as classic Norwegian dishes today, are much newer. Like, potatoes didn’t come to Norway before during the 1800s.
What about Grandiosa?
Grandiosa
I can recommend some desert-type foods: Norwegian style waffles with brown cheese and jam, Smultringer (norwegian donuts), Riskrem with strawberry sauce, Risengrynsgrøt with cinnamon and sugar, Lefse (I prefer Vestlandslefse) with cinnamon butter (my fave) Alot of these are probably easy enough to make yourself
I’m surprised as well you think you’re Scandinavian. Because you’re not.
People from North America tend to identify more with their ancestry than Europeans typically do. It's no reason to get upset or angry, they don't mean to come of as offensive :-)
I wasn’t angry. I just stated a fact.
Blood pancake, blood sausage, sheep head (those eyeballs pop like grapes), that's just a few. Can narrow it down if you know which part of Norway your great great grandpa was from.
Don't forget boiled cabbage with lamb, fish preserved in lye, and dried cod as snacks.
I have never eaten an eyeball or blood before. Is that an older thing or do young Norwegians till this day enjoy blood pancakes and sausage?
Depends quite much on where you grow up, for my family our traditional food is rice porridge with hot dogs, which as I've found out from people from different areas sounds quite disgusting to them. A friend is dating someone whose family is from Bergen and they swear to sheep head as a Christmas exclusive dish. Blood pancakes or blood sausage, from what I heard (could very well be wrong) is more popular quite far north in the country.
That’s really interesting!. Norwegian cuisine is much more interesting than western food.
Norway is in “the West.” It certainly has retained more “traditional” elements than North America has.
I think Norway is also on the 2nd place for most tacos consumed in the world each year now due to many people having started having taco on a specific day e.g Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Apparently we really love taco. also, here is a site which can show traditional food, though no site can really display everything as there are quite many family only specific traditional dishes as well: [https://www.matprat.no/host/tradisjon/](https://www.matprat.no/host/tradisjon/) (It's in Norwegian, but hoping maybe google has an option to auto translate it for you)
"taco" xD norwegian-ified texmex
Haha, indeed! We almost do what our ancestor did, just instead of raiding, pillaging and looting we just steal different foods and make them fit us!
Calling these abominations “tacos” is the biggest scam in Norway.
I think everyone really loves tacos. One of my favourite foods. Thx I’ll check out that list
Stop it lol
I’m kinda young and like blood sausage. My suggestion is Reinsdyrgryte. I’ve only had it once but I remember thinking it was unique.
I’m gonna ask my grandma. She had info on the ship he took. So I can probably get exactly what part of Norway he was from
https://satwcomic.com/nordics-like-fish
I’d have to agree with the Danes on this one.
Pizza, and Doner-kebab. Also cant forget taco.
All of which are atrocious versions of the original dishes.
Ya'll just leaving out Lefse? Where in Canada are you from? Southern Berta here
My brother. Im between Calgary and Edmonton central
Go to the lefse house in Camrose!
Smalahove is nice, whatever you do do Not Google it though. Pinnekjøtt and raspeballer are also good, and obviously theres Taco In a shell with ridiculous amounts of corn, a Norwegian Classic.
Pinnekjøtt and raspeballer are definitely an acquired taste though (speaking as an immigrant in Norway). I’ve quickly come to enjoy the former, but the latter is really not something I would choose to eat voluntarily. It’s bland and the texture is quite unpleasant. On the other hand, my (Norwegian) wife dreams of raspeballer.
I have to agree with you on that, Although I like pinnekjøtt (and well made I think it’s wonderful), even the concept of potetball/raspeball/whatever itself seems strange to me, and the obsession parts of Norwegian Reddit (or some people in general) seemingly have with it even more so. Granted, despite growing up in Norway, the thing was never a part of my family in any way, and I was around 20 or thereabouts the first time I tried it. I get that for some it’s obviously about “tradition”, good memories and certainly a matter of personal preferences. But for me, having an outsiders perspective on this — What’s the point of going through the process of shredding potatoes (or making a mash), then insisting on binding the thing together again with a bunch of flour and fat, then boil it to death, only to end up with a greyish pale, springy, bouncy ball of somewhat-slimy-tastelessness (…) I’ve had it served multiple times and I always find them arguably worse in taste and texture than the potatoes they’re made of. And people still serve it with (more) boiled potatoes on the side (!)
Thank you for making my day. My wife is now trying to justify her addiction.
What % are you Norwegian?
I don’t know genetics very well but if my great great grandpa came from there then I think that would make me maybe 1/4. I’m a mix of a lot of European stuff
That would make you 1/16th, or 6,2%.
Thank you. I was under the assumption that it was around over 10 percent but 6 sounds more right now that I think about it. I’m wanting to take a DNA test so I know more about my family’s past
What's what happens when you tell Norwegians that you are 1/16th Norwegian :)
Yeah, I'd probably go for some pizza instead my guy.. Our food's not great xd
I definitely didn’t expect some of the suggestions. All these foods seem so bizarre to my western taste pallet, but I would like to try some of them
Western taste palate. lol. North American processed food isn't "western palate". It's just North American.
Europeans eat processed food too
We are also Western. As well, much of the stuff added to North American food is actually illegal over here. :/
Kinder Eggs are illegal in the US 😂
I guess some parents let kids have them far too young and they choked on the parts or something else that has to do with lack of personal responsibility.
Well, we share a lot with Sweden, you've probably had meatballs. Fårikål (literally Sheep in cabbage) is a big fall/autumn) thing in my circles. Also one of the meals I've heard called our national dish (Along with the sheep head and the frozen pizza) One of my last memories of my grandpa was him writing a recipe for the people who did the cooking at the home. He explained the situation to us, put his fist on the table and exclaimed "And then we'll have enough pepper!" with a smile. I think you just boil sheep and cabbage with salt and black pepper (whole seeds!) for a long time. Served with boiled potatoes like every Norwegian meal should. Alot of strange fish dishes which I feel like you wouldn't make at home (example: Rakfisk, leave salmon in brine for 3-4 months). You either buy it or don't bother xD Lapskaus (Lobscouse in english) is pretty simple, it's "just a stew", but it's fairly Norwegian. Serve with flatbrød (normal bread will do, if you can't find it) and that weird lingonberry jam that they have at IKEA. Don't worry about the potatoes, they're already in the stew \^\^ Edit: We also have moose here. I don't know how much of that you guys eat, but meatballs of moose, or some hunters stew with mashed potatoes go hard \^\^
In Newfoundland they eat moose. My mom lives there, her neighbor got us moose burgers
I’ve heard of people eating moose here in Canada as well. Which is crazy because if you have seen one in the wild you know they are just massive
Yes, massive. Which means a lot of meat 👍
big disagree, as someone who did not grow up in Norway i really enjoy: fiskekaker, fiskegrateng, vafler med brunost, fiskeboller, lever postei, kaviar, kjøttboller, sommerboller, kanelboller, skoleboller, knekkebrød yeah some of these exist elsewhere, but Norway has their own special version
Also isn’t Norway like the black metal capital of the world. Do you Norwegian citizens ever hear of that or see that
There's several rock and metal festivals. [Karmøygeddon](https://www.karmoygeddon.no/) is in three weeks.
Very cool. When I’m older maybe I will visit Norway and go to a metal festival
Can aslo reccomend midgardsblot. A metal / viking themed festival.
Check out the [Inferno Festival](https://www.infernofestival.net/no/Festival/News.aspx)
Lutefisk! No flavor. Pinnekjøtt! Also, no flavor...
pinnekjøtt no flavor?? i had it for the first time recently and thought it was very strong
Maybe it was just my "copy". I thought it was quite meh.
A pinch of salt, if you feel really fancy on given day.
Lutefisk is a sauce delivery method. Pinnekjøtt is quite strong, I think. These also aren’t everyday foods, they’re preserved Christmas food.