Rice Pudding Food Analysis
Typically my family has ham, potatoes, green bean casserole and pecan pie; it is what my parents always did at Christmas and what my grandparents did. My family has German and Irish ancestry with my great-great-grandparents emigrating in the late 1800s. Because of that, I needed to outsource for this project. Luckily Concordia has many people of Scandinavian ancestry that were more than happy to lend me a hand. Heather Boecker, who is a part of Concordia’s History department, is the one who help supply the recipe for this projects dish: Swedish Rice Pudding.
Anne R. Kaplan, the author of the book The Minnesota Ethnic Food Board, writes that “as in typical Scandinavian households, the Christmas holidays are always preceded with a flurry of cleaning, decorating, and baking . . . Swedish-American Christmas dinners generally follow the patter found in other Scandinavian households: a light meal the afternoon of December 24th until the great Christmas Eve Feast.” [1] It was at the noon meal that risgryngÅt (what Kaplan describes as “rice mush cooked in milk until thick and eaten with sweet cream, sugar, and cinnamon”).[2]
I asked Heather why she chose this recipe over any other family dishes she has and she said, “I just think because our rice pudding is so different, it’s not something you can go out in a store and buy or something you can just, you know, find anywhere you go in a restaurant.”[3] In Food Culture in Scandinavia, written by Henry Notaker, a study was taken in the late 1990s looking at the eating patterns of Scandinavians and comparing them to similar study that was done during the 1970s in Britain. In that study researchers found what was referred to as a “proper meal” which consisted of meat, potatoes, one or more vegetable side dishes and a sauce.
“Given the apparent differences between Scandinavian and British traditions, the researchers listed five components particular to the Scandinavian pattern: (1) a main dish consisting of meat, fish, or vegetables, (2) a staple consisting of potatoes, rice, pasta, or pules, (3) a side dish of vegetables, raw or cooked, (4) accompaniments, for example, hot and cold sauces, preserves, or condiments, (5) bread.” Out of all the meals the researchers observed, only 10% of the meals had rice as a contributing factor.[4]
Throughout the researching process for this analysis, I found that rice pudding is not really designated as a Swedish dish, but rather it is just a part of Scandinavian culture. The more common search result that came up was for Danish rice pudding – the only difference between the Swedish version and the Danish version is that the Danes put jam (typically lingonberries) on top of the pudding versus more cinnamon / sugar or raisins.
Typically the rice pudding would be eaten as a part of the lighter meal of the day, so either for breakfast or after the evening meal. Which is why Heather’s family easts the dessert while sitting around the Christmas tree before the opening of gifts begin. I asked her why just at Christmas and she said, “I asked if her grandma or anybody [else before her had made it], and she said ‘no my mom had started that’ but she said her grandma would just make it very often. So it was more often, but it our family it’s more of a special Christmas treat.”[5]
During Christmastime the feeling of family is very strong with many adults recalling Christmases of the childhood and “want to bring to their own children the traditions they remember from the time when their grandparents still lived. Even if there are changes . . . certain basic elements are always kept from one year to the next.”[6]
Heather recalls in the interview a funny story that seems to happen every year when the rice pudding is brought out of the kitchen.
It was during the interview that Heather made me a little nervous about making the dish, because while it seemed easy enough I kept thinking I was going to make a mistake and burn it down somehow. Her mother has been making this dish for 42 years! But there was nothing to worry about, the dish was a “prep and forget” and it turned out perfectly.Heather: Well, the funny story about our Swedish rice pudding is that it’s served on Christmas Eve, after we have supper, and my mom always asks everybody, you know, oh do you want some Swedish rice or whatever. Me and my brothers, my brothers and I, um always look at each other and kind of giggle and when she leaves the room we all say, “we don’t like Swedish pudding!" "Why is she making this every year?” "Yeah, mom why’d you make that, we don’t like that" I probably like it more now as I became an adult because I know the story behind it and I know it’s with our heritage. But in retrospect we all kind of like are like “ugh, that’s not our favorite” you know not really realizing why she made it when we were younger as we get older. So just every year we all do that even though we all eat it, we just make that same joke every single Christmas.[7]
Bibliography
Boecker, Heather. Interview by Christine Kullman. Food Heritage Project. Moorhead, Minnesota. October 14, 2015
Kaplan, Anne R., et al. The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986.
Notaker, Henry. Food Culture in Scandinavia. West Port: Greenwood Press, 2009.
[1] Anne R. Kaplan, The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1986), 135
[2] Ibid, 136
[3] Heather Boecker, Food Heritage Project - Interview
[4] Henry Notaker, Food Culture in Scandinavia. (West Port: Greenwood Press, 2009), 123-124
[5] Boecker, Food Heritage
[6] Notaker, Food Culture, 163
[7] Boecker, Food Heritage