In May 2013, the summer after my freshman year of college, my mom, sister and I traveled to Norway to meet some of our distant relatives and explore our heritage. Just outside of Oslo, we visited a family farm which is where my grandfather’s mother had lived before she emigrated to America. Currently, it is the children of my grandfather’s cousin and their family who live on the farm. While we were there, we were greeted with many traditional Norwegian foods and desserts, including rømmegrøt. My grandfather’s cousin’s wife, Gerd, busily worked in the kitchen preparing the rømmegrøt, actively spooning the butterfat off of the surface as it was cooking and ensuring the quality of the dish.


 
Gerd explained to us that rømmegrøt had historically been considered a dish for the lower class. Because it was so cheap to prepare and so high in calories,it provided necessary nutrition while not costing a family much money. This contrasts how it is commonly served now. Today, rømmegrøt is a dish prepared for special occasions, most traditionally saved for Christmas time. As stated by Kaplan in The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book, rømmegrøt is as much of a symbol as it is a food for many people.[1] Other than at Christmas time, rømmegrøt is also served to brand new mother's, field hands, and served at other Norwegian holidays.[2] A Norwegian transfer student at Augsburg Collge in Minnesota told Kaplin that these holidays include “midtsommer (midsummer) celebrations in June, on feterirsdag (Shrove Tuesday), and at the beginning of Advent.”[3] Kaplan states that rømmegrøt, for both Norwegians and Norwegian Americans, symbolizes “fertility and productivity in many forms.”[4] While Gerd was cooking rømmegrøt for us in Norway, she explained to us that rømmegrøt was a dish that she only prepared at Christmas time or at special occasions, and that our visit was enough of a special occasion for her to prepare it.
 
Traditionally rømmegrøt was served as the first course in a several course meal, however today it is often served as a main dish itself.[5] Many Americans like to top their rømmegrøt with cinnamon and sugar, while Norwegians tend to make theirs more savory by adding hard boiled eggs on top.[6] When my Norwegian relatives prepared rømmegrøt for us, it was served with cinnamon and sugar. We ate rømmegrøt with other traditional Norwegian desserts such as krumkake, kransekake and bløtkake, and cheese, bread and fruit. This was a fairly non-tradtional way to consume rømmegrøt, but our relatives wanted to give us a full taste of Norwegian desserts.
 
For many Norwegians, as important as what is eaten with rømmegrøt is what is served to drink with the rømmegrøt. It is Norwegian tradition to consume rømmegrøt with the Norwegian liquor akevitt. Kaplan states, “Norwegian, as a rule, prefer to accompany the rømmegrøt meal with akevitt, believing that the alcohol will counteract the cholesterol in the cream.”[7] Akevitt is a clear, strong liquor that is typically served in a shot glass. One of my relative in Norway had us try akevitt, and from what I remember it had a slight taste of peppermint and was smooth and easy to drink. Similar to what Kaplan stated, my relative explained how akevitt was consumed at Christmas time to accompany rømmegrøt because the high alcohol content would act against the high amount of fat and overall richness of the meal. He also told us that Christmas, along with their rømmegrøt, was the typically time of year that akevitt was consumed.
 
In Norway, the preparation of rømmegrøt involves using a type of sour cream only available on Norwegian farms.[8] In an attempt to produce the same product in the United States, Kaplan explains that recipes call for “an extra-heavy sweet cream, approximately 35 percent butterfat”, along with flour, milk, salt, sugar and lemon juice.[9] The recipe that my grandmother gave me calls for sour cream and whipped cream instead of the Norwegian sour cream or extra-heavy sweet cream. The recipe that my grandmother uses is not as traditional as what Kaplan explain or how Gerd prepared the dish. Kaplan says that the ingredients are to be cooked for several hours, and I remember Gerd being in the kitchen for a very long time intently working on the rømmegrøt. Gerd told us that it had to be constantly stirred and butter rising to the top had to be constantly strained out to achieve the right consistency.


 
Though the recipe that my grandmother uses doesn’t come directly from a Norwegian relative and may have some differences from traditional rømmegrøt, I was impressed with the initiative my grandmother took to integrate Norwegian culture into our lives. While on the phone interviewing my grandmother, my grandfather chimed in, “you tell your class your papa has more relatives over in Norway than he has in America.” His strong ties to Norway inspired my grandmother to find ways to incorporate Norwegian culture into their lives, and one of these ways was beginning a new tradition of serving rømmegrøt at Christmas time.
 
Rømmegrøt being continued to be prepared by Norwegian American’s shows how strongly Norwegians value tradition. In Odd Sverre Lovoll’s book The Promise of America: A History of Norwegian-American People, a common theme is that Norwegian’s who emigrated to America often felt a yearning for their homeland and therefore valued traditions that they had held back home.[10] Foods such as lutefisk, lefse, and rømmegrøt continue to be traditional dishes for many Norwegian Americans and represent ties to Norway carried down through generations.