Scandinavian Lingonberry

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Scandinavian Lingonberry

Lingonberry, also known as cowberries (in the UK) and mountain or lowbush cranberries, are a wild crop yet a cornerstone of Nordic cooking, providing color, a lively taste and the antioxidants you need. Learn more about Scandinavian lingonberry.

Lingonberry are a staple food in Sweden, in particular where many children are brought up on a morning meal of oat porridge with lingonberry jam – good and nourishing on a cold winter’s day. The children stories by Swedish writer Elsa Beskow have made a lasting impression on generations of northerners, so that we are unable to think of lingonberries without visualizing her tales.

Scandinavian Lingonberry
We are unable to think of lingonberries without visualizing the children stories by Swedish writer Elsa Beskow.

How it grows

Lingonberry grow on small bushes in woodland and ripen in August and September. They are picked with a special, wide, fork-like tool which can strip a bush in a few strokes.

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Scandinavian Lingonberry
Old berry picker tool. Photo: DigitalMuseum.

Appearance and taste

The small, round and intensely dark red berries, similar in size to elderberry, are shiny and rather hard-skinned when fresh. They are dryish and bitter to eat when raw but are transferred with the addition of sugar.

Buying and storing

If you live in the right place, lingonberries are surprisingly inexpensive to buy. They contain benzoic acid in large amounts and keep extremely well and they are even used to preserve other fruits. Simply discard any blackened berries and small leaves, rinse in a basin of cold water and dry on kitchen paper.

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Scandinavian Lingonberry
Lingonberry grow on small bushes in woodland and ripen in August and September. Photo: Wikipedia

Culinary uses

The berries are not good to eat in their raw state, but with sugar they reinvent themselves, showing all the endless possibilities they contain, as a side dish or an accompaniment for almost anything. Their bitterness gives them a grown-up taste that’s interesting with anything from game, roasts and meatballs to fried fish or herrings. They are lovely as a pancake filling, on icecream or rice pudding, or as a topping for the traditional curd-cheesecake.

Scandinavian Lingonberry
Creamed rice with lingonberry. Photo: Meny

Creamed rice with lingonberries

This is an everyday version of the Christmas evening dessert, riz à l’amande (rice pudding). It can be made from leftover salted boiled rice.

Approx. 200ml whipping cream
Seeds from1/2 vanilla pod
200gl salted boiled rice
3 tablespoons sugar
200ml raw lingonberry jam

Whip the cream with the vanilla seeds until very soft. Blend half of the cream with the rice and sugar, then carefully fold in the rest. You may need to add some more cream – the amount needed depends on the rice you’re using.

Serve in glasses, topped with the lingonberry jam.

Scandinavian Lingonberry, written by Tor Kjolberg

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