# What to serve with Swedish potato sausage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175 "2011-01-19T04:56:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/1 "2011-01-19T04:56:23Z")
I picked up some Swedish potato sausage. What do I eat with it? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/2 "2011-01-19T05:50:43Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I picked up some Swedish potato sausage. What do I eat with it? Hey, I was going to post the same thing! I got 3 lbs at Uli’s. Serving them with potatoes seems redundant. Lingonberries or whole-berry cranberries are a nice side, but what else? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/3 "2011-01-19T05:58:35Z")
These are sides offered by a nice Swedish restaurant where I’ve had Swedish potato sausages: Mashed Potatoes Boiled Potatoes Mixed Rice Candied Sweet Potatoes Creamed Peas Applesauce Swedish Brown Beans Sauerkraut Pickled Beets Mixed Steamed Vegetables None of them exactly jump out at me, although homemade chunky applesauce is good. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/4 "2011-01-19T06:06:50Z")
Ok, I had to google since I’ve never had that sausage, but amongst the pictures of sausages as hot dogs \ and kitties in christmas hats \ I did find a link with a lot of recipes to use it IN…such as making potato cakes with it, or omelettes, casseroles…it might help if you have a lot to use. [http://www.familyoven.com/recipes/search?terms=Swedish%20Potato%20Sausage](http://www.familyoven.com/recipes/search?terms=Swedish%20Potato%20Sausage) ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/5 "2011-01-19T07:52:00Z")
Red Cabbage! ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/6 "2011-01-19T12:46:50Z")
What on Earth is a _Swedish potato sausage_. It’s unknown in Sweden. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/7 "2011-01-19T14:00:25Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > What on Earth is a _Swedish potato sausage_. It’s unknown in Sweden. It’s a meat-and-potatoes sausage. A typical recipe can be found [here](http://www.onekama.k12.mi.us/beldridg/oien/potato.sausage.htm). I’ve seen it across all sorts of Scandinavian cookbooks, so I don’t think it’s particularly Swedish, but that’s the country it’s most associated with here. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/8 "2011-01-19T14:01:43Z")
Ketchup is the traditional accompaniment around here. If you really want to get authentic, roast up a rutabaga on the side. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/9 "2011-01-19T14:16:24Z")
And here’s a [poster in Sweden](http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=15371) (scroll down to the middle of the page) claiming, although with some uncertainty, it exists there: > [@](#): > > From what I can tell, the product known as “Swedish potato sausage” still more or less exists in Sweden. Here’s it’s occasionally called a “potato” sausage but more often simply a “pork” or even “meat” sausage. They are sold raw and then poached before serving. One will probably and eventually show up in this post! The Swedish name, so far as I can find, is potatiskorv, and apparently it’s more of a Swedish-American thing than a Swedish thing, according to [this book:](http://www.swedishbookreview.com/2003-s.asp) > [@](#): > > We learn how Swedish Americans enjoy a traditional meal of potatiskorv (potato sausage) whereas few modern Swedes have ever heard of it The sausage itself is associated with Swedish Christmas dinner, at least by Swedish-Americans. I wonder if it’s just an older generation/regional sausage that was brought to America by immigrants, and then just mostly died out in the old country. Or perhaps it really is a Swedish-American invention. At any rate, it does seem to be strongly associated with the Swedish-American community, as this [book title](http://web.comhem.se/~u98400668/genealogi/books.html#potatiskorv) seems to suggest: > [@](#): > > Potatiskorv & Pionjärer > > Tord och Eivor Wallström > Förlags AB Wiken 1988 > > Mat och människor i Amerikas svenskbygder, med 35 svenskamerikanska matrecept. > > Potato Sausage and Pioneers > > People and their Food in the Swedish-American Midwest. > With Summary in English. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/10 "2011-01-19T14:22:30Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > What on Earth is a _Swedish potato sausage_. It’s unknown in Sweden. These sort of things happen all the time. I’m still confused by people talking about Swedish pancakes. All the pancakes I have seen here have either been American style or Crepes. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/11 "2011-01-19T18:10:57Z")
When my Swedish grandma made it she boiled quartered potatoes and carrot chunks, then we’d take the casings off the sausage and mash it all together and eat a big plate of mashed sausage and potatoes. It was awesome, though not very refined, I s’pose. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/12 "2011-01-20T02:48:04Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Hey, I was going to post the same thing! I got 3 lbs at Uli’s. Great minds think alike, eh? 😉 I thought about lingonberries (and I have a jar or two), and also applesauce. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/13 "2011-01-20T02:57:31Z")
Spaetzle goes with anything. ---
**Author:** ![kombatminipig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5ac83/32.png) [@kombatminipig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kombatminipig)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/14 "2011-01-20T11:14:46Z")
As a Sweden, I’ll chime in with the rest regarding never heard of this dish =) On the other hand, there are plenty of things with national denominations that people from the nation in question have never heard of, or don’t necessarily identify with. For Swedes, things like Swedish pancakes (which resemble sweet crêpes) and Swedish meatballs strike us as unremarkable (what’s so special about making a small meatball?), while for example Swedish Massage was invented by a Swedish expatriate in France. French dressing, French fries, Russian dressing, French toast…the list goes on. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/15 "2011-01-20T13:27:50Z")
And then, of course, we have _kålrot_ = Swedish turnip (or just Swede or rutabaga depending on your location). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/16 "2011-01-20T14:50:40Z")
> [@kombatminipig](#): > > On the other hand, there are plenty of things with national denominations that people from the nation in question have never heard of, or don’t necessarily identify with. For Swedes, things like Swedish pancakes (which resemble sweet crêpes) and Swedish meatballs strike us as unremarkable (what’s so special about making a small meatball?), while for example Swedish Massage was invented by a Swedish expatriate in France. I’ll guess that the usage came, as others have said about the sausages, from the large population of Scandinavian immigrants. In the U.S., ‘pancake’ has a certain meaning. Pancakes are thicker and heavier than crêpes. Sweet crêpes eaten in Europe, which I’ve seen and heard called ‘pancakes’, tend (IME) to be eaten with a squeeze of lemon juice and some powdered sugar. Pancakes in the U.S. tend to be eaten with butter and syrup (and somewhat often with peanut butter). This is not to imply that ‘all Americans eat pancakes one way, and Europeans eat “pancakes” another way’; just a broad observation. I’m guessing that ‘Swedish pancakes’ are called that in the U.S. because Scandinavian immigrants eat/ate them, and the name is to distinguish then from the thicker American kind. Similarly, ‘meatlball’ in the U.S. generally refers to balls of meat made with Italian-style seasonings, and are usually eaten with pasta. ‘Swedish meatballs’ are probably called so to differentiate them from the ‘regular’ kind. We also eat sweet-and-sour meatballs, teriyaki meatballs, and BBQ meatballs, which are popular as party food. > [@kombatminipig](#): > > French dressing, French fries, Russian dressing, French toast…the list goes on. [Straight Dope column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2033/whats-the-origin-of-french-fries): > [@](#): > > And so we arrive at your question. For also in the 1840s, pomme frites (“fried potatoes”) first appeared in Paris. Sadly, we don’t know the name of the ingenious chef who first sliced the potato into long slender pieces and fried them. But they were immediately popular, and were sold on the streets of Paris by push-cart vendors. > > Frites spread to America where they were called French fried potatoes. You asked how they got their name–pretty obvious, I’d say: they came from France, and they were fried potatoes, so they were called “French fried potatoes.” The name was shortened to “french fries” in the 1930s. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/17 "2011-01-20T21:47:21Z")
Swedish meatballs played an important role in 1948’s _I Remember Mama_, about a Norwegian-American family. ---
**Author:** ![Eric\_the\_Red](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cc9497/32.png) [@Eric\_the\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric_the_Red)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/18 "2012-12-15T15:38:08Z")
My mom made this every Christmas eve. We were 2 boys, 3 girls and a dad. It was our “family” traditional swedish supper. The meal had: 2-3 lbs of ring swedish sausage (made by our local butcher) cooked candied dark red kidney beans swedish meatballs gravy made from drippings of the browning of the meat for the meatballs boiled buttered red potatoes lingonberries (sometimes substituted for cranberry sauce) We also had a dessert plate with assorted cookies- pepperkaker. spritz, gingerbread and caraway. Some may say this is a bland meal and that may be true now a days but back in the early 70’s living in the country it was a hearty meal and would make any child sleepy on Christmas Eve. A good thing! Merry Christmas! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/19 "2012-12-15T17:21:15Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It’s a meat-and-potatoes sausage. A typical recipe can be found [here](http://www.onekama.k12.mi.us/beldridg/oien/potato.sausage.htm). I’ve seen it across all sorts of Scandinavian cookbooks, so I don’t think it’s particularly Swedish, but that’s the country it’s most associated with here. Building a bit on this, I have it in my Finnish cookbook as _perunamakkara_. Like the Swedish version, these are pork sausages with potatoes as stretcher/filler, much in the way you would use oats or rice in the same manner in other types of sausage (like kishka, or boudin or whatnot.) When it comes to a “true” potato sausage, you really can’t beat the Lithuanians and their _vedarai_. It’s pretty much 100% potato, save for some spices, and sometimes a bit of bacon for flavor. It is often served with a buttery bacon and sour cream sauce. I swear, I don’t think there’s a country that likes potatoes more than Lithuanians, Irish included. Last time I was at a Lithuanian restaurant, I ordered the Lithuanian plate, which contained about four or five main dishes, pretty much all of them with a heavy potato base. If you’re a fan of potatoes, sour cream, and bacon hie thyself to a Lithuanian restuarant. ---
**Author:** ![pwmeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@pwmeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pwmeek)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175/20 "2012-12-15T17:27:41Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > What on Earth is a _Swedish potato sausage_. It’s unknown in Sweden. Korv is how my family always spelled it. (Sounds like curve - to me at least.) According to some of our Swedish relatives, it was a traditional 19th Century Christmas dish in rural areas. We described the dinners we had every year on Christmas Eve (tradition started by my mother’s parents who emigrated from rural Sweden to the US in the first years of the 20th Century) and the rels said no one had eaten that kind of meal in Sweden for over 100 years. (All spellings are suspect and may be missing diacritical marks {EDIT during composition} I just did some internet translation so it may be better now) _Julen gröt_ (Christmas rice porridge - sounded like ‘yula grit’ to me) with cinnamon sugar and milk. Takes tens of hours to cook, slowly adding milk to the rice as it swells. _Gamla Gubbe_ (“gooba” - saffron bread “old men”) at each place setting; we called them gubba men which seems to mean _men men_. (I have recently heard that Gamla Gubbe has connotations of “Dirty Old Man” or pervert, which is puzzling as a Christmas decoration.) When my mother was tasked to make the gubbe one year, my grandmother took one look at the result and said, “Those _gubbes_ are all cripples.” Breads, Goteborg sausage, _Svea Ost_, _Kumin Ost_ (farmers’ cheeses, with and without caraway seeds), _knakebrot_ (like Ry-Krisp), several kinds of mustard (_slotts/slöts/??sp??-senap_ - which seems to mean either castle mustard or closed mustard depending on how you spell it Several kinds of herring, one of which was _graslok sill_ (which seems to mean chives herring). We never had _lutfisk_, for which I am grateful. _Korv_ (potato sausage with finely ground beef and/or pork 1 to 1.25 inches {25-30mm} in diameter) (korv seems to mean simply ‘sausage’) - it explodes while boiling unless you prick it hundreds of times with needles before it goes in the boiling water (a fun project for the younger members of the family. The needles must be very sharp to avoid tearing the casing - which will also cause it to explode. It takes a fine discernment to pick a range of ages which can do the job safely yet will not get too enthusiastic and begin stabbing each other.) Meatballs (very like the ones you can get at Ikea) in sauce Bruna Bönor (brown beans) in sauce Lingonberry preserves with almost everything (kind of like cranberry jelly at Thanksgiving) (several other things which I can’t seem to remember at the moment; I was usually full after the breads, meats, cheeses and herring) BTW, I _ **never** _ liked Korv! Really bland. At any rate, these are the things that I associate with Swedish potato sausage, having been obliged to have at least a taste every December 24th from 1943 to about 1963 when I left home. Thanks for the memories. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-serve-with-swedish-potato-sausage/568175.md?page=2)