The Nordic Cookbook

Must have for a chef's library. Beautiful book, beautifully written. This is NOT Food Network. It is a serious book for serious, inqisitive people. Some reviewers complain about a multitude of "issues" in the book. I say educate yourself and step it up or stay in your ready meal lane. However, most complaints are due to ignorance. Most daring to intermediate cooks can handle 90%+ of this one. And the rest will learn alot if not set on cooking everything from a can. I read this book like my Larousse and some things I cook and some I don't. If you have reindeer available great for you. If you don't then you've just been educated in a cuisine from another culture or region of the country or world. Larouse has recipes for bear and Chow but I don't cook either because I don't live in China, and I don't hunt bear. If I lived in Maine or Canada certainly I could cook the Caribou or the Puffin and you could too. So enjoy the book for what it is. A reference, a great usable cookbook, and a fine cultural resource that you may not be familiar with. If you love food, you'll love this book. My favorite section is the preserving techniques and recipes.

This is a wondrously huge cookbook. It's not just a collection of recipes but it's also glimpses into Nordic culture and its food history--through photos, chapter prefaces, and recipe background info. While a small portion of the recipes do call for exotic meats not common in other worlds, many of them can be substituted for other meats. Like the section for Game, the bird in question can be substituted for common quail, Cornish game hen, etc. Of course the exact result may differ, but you can still get a taste of the spirit of the dish and get a unique experience out of it. And not to worry: there are also entire chapters dedicated to the common meats, like beef, pork, and seafood. The recipes are not overly complex--they don't call for perfect mastery of intricate techniques or fancy tools and equipment. They are humble dishes, but presented from a different perspective and palate than what we may be used to. Many dishes may feel so familiar to you already, but there is something different about it, like maybe it uses a completely different kind of sauce or flavor profile, so it's still approachable and not so exotic seeming that you could never cook it. I find this book great for getting new ideas for casual home cooking, especially since most recipes use common ingredients already. I especially like the sections covering recipes and history of drinks, jams, and condiments. I expect to use this book for many years, with many sticky bookmarks sticking out of it. The only con is that the book is never going to stand on a cookbook stand because it's so thick!

My maternal great-grandparents were both from Southern Sweden before they immigrated to America. I'm 3rd generation American and over the generations, some of our Swedish heritage was lost. My grandfather knew how to read and speak Swedish fluently and he cooked and prepared Swedish dishes. However, my mother never learned his mother tongue, but she learned how to prepare some Swedish and Scandinavian dishes. When I was a kid, my mother prepared the dishes that her father taught her like potato and bacon dumplings, which is similar to the Oland-Style Potato and Wheat dumplings "Olandska Kroppkakor pg. 460 in the book and fish cakes with dill sauce similar to the Danish Fish Cakes "Fiskefrikadeller" pg. 226 that were served with potato pancakes. This is a great book that brought me closer to my heritage. There are so many recipes in the book and it includes the region that the recipe is from. A brief history is also included with some of the recipes. The measurements are written in both European and American measurements, so it makes it easier for me to follow the recipes and not have to calculate conversions. Awesome book!! If I made one recipe from this book every day, I would have over 2 years of having a different recipe each day.

I bought this as a gift for my daughter and her husband. Cooking different healthy dishes from all over the world is their passion. This book covers basic traditional recipes from all of the Nordic countries, giving historical descriptions of how the recipes came to be. My daughter could not tear herself away from it in order to open other Christmas presents. However, it is heavy! So you’ll need a very sturdy book rack if you intend to consult it while cooking. This is a well researched volume that they will keep for a very long time.

Uffda. I think a lot of the low-star reviewers are getting it wrong because of a misguided expectation for what this book is. It is a chronicle of the wide range of what and how people of the Nordic countries eat, with really beautiful and simple photography. It is not a splashy cookbook from a Food Network television star. It is clear that the author is not shooting for a mass American audience. He's focused on chronicling a true representation of the subject, not recreating classics to appeal to American tastes. Some reviewers are calling out that this book is not inspiring (I strongly disagree, read the Pastries chapter and tell me you aren't surrounded by the warmth of cardamom and cinnamon), but I believe what they are getting at is the strength of the book. He doesn't care if the recipes make our mouths water. He cares that what he writes is true. There are several recipes the author does not even like, but he still includes because they are representative of what people from the Nordic countries eat and like. This furthers my opinion of this being primarily a journalistic work, versus a traditional cookbook, as he prioritizes the truth over an attempt to sell. If you want to be inspired to reach new limits in the kitchen, reach elsewhere. If you want to be come truly educated on this subject, dig in. It is an important work. Well done, Mr. Nilsson. I made the cinnamon buns on Sunday and they were fantastic.

The author, in his straightforward scandi-minimalist writing style, sets out the scope of the book at the beginning - you probably aren't going to make everything in this unless you own a smokehouse overlooking a fjord and can harvest your own wild twigs and herbs. It's encyclopaedic as well as instructive, and the stories accompanying some of the recipes are delightful - Finnish guy mixing business with grilled eels and getting eel grease on his car seats. Nilsson has a storyteller's eye and a scientist's objectivity. His in-depth understanding of food, culture and people comes through. Book is also massive; great as door stop or for pressing flowers, if you like the items in your home to be multi-functional.

Purchased as a gift for a colleague, so I have not used the recipes myself. The book is well constructed and contains an impressive collection of foods and information, I may buy one for myself.

Como todos los libros de Phaidon, está editado de maravilla: bien encuadernado, papel bonito, buen diseño, dos cintas de punto de libro, textos excelentes... Megnus Nilsson es un chef de culto que recoge en este libro lo mejor de la cocina nórdica, con fotografías realizadas por él mismo (lástima que no hay fotos de todos los platos). Genial para renovar el repertorio de cocina con un toque nórdico exquisito

While some ingredient might be difficult to put your hands on (whale meat, etc...), the book gives a complete overview of the cuisine of this part of the world and many recipes are easily achievable (and substitution for other product shouldn't be too difficult). Tried a few and will continue. I particularly like the stories around the recipe, makes the reading much more interesting.

The book is very good, good graphic, good ricetta