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FOOD AND DRINK

How to prepare crayfish for your own Swedish ‘kräftskiva’

August crayfish parties are one of the highlights of the Swedish calendar and appeal to people of all ages. Food writer John Duxbury shares his best tips with The Local for making your own crayfish party a success.

Published: 31 July 2015 08:01 CEST
Updated: 9 August 2024 08:30 CEST
How to prepare crayfish for your own Swedish 'kräftskiva'
A traditional crayfish meal is a staple of the late summer season in Sweden. Photo: Mats Schagerström/TT

The annual crayfish party (kräftskiva) is an age-old tradition that has been held in Sweden since the 1800s. Actually, crayfish season used to be regulated in law and start in early August. This has since been done away with and nowadays you can buy frozen crayfish just about anywhere.

If you want to know what you’re letting yourself in for before accepting that invitation to a Swedish crayfish party, read this handy guide first.

Summary

Serves: 6

Preparation: 5 minutes

Cooking: 40 minutes

Total: 45 minutes

Ingredients

2kg (4.5 lb) live crayfish

1 large bunch of dill crowns (flower heads)

1 onion

330ml (12 fl oz) bottled dark beer, porter or stout

1tsp anise (aniseed)

3 litres (5 pints) of water

100 g (1 cup) coarse sea salt

2 tsp of sugar

Method

1. Divide the crayfish between four large plastic freezer bags. Seal each bag and pop the bags in the freezer for 2 hours to put the crayfish to sleep.

2. Set aside some of the best looking dill crowns to use as a garnish. Put the rest in a large bucket, large enough to take all the crayfish, and add the chopped onion, beer and anise.

3. Put the water, salt and sugar in a large pan and bring to the boil.

4. Remove a bag of crayfish from the freezer and immediately drop the crayfish into the boiling water. Cover the pan, return to the boil and cook for about 8 minutes, until the crayfish turn a bright orange/red colour. Remove the crayfish from the water with a slotted spoon and place in the bucket with the dill crowns and beer.

5. Repeat step 4 with the remaining crayfish until they are all cooked.

6. When you have finished cooking the crayfish, carefully pour the hot cooking liquid into the bucket and allow to cool.

7. When cold, transfer the crayfish, dill crowns and all the marinating liquid to containers to fit in your fridge. Leave the crayfish in the fridge overnight.

8. When you are ready to serve the crayfish, remove them from the marinade, drain and stack them on serving plates. Garnish with the reserved dill crowns.

This recipe was originally published on food writer John Duxbury’s Swedish Food website.

FOOD AND DRINK

Why were guests at Sven-Göran Eriksson’s funeral served porridge and ‘molusk’?

Guests at the funeral of Swedish football legend Sven-Göran Eriksson were to be treated to a menu of local Värmland cuisine on Friday: motti and molusk.

Published: 13 September 2024 10:59 CEST
Why were guests at Sven-Göran Eriksson's funeral served porridge and 'molusk'?

Sven-Göran Eriksson, one of Sweden’s most famous football icons, passed away at the end of August, just a few months after he went public with the news that he had terminal pancreatic cancer in January this year.

His funeral was scheduled for 10am on Friday in his hometown, Torsby, in Värmland. Many aspects of the funeral were planned by Eriksson himself, who was famously proud of his roots in Värmland and much-loved in Torsby for his down-to-earth, friendly nature.

Eriksson requested that the funeral be open to the public, so the 600-seater church was expected to be packed with a mix of small-town locals alongside his star-studded guestlist, including former England captain David Beckham and fellow England manager Roy Hodgson.

As the number of people interested in attending far exceeded space in the church, the local town set up a big screen outside where onlookers wishing to pay their respects would be able follow the funeral live.

“I think there will be as many people outside as inside the church,” Christopher Janson from Torsby’s funeral parlor told local newspaper NWT. “He was so folklig [down to earth], remembered people and checked up on his old school classmates. He was definitely a popular figure in town.”

After the ceremony, there was set to be a procession accompanied by Torsby’s local brass band – again, Eriksson’s own request, inspired by the funeral of Italian team Sampdoria’s former president, which Eriksson attended in 1993.

The procession was due to end at Kollsbergs hembygdsgård, where guests were to be treated to local specialties motti and molusk.

But what exactly does that entail?

Luckily for the guests, the molusk has no relation to slimy invertebrates, rather it’s a cake made to the same recipe as a chocolate ball (chokladboll in Swedish) – oats, cocoa powder, butter and sugar – rolled into a log and dipped in chocolate.

Molusk cakes from Wienerkonditoriet in Torsby. Photo: Wienerkonditoriet

“It was Svennis’ request to have molusks and I think it’s because the molusk is a well-known cake from Torsby which has been baked here since the 1950s,” Lisa Nordqvist, from Wienerkonditoriet in Torsby, who supplied the cakes for the funeral reception, told The Local.

“We make the original and everyone who comes from Torsby has heard of it. A lot of people who have visited or have connections to Torsby speak highly of it,” she continued.

Motti, on the other hand, has its roots in Finland, and was brought by Finns to Värmland in the 1600s. It’s a type of porridge made from a special kind of flour called skrädmjöl, which is made from toasted oats.

It’s considered to be Värmland’s national dish, and is made by dumping the flour on top of some sort of liquid, either water or stock, and letting it steam for around ten minutes.

This results in a lumpy, relatively dry porridge which was traditionally eaten with the hands – another word for it is nävgröt, “fist porridge”.

It’s usually served with lingonberry jam and fried fläsk, which is similar to bacon, but slightly thicker, where the lumps of porridge are dipped into the jam and bacon fat.

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