Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

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Sweden the largest of the Nordic countries, has an interesting culinary history, in which native traditions have been overlaid, at least to some extent, by German and French influences. Swedish culinary literature includes one mammoth work, the great Kok-konsten (Arts of Cookery) by Hagdahl (1896), which serves as a monument to the French influence. But the charming Margareta Nylander (1822) had struck a less pretentious note, and there is no lack of interesting books in the 21st century; one might instance the Prinsessornas Kokbok (1945, the first edition of which was published in 1929), so endearing in its homage to the young princesses; and what is probably the most scientific of all works on fish cookery, Att koka fisk, by Gyllensköld (1963).