The Swedish Smorgasbord: Scandinavia's Great Feast Table

If you want to understand the Scandinavian gift for hospitality, set a smorgasbord. The smorgasbord is the great Swedish buffet — a table laden with cold and hot dishes, eaten in rounds, that is one of the most generous and most ritualized entertaining traditions of northern Europe. In its Christmas form, the julbord, it is the great feast of the Swedish winter, and it has shaped the way the world understands Scandinavian hospitality.

**Origins**

As Wikipedia records, the smorgasbord has its roots in the 16th century Swedish tradition called the brannvinsbord — literally the 'schnapps table' — an array of appetizers served with aquavit. Over the centuries the brannvinsbord grew into the full smorgasbord, the abundant buffet of cold and hot dishes we know today. As NPR records, the smorgasbord was introduced to America in 1939 by the Swedish delegation to the New York World's Fair, where it became an international sensation and gave the world the word that now means any lavish buffet. The name itself comes from smorgas, 'an open sandwich,' and bord, 'table.'

**The Courses**

The smorgasbord is eaten in a particular order, in rounds, and each round is paired with a different drink. As NPR and the Swedish tradition record, the meal begins with the herring — sil, the pickled herring that comes in mustard, onion, and dill preparations — accompanied by cold beer and aquavit, the caraway-scented spirit that is toasted in song. The second round is the cold fish and meats — gravlax, the dill-cured salmon; smoked salmon; cured ham; and pate. The third round is the hot dishes — the Swedish meatballs (kottbullar) with cream sauce and lingonberries, the prince sausages (prinskorv), Jansson's Temptation (the potato and anchovy gratin), roast pork ribs (revbenspjall), and the Christmas ham (julskinka). The final round is the cheese and the desserts, with crispbread and butter. At Christmas, the julbord follows this same structure with the seasonal additions of the ham and the rice pudding.

**The Ritual**

The smorgasbord is governed by etiquette. You eat in rounds, not by piling everything on one plate; you begin with the fish, move to the cold meats, then the hot dishes, then the cheese. Each round has its own toast, its own song — the snapsvisor, the drinking songs sung before each aquavit — and the meal unfolds over hours, the table refilled as the guests return for another round. It is a form of entertaining that makes abundance itself the hospitality.

**How to Host One**

To host a smorgasbord, set a long table with the cold dishes at one end and the hot at the other. Begin with at least three kinds of pickled herring, gravlax, smoked salmon, and crispbread with butter. Move to the cold meats — cured ham, pate, liver pate. Set out the hot dishes: Swedish meatballs with gravy and lingonberries, prinskorv sausages, Jansson's Temptation, and a ham. Pour cold beer and aquavit, and lead the table in a snapsvisa before each round. Finish with cheese, crispbread, and the rice pudding in which, by tradition, a single almond is hidden — the one who finds it, it is said, will marry within the year.

**Why It Matters**

The smorgasbord is the great Scandinavian feast — a tradition of abundance, of ritual rounds, and of hospitality expressed in the sheer generosity of the table. To host one is to understand the Swedish conviction that the best parties are the ones where the table never empties and the songs never stop.

**References**

- Wikipedia: Smorgasbord — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sm%C3%B6rg%C3%A5sbord

- NPR: At Christmas, the Swedish Smorgasbord Redefines Over-the-Top — https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/12/19/570829303/at-christmas-the-swedish-sm-rg-sbord-redefines-over-the-top

- Wikipedia: Julbord (Swedish Christmas table) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sm%C3%B6rg%C3%A5sbord#Julbord