Lingonberry jam
| Lingonberry jam | |
|---|---|
| Spread | |
 Lingonberry jam on Swedish black pudding | |
| Main ingredient(s): | |
| Lingonberries, sugar | |
| Recipes at Wikibooks: | |
 Lingonberry jam | |
| Media at Wikimedia Commons: | |
 Lingonberry jam |
Lingonberry jam (Swedish: lingonsylt, Norwegian: tyttebærsyltetøy, Danish: tyttebærsyltetøj, Estonian: pohlamoos, Finnish: puolukkahillo German: Preiselbeermarmelade) is a staple food in Scandinavian cuisine.
Because lingonberries are plentiful in the forested areas of the inland, the jam is easy to prepare, and it preserves well. It has always been very popular with traditional dishes such as kroppkakor, pitepalt, potato cake, kåldolmar, mustamakkara and black pudding. Today, lingonberries are often served as jam, for instance with oven-made thick pancakes, or they may be served as a relish with meat courses such as meatballs, beef stew or liver dishes; regionally, they are even served with fried herring. The jam is also often used on mashed potatoes and the traditional oatmeal porridge, sometimes together with cinnamon, and, perhaps, a little sugar or syrup.[citation needed]
Fine lingonberry jam is prepared only with berries, sugar and, optionally, a small amount of water. Cheaper varieties are diluted with apples and/or pectin. The finest lingonberry "jam" is prepared fresh by just mixing berries and sugar, without boiling; this is called rårörda lingon or rørte tyttebær (raw-stirred lingonberries). Before the use of refined sugar became common in Sweden, lingonberry jam was prepared with lingonberries as the only ingredient. Because of the benzoic acid, which is found in high amounts in lingonberries, the berries keep well without any sugar or other preservatives.
Lingonberry jam has been popularized in North America by the IKEA superstores[1] where it is sold in large quantities, including buckets.
Lingonberries are known as mountain cranberries or partridge berries in North America from Alaska to Labrador and have the botanical name of Vaccinium vitis-idaea.