Historical Swedish food

Lunch at Gubbhyllan, Skansen

Gubbhyllan is a Slow Food haven. It is all about traditional Swedish food preparation techniques, raw ingredients (local as much as possible, and in season, obviously) and is set in a most charming early-1800s building in the historical open-air museum of Skansen.

"It was this big, I swear".

The notorious 33 years young and ambitious KC Wallberg is the man behind the operation, and he practices a strict food philosophy of preparing everything from scratch, right down to the roasting of the coffee beans. Gubbhyllan specialises in good, honest, healthy and downright delicious Swedish food, prepared the traditional way using old-school preservation techniques.

“Everything we eat has a history” KC tells us as we tuck into the starter of boiled and sliced new potatoes, hard boiled egg, nutty browned butter and matjesill; young herring preserved in a dill flavoured salt, sugar and vinegar solution that’s been ripened on-site in oak barrels for up to a year to give a melt-in-the-mouth texture. I understand this is not everybody’s cup of tea, or in this case, fillet of herring. But for pickled fish enthusiasts and adventurous gourmands, you will be well pleased you discovered this spot.

KC explains that Swedish ättika is used in the preparation of this herring dish and is uniquely high in acidity (24% as opposed to the usual 3-6% of regular vinegar) — and it is indeed sharply pleasing on the taste buds as a foil to the inherently oily herring. But we take precautions, as any responsible Swede would, and we drink Swedish schnapps with it — aquavit — a strong 40% proof alcohol flavoured with dill and cumin. Purely for digestive purposes.

Beloved by Swedes, herring enthusiasts and adventurous gourmands

KC, who is involved in the Swedish hunting academy, now slices wild boar with precision and love. He tells of how he has prepared the meat gravad style (brined in a salt and sugar solution) before slow-cooking it an ultra low temperature. The result? Soft, flavourful and plump, pink meat that even the most resolute of vegans might fall victim to.

Pink and plump, wild boar as nature intended ...

The amuse bouche before a dessert of wild Swedish berries and candied autumn nuts is a single sea buckthorn berry plucked ourselves from a brightly orange berry-laden branch passed round the table. Sea buckthorn berries smack of tartness, but are wildly perfumed and lend themselves graciously to a jam of exotic standards.

Sea buckthorn berries

Lasting memories? The richly golden-amber tinged freshly pressed apple juice or must as they call it in Swedish. Never have I tasted anything so, well, ‘appley’. Oh, and the delightful rhubarb and blackcurrant flavoured homemade saft — a traditional Swedish cordial.