So I decided to have a Swedish breakfast this year after shearing for the crew. Last year was a Welsh breakfast but since me and my mother are exploring our heritage, I thought this year should be Swedish. I envisioned it with pastries, but Mom researched it and found that open face sandwiches are the main item. There is this Serious Eats post and one from Umgas Magazine. So I had to rethink my cooking plans.

So we bought Swedish cheese, smoked herring, Danish butter, Danish pickles, Swedish coffee, Danish sugar cubes, and Swedish caviar. I also bought cucumbers, radishes, red peppers and red onions.

The first recipe I tackled was the Knäckebröd. I had to find lots of seeds for this, but it was easy to make and tasty to eat. Here is it out of the oven prior to breaking up.

The next recipe I tackled was the Leverpastej. For this I used our own pig liver and lard which may have been a mistake. Grinding the liver was an adventure:

I then make Swedish ham/Julskinka using the crisp bread. I hard boiled a bunch of eggs. Then I made beet pickled eggs with some of them. Finally I started making the rågbröd.

On shearing day I woke up early and finished the bread dough to get it rising. Then I started slicing and dicing the vegetables and cheese. I got the table set with labels. The bread went in the oven. Here is the table without the foods that needed to stay in the fridge during shearing.

I got the bread out of the oven and cooking while we sheared. After shearing I got all the items on the table. And Denise unexpectedly brought a lamb cake which made a lovely centerpiece. Here is the Swedish breakfast all assembled.

I did make egg coffee at the very end here it is in the saucepan.

I did use my grandmother’s dishes for the coffee cups and serving dishes. Here are the cups.

And here are some lovely close ups of the lamb cake after we had enjoyed part of it.

The Swedish breakfast seemed to be enjoyed. Only one person liked the liver pate but everything else was more universally enjoyed. So it was a fun meal to have after shearing.