Lingonberry jam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (July 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Lingonberry jam on toast

Lingonberry jam is a staple food in Scandinavian cuisine. Because lingonberries are plentiful in the poor forested areas of the inland, and the jam is easy to prepare, has exceptionally good keeping qualities, and is a source of vitamin C, it has always been very popular with all kinds of plain food such as kroppkakor, pitepalt, potato cake, kåldolmar and blood sausage. Today, it is served both as jam, with cereal or pancakes, and as a relish with meat courses such as Swedish meatballs, beef stew, liver dishes, and regionally even fried herring. It has also been used to sweeten the traditional oatmeal porridge. It is less commonly used as marmalade on toast and as a topping on vanilla ice cream.

Fine lingonberry jam is prepared only with berries, sugar and a small amount of water. Cheaper varieties are diluted with apples and/or pectin. The natural benzoic acid of the berries makes artificial preservatives unnecessary. Very fine jam is prepared fresh by just mixing berries and sugar without cooking.

Lingonberry jam has been popularized in America by the well-known IKEA superstores where it is sold in large quantities, including buckets.

Lingonberries are known as 'lowbush' cranberries or partridge berries in North America from Alaska to Labrador and have the botanical name of 'Vaccinium vitis-idaea'.