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Palt is a traditional Swedish meat-filled
dumpling, of which there are many different variants. Palt is
traditionally served with butter and lingonberry preserves, and a glass
of cold milk on the side. |
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Left: Cooked
pitepalt. |
Pitepalt is a potato palt and the speciality of the
city of Piteå, though variants are eaten in the whole country. This Swedish dish
has almost as many variants as households in Piteå, but they have in common a
mix of wheat and barley flour (whereas other variants of potato palt may use
other flours such as rye, or exclude the barley), and can have either other
filling than pork, like minced meat, or none at all, then referred to as
flatpalt. All palt is made of raw potatoes, while the dumplings made out of
pre-boiled potatoes are referred to as kroppkakor. This gives the
pitepalt a darker color in comparison.
Blodpalt is an old-fashioned Swedish dish still fairly common in northern
Sweden and Finland. The dish's history goes back to a time when the households
carefully made use of all parts of the animals to get enough food.
Blodpalt is made out of blood (cattle or pig in the south, reindeer in the very
north) mixed up with flour where the most commonly used are rye, wheat and/or
barley. After allowed to swell over night, mashed winter potatoes are added. The
"dough" is then formed into lumps and boiled until they float up, and then
served with fired pork. This made the dish a nutritious meal often eaten during
the dark part of the year.
In North America, palt is a dish made with raw potatoes and chopped meat such as
bologna, bacon, or sausage, with flour as a binder. It is formed into a ball and
then boiled, and served with melted butter.
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Pitepalt
Recipe Ingredients |
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1 kg
(2,1 lb) potatoes
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1 1/2
tbsp salt
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5 dl (2
cups) flour
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1 kg
(2,1 lb) bacon
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Recipe Cooking and Preparation
Method |
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Peel ang shred the potatoes ("old" potatoes - the
best potatoes are those you get in winter, that aren't fresh from
the ground). Drain the liquid.
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Mix the shredded potatoes with flour and salt to
a dough.
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Cut the bacon into small pieces.
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Take a big pot and fill with 3 l (12 cups) water
and 2 tbsp salt and bring to a boil.
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Flour your hands, take a bit of dough (slightly
smaller than a tennisball) and roll to a ball. Make a hole in the
ball, big enough to put about a tbsp of bacon in. Make sure to close
the hole properly or else the bacon will fall out when its cooking.
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Put the palt balls in the boiling water one by
one as you finish rolling and filling them. Stir carefully among the
balls while cooking. When the last ball is in the pot, let them all
boil for about 45 minutes.
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If you have any leftover bacon, you can fry them
until crunchy.
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Food Serving Suggestion |
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Serve the palt with lingonberry jam, butter and the
crunchy bacon. Milk is also a common accompaniment
to this dish. |
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