Raggmunk — Potato Pancakes with Bacon
Golden, grated potato pancakes bound with a light milk batter, fried in butter, and served with grilled bacon slices and lingonberry jam. The salty-tart contrast is quintessentially Nordic.
Golden, grated potato pancakes bound with a light milk batter, fried in butter, and served with grilled bacon slices and lingonberry jam. The salty-tart contrast is quintessentially Nordic.
Now here's a farm dish, simple and filling! We'd grate the potatoes fresh, otherwise they turn black, and then straight into hot butter. My father liked his bacon nice and crispy on the side, and always, always, a spoonful of lingonberries — the sweet-sour that wakes everything up. When I was little in Västra Karup, that was the good dinner after working in the fields. Don't skimp on the butter, that's what makes the golden crust.
- •Potatoes — a basket (base of the pancake)
- •Wheat flour — a handful (binder)
- •Milk — as needed for batter (binding)
- •Farm eggs — a few (binder)
- •Smoked salted bacon — good thick slices (umami accompaniment)
- •Butter — generously (cooking fat)
- •Lingonberries — a jar (tart condiment)
Raggmunk — Potato Pancakes with Bacon
Golden, grated potato pancakes bound with a light milk batter, fried in butter, and served with grilled bacon slices and lingonberry jam. The salty-tart contrast is quintessentially Nordic.
Why this dish? Nilsson always cited the potato as the staple of her peasant childhood in Scania. Raggmunk, fried potato pancakes served with crispy bacon and lingonberry, is the ultimate Swedish country comfort food.
Now here's a farm dish, simple and filling! We'd grate the potatoes fresh, otherwise they turn black, and then straight into hot butter. My father liked his bacon nice and crispy on the side, and always, always, a spoonful of lingonberries — the sweet-sour that wakes everything up. When I was little in Västra Karup, that was the good dinner after working in the fields. Don't skimp on the butter, that's what makes the golden crust.
Ingredients (period version)
- Potatoes — a basket (base of the pancake)
- Wheat flour — a handful (binder)
- Milk — as needed for batter (binding)
- Farm eggs — a few (binder)
- Smoked salted bacon — good thick slices (umami accompaniment)
- Butter — generously (cooking fat)
- Lingonberries — a jar (tart condiment)
Ingredients
- Firm potatoes — 800 g (base)
- Wheat flour — 3 tbsp (binder)
- Milk — 200 ml (binding)
- Egg — 1 (binder)
- Smoked pork belly slices — 200 g (accompaniment)
- Butter — 50 g (cooking)
- Lingonberry jam (lingonsylt) — 4 tbsp (tart condiment)
- Salt — 1 tsp (seasoning)
Method
- Make a smooth batter with flour, milk, egg, and salt; let rest.
- Peel and grate the potatoes just before cooking, immediately mix into the batter.
- Grill the smoked pork belly slices in a pan until crispy; keep warm.
- In the same pan, melt a knob of butter and drop ladlefuls of batter to form thin pancakes.
- Brown for 3-4 minutes per side until a nice crust forms.
- Serve raggmunkar hot with the bacon and a generous spoonful of lingonberry jam.
How it was made : Raggmunk is attested in Swedish cuisine of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the potato — adopted en masse after the campaigns of botanist Eva Ekeblad and the push for distillation — became the foundation of peasant food. It was cooked in lard or butter depending on household resources.
The contemporary twist : Stack three mini pancakes in a tower, fan the bacon, and drizzle lingonberry as a coulis: raggmunk takes the stage.
Birgit Nilsson · Charactorium
