Smörgåstårta
September 30, 2018 11:03 AM   Subscribe

Herregud! "Sandwich cake" is a Swedish dish, also popular in Estonia (as "võileivatort"), Finland (as "voileipäkakku") and Iceland (as "brauðterta"); also sometimes Norway (as "smørbrødkake"). It sometimes looks like a cake but it's a good way of using a lot of bread. It can be colourful, vegan, fish or meat based, fruity, modern, creative, pretty, sophisticated, bar-shaped, square, circular, a birthday cake and have many variations and divide opinions. You "...make a huge sandwich, cover it with more filling and decorate it, then cut it like a cake and eat it by the slice". Recipes: [1][2][3][4][5]. Other Nordic variations exist. Previously: [1][2][3]
posted by Wordshore (34 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
"what if layer cake but with smoked salmon tho" is a concept that satisfies my soul in a way i never knew i longed for and i definitely now know what my next birthday will involve
posted by halation at 11:19 AM on September 30, 2018 [15 favorites]


This brought up an old forgotten childhood memory of eating something like this. There is no Scandinavian influence in my family, so maybe it was just an experiment by my Mom or some neighborhood event. I seem to remember enjoying it.
posted by eye of newt at 11:59 AM on September 30, 2018 [2 favorites]


I was at the ADA conference a few years ago and asked a physician from Denmark if they had less atherosclerotic disease due to the (perceived) better diet. She said no. I guess this helps explain why.
posted by metasunday at 12:05 PM on September 30, 2018 [4 favorites]


I've seen things like this in American mid-century recipe books. I assume it's one of those things that came over with immigrants but didn't have staying power for whatever reason.
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:05 PM on September 30, 2018 [6 favorites]


OMG I want this. Finally a cake for savory cravers!
posted by k8bot at 12:06 PM on September 30, 2018 [4 favorites]


This looks like a cross between the delicious ensaladilla russe from Spain, and the jello salad of my nightmares.
posted by RandomInconsistencies at 12:12 PM on September 30, 2018 [2 favorites]


I remember wanting to make something like this last time I heard about it, and now I want some kind of entirely plant based version crammed full of different kinds of pickles, tapenade, dried tomatoes and I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but basically take like a vegan tapas, bruschetta and maybe some pico and layer it all up with a lot of thin slices of crusty and grainy bread and cram it into a cake and oh my god I'm hungry...
posted by loquacious at 12:15 PM on September 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


Please note the "sandwich" tag.
posted by elsietheeel at 12:26 PM on September 30, 2018 [6 favorites]


When I lived in Sweden in the 80s my first smörgåstårta was presented to me as a sort of "this is a very silly Very Swedish thing, it's a bit ironic now, but you can't have a daytime party gathering without one, it's okay if you don't like it" and I was like I LOVE MAYONNAISE AND SHRIMP AND CUCUMBER AND BOILED EGGS BACK OFF I'M TAKING THIS WHOLE THING YOU HATERS.

(Yes, I am the philistine who gets the shrimp sandwich at IKEA, if they have them.)

Interesting fact: in ten months I crossed paths with at least five elaborate birthday-cake-style bakery-bought smörgåstårtor and not a single Prinsesstårta, which everyone wants to claim is the Most Swedish thing.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:48 PM on September 30, 2018 [7 favorites]


I am almost positive that Julia childs has a recipe like this, with salmon, cream cheese, and an outside layer of dill cream cheese and cucumber slices. With white bread.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 12:51 PM on September 30, 2018 [2 favorites]


As usual when there is something Swedish mentioned on the internet my first though is to look to see if the guys at Regular Ordinary Swedish Mealtime had done one... and was pleased to find they had.
posted by cirhosis at 1:12 PM on September 30, 2018 [6 favorites]


Yeah this is totally a thing here for special occasions. Els-Marie who used to live in the house I presently live in (while we owned the house across the street and up the hill) made these rather regularly. And the shrimp shells went into the trash. Which is emptied every other week. So I can say I know everything about smörgåstårta*.

The other encounter with smörgåstårta* (it's really mostly shrimp, salmon and/or ham, some perfunctory decorative veggies and a lot of fluff, cream and mayo) that I specifically recall was when we played a concert accompanying the choir of a small church in Grästorp about 2 hours from home (on good roads), and during the second half of the event, it started snowing like crazy. And then, the kind ladies of the choir forced us afterwards to sample their smörgåstårta* or rather (multiple) smörgåstortor*...there was no way to signal that it was getting absolutely impossible out there and we wanted to drive home. They just wouldn't listen.
(We did make it but it was a long day...)

* I'm feeling like Hobbes, "I just like to say smock."
posted by Namlit at 1:35 PM on September 30, 2018 [5 favorites]


Eh.
They can be good, but are usually too much mayonnaise and too much too white bread, at least for my taste. For a while, we always seemed to be served smörgåstårta, when visiting relatives up north (I live in Denmark), but it has died down significantly.

Now, smørrebrød on the other hand is good stuff...
posted by bouvin at 2:09 PM on September 30, 2018 [2 favorites]


OMG I want this. Finally a cake for savory cravers!

i mean, we did have Completely Meat Chocolate Pie but this is more pescatarian-friendly for sure
posted by halation at 2:17 PM on September 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


Danes don't eat smörgåstårta. It's disgusting. No one should ever eat it.
Danes do eat similar stuff, like landgangsbrød and some sort of pie with all the open sandwiches arranged into one. That is also disgusting and proves Danes are not a perfect people. But nothing is as disgusting as smorgåstårta.
posted by mumimor at 3:28 PM on September 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


this itself does not interest me gustatorially but it does bring back deliciously fond memories of the last time i was in south beach and got the guy at david's to make me 3 separate sandwiches and then press all 3 together for a cuban tower
posted by poffin boffin at 3:38 PM on September 30, 2018 [3 favorites]


My mother never made it. She LOVED torturing us with lutefisk, which so help me God she liked! Also I’m wondering if there were Black Swedes in the family as she said the Swedish relatives kept cows but no pigs.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 3:47 PM on September 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


equally rosy beet mayo.

Hell yes.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:08 PM on September 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


There is no such thing as "too much" mayonnaise.
posted by Namlit at 5:16 PM on September 30, 2018 [2 favorites]


So if a smörgåstårta is made from sandwiches, and a hot dog is a sandwich, can you make a smörgåstårta out of hot dogs? How about a smörgåstårta made out of burritos?
posted by Umami Dearest at 9:52 PM on September 30, 2018 [3 favorites]


Mmm, burrito cake. Tortilla, rice, tortilla, beans, tortilla, cheese, tortilla, salsa, tortilla, meat, tortilla. Ice with guacamole and decorate with escabeche.
posted by aspo at 10:32 PM on September 30, 2018 [2 favorites]


I encountered the Icelandic version at a flea market in Reykjavík, and it was pretty similar to the cake pictured in the first link, only with the addition of grapes. (Green ones, sliced in half.)

Has this food made it to Russia? It seems cut from the same cloth as certain Russian salads, notably shuba.
posted by aws17576 at 11:08 PM on September 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


I've been to finnish parties, I have yet to face one of these. The wiki article claims its a must. Hmmm.
posted by infini at 3:07 AM on October 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


Otoh, Stockholm was where I first ate a baked potato smothered in shrimp and mayo
posted by infini at 3:08 AM on October 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


What fortuitous timing! I was just talking about the curious smörgåstårta yesterday; I’m planning a birthday brunch next month and I think a smörgåstårta would be a fitting addition.

I’ve made a mini version before, using an everything bagel as my bread base, a modest layer of cream cheese as my icing, and nova lox, radishes, cucumbers, and dill for fillings and decor.

It turned out quite well, and the bagel served as a sturdy, non-absorbent base, thus avoiding the sogginess issue that plagues many smörgåstårtor.

Since I’ll be making a larger sized version to feed a crowd, I can’t use a bagel as my base. Does anyone have suggestions for equally sturdy bread types that will avoid (or at least postpone) massive sogginess?

Thanks for the lovely post, Wordshore!
posted by chara at 4:48 AM on October 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


Nah, we Norwegians don't eat this crap delicacy either. Note that the Norwegian recipe you linked has the Swedish version referred to in the text.

(I'd give it a go, though, if offered by some friendly Swede)
posted by Harald74 at 5:45 AM on October 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


Oh, this is just sandwich loaf. That used to be a dainty luncheon food back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I had no idea this was a Swedish invention-- I always assumed it was invented by the people responsible for coming up with new recipes using packaged foods in the 60's, probably the jarred mayonnaise people or the olive people.
posted by blnkfrnk at 7:20 AM on October 1, 2018




I can’t use a bagel as my base.

You just need a bigger bagel (could probably also work as a giant bialy if you want to avoid boiling). Or see if Meshuggah Bagels can hook you up?
posted by sysinfo at 8:04 AM on October 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


I've been to finnish parties, I have yet to face one of these. The wiki article claims its a must. Hmmm.

Its popularity definitely has been diminishing in recent decades, probably because it's work-intensive, needs to be prepared a day ahead, you can utterly mess it up, and even a perfectly executed voileipäkakku tends to divide the crowd anyway, so it's not even a safe bet. Also, I'd make the claim that it's always been more of a Western Finnish thing traditionally, due to its Scandinavian roots.

When I lived in Sweden in the 80s my first smörgåstårta was presented to me as a sort of "this is a very silly Very Swedish thing, it's a bit ironic now, but you can't have a daytime party gathering without one, it's okay if you don't like it"

Back when I still taught Finnish for foreigners I used to invite every class once a year to my home and cook something traditionally Finnish for them, and that is close to the introduction I gave them that one time I served them a voileipäkakku. And what do you know, it turned out to be a huge hit. The Dutch really do love their sandwiches.
posted by sively at 9:01 AM on October 1, 2018 [3 favorites]


This is in Mexico, too! My Yucatecan family calls it sandwichón, the local Walmart sells it premade, and most versions I've seen have maraschino cherries or red pepper slices on top.
posted by VelveteenBabbitt at 10:32 AM on October 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


Every year I consider making one of these for my Nordic solstice party and I wimp out thinking that people will be too weirded out to try it. Am I wrong?
posted by vespabelle at 11:29 AM on October 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


They can be good, but are usually too much mayonnaise and too much too white bread,

This. On top of that, the usual curious sweetness of Swedish preserved seafood paired with cheap paté and the prevalence of watery, flavorless vegetables really makes me wonder about my countrymen's paletes.

Need more convincing? Consider this Swedish desert classic: hollowed pears baked with After Eights. Ah yes, the classic pear-mint-chocolate flavor pairing.
posted by St. Oops at 12:52 PM on October 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


Clearly you need to emigrate to a more sensible country.
posted by elsietheeel at 5:41 PM on October 1, 2018


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