Lapskaus

The story

Lapskaus is the Norwegian name for a thick stew of meat and vegetables cut into small cubes, the kind of dish eaten with a fork rather than a spoon. Store norske leksikon, the national encyclopedia, lists the usual vegetables as carrots, rutabaga, celeriac, potatoes and leeks, and the meat as beef, lamb, pork or even elk. Norwegians often sort it into two kinds, though opinions differ on where the line falls. In one common view, brown lapskaus uses beef, mutton or elk that is browned first, while light lapskaus uses pork that is simply boiled, and MatPrat suggests lightly salted pork for the light stew. The pot can be thickened with flour or simply by letting starchy potatoes break down. In its present form the stew is fairly young, since potatoes became common in Norway only in the later 1800s. The name traveled with sailors: the people of Liverpool are called Scousers after lobscouse, a form of the same word, and a Brooklyn neighborhood was once nicknamed Lapskaus Boulevard. At home it is also a practical way to use up leftovers, with cooked meat, sausage or ham stirred in at the end. Make it a day ahead if you can, and set out flatbread or coarse bread, butter and lingonberry jam.