Pinnekjøtt

The story

Pinnekjøtt, a name that translates as “meat on sticks,” comes from the unusual way it is cooked. Lamb ribs that have been salted, in some regions smoked, and then dried for weeks are steamed over a rack of fresh birch twigs laid in the bottom of the pot, so the meat never touches the water; it simply softens in the steam that drifts up through the branches for hours. The tradition is strongest in western and northern Norway, where hilly terrain and a shortage of fertile land long ago made lamb easier to come by than beef. Eastern Norway celebrates Christmas with a different dish, the pork roast called ribbe, and the rivalry lives on today as a friendly national debate over the “real” Christmas dinner. Before cooking, the meat is soaked for hours to draw out some of the salt. It is served with mashed rutabaga (kålrabistappe) and potatoes. For Norwegian Americans, whose immigrant story in the late 19th century was closely bound up with western Norway in particular, pinnekjøtt is one of the most direct culinary bridges to the ancestral homeland: a dish whose birch scent carries you straight back to a specific place.