A Lesson from my Mother: Tyttebærsyltetøy

Source of this photo: http://www.bioresurs.uu.se/myller/fjall/lingon2.htm

Tyttebær in Norwegian.
Lingon in Swedish.
The following names in English : Cowberry, foxberry, lingberry, lingenberry, lingonberry, mountain cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea).

As children playing in the forest, the blueberry was what we picked to eat while playing.
The taste of "tyttebær" was not a favorite. It is quite sour, as I remember it.
But my mother picked a lot of tyttebær to make tyttebærsyltetøy or Lingonsylt as she called it.

Blueberry jam, still my favorite, was for pancakes and sandwiches and cakes.

Tytteærsyltetøy was for eating with meat!
I remember eating meatballs and reindeer meat with tyttebærsyltetøy.



I don't eat meat , but in September my mother gave me some homemade tyttebærsyltetøy, and by now I have eaten half of it!

Her recipe for making it, is one she read many years ago in a Swedish magazine called ICA Kuriren. She insists that this Swedish recipe is more gentle with the berries and that after two weeks you get natural jelly on top of the jam.

Here comes the recipe.

2 1/2 kg of tyttebær = 5 liter of tyttebær
1 liter of water

Cook this for 10 minutes. Be careful - it easily cooks over.

Take the casserole to the side and mix in 2 kg of sugar till the sugar is completely dissolved.
No more cooking.

Pour the jam into clean, preferably warm jars and close tightly at once.


Tip from my mother: To keep your jam in an airtight Norgesglass with rubber rings is the best way to preserve your jam.