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What does a returned emigrant eat?
There was a huge difference between the food in Norway and America – a fact that the emigrants noticed when they arrived in the USA. Pancakes for breakfast, turkey and chicken dishes, tuna fish dishes, salad, muffins and cakes were some of the dishes many of them became familiar with. In America there was also more ready-made and semi-cooked food – for example you could buy "TV dinners" with a variety of dishes that you could put straight into the oven. Those who settled in cities could buy food from many parts of the world, such as spaghetti and chop suey.
But many of those from southern Norway retained the food habits from home. Those who lived in Brooklyn, for example, could buy potato dumplings, brown goat cheese and salted mackerel in several shops. Many of them baked wholemeal bread and the thin Norwegian pastry lefser and made Norwegian specialities like kalvedans (veal jelly) and rullepølse (rolled meats) for Christmas. Their diet in America was therefore a mixture of new inspiration and traditional Norwegian food.
Spice containers in a kitchen in Lista
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American recipes
Southern Norwegians in America became familiar with new food customs and new dishes. And the recipes were included in the luggage they brought home. Many Norwegian Americans continued to make these dishes after they returned to Norway.
Chiffonkakeform.
Applepie
Beignets
Brekfast Sausage
Brownies
Brownies 2
Brownies with marshmallows
Cherry Cream Pie
Chiffonkake
Chipsrett
Crunch Cake
Doughnuts
Marmorkake
Onion Rings
Pancakes
Rosinkake
Sjokolademuffins
Sunset salat
Brownies