Skapa mervärde av

mathantverk

Martin Ragnar

Föredrag i samband med Finska mästerskapen i mathantverk

Novia, Ekenäs 171005

• R&D man. Axolot Solutions AB

• Researcher: Pulp, Energy,

Economical history,

Ethnology, Peace&Conflict etc

• Entrepreneur:

– Initiator of Kålrotsakademien and

Swedish Academy of beverages

– 25 books

– Frequent author in Gårdsmejeristen, Linderödaren,

Spårstumpen, Svensk Papperstidning, Kemisk Tidskrift

Researcher, Author, Entrepreneur

• Book projects– Swedish beverages (2018)

– Swedish regional milkbased desserts (2018?) – together with

Roland Persson

– Gooseberries (2019?) – together with Jens Linder

– A magnificent volume on Swedish cheese (2019?)

– Swedish bread culture (2019?) – together with Jan Hedh

• R&D-project without book ambitions– Milkhorse breeding and horsemilk processing in Sweden

My current projects

”A pioneering book trying

untrod paths”

Håkan Jönsson, research fellow in

ethnology at Lund university

A development book

Måltidsakademiens ”Årets kulting” 2015

”combines cultural history and moral

debate in a fascinating way”

Per Svensson, Sydsvenskan

”Ragnar’s book really opens

breathtaking perspectives”

Gunder Andersson, Dala-Demokraten

”Christmas gift of the year”,

Aase Berg, Dagens Nyheter

A completely new book

Did you know the arctic bramble was

scientifically discovered in the 1650’s

in Uppsala?

That both Rudbeck d.ä., Rudbeck

d.y. and Linneaus were engaged?

That there have been three PhD:s

on arctic bramble – one of which in

Finland

• Not starve

• To get fat

• Light products

• Meat

• Diet

• Organic/Social

• Food free from X (X=meat, lactose, gluten, …)

– Often equal to food from far away

There was a time when you’d eat to

• When globalisation pushes us towards

increased streamlining standing up for diversity

becomes ever more important

– To keep diversity (if everyone starts eating tuna the tuna

will finish)

– To decrease the environmental footprint (plants and

animals customed for a certain place grows easier there

withoug pesticides and medicins)

– To increase sustainability (food produced close to the

customer requires no long transports, provide local jobs

and cultural values)

Stand up for diversity

UN convention on biodiversity

• Awareness of biodiversity

• Sustainable production and consumption

• Sustainable fishing

• Invasive forregin species

• Maintain genetical variation within the used

diversity

• Traditional knowledge

Some of the 20 international

Aichi goals on biodiversity

• A culinary diversity finding its inspiration in

the biodiversity

– To maintain and develop a multifashioned and thereby

interesting society attracting both inhabitants and

visitors

– To create recognition and happiness in the elderly

care

– To create a sustainable society

– And for the pure pleasure

The value of our own diversity

• ”Real things!”: ”One fish, One bread, One big

chunk of butter” – Comodities

• ”Eat til you die!”: Volume in focus

• Culturally conservative: ”Köttbullar med

potatismos”

• You rarely ask questions like:

– Why potatoes?

– Which potatoe?

– How have you cooked the potatoes?

Husmanskost – culturally

conservative

• ”The best ingredients”: From all the corners of

the world

• ”Famous chef”

• ”Fusion”

• ”Japanese kitchen – Finnish ingredients”

• Gastronomy is

– ”Placeless” – and thereby interchangeable

– Always hunting for the new

– Building its own brand – not the brand of the region or

the nation

Gastronomy – placeless

• The diversity of the Finnish

• FoodCULTURE, i.e. not just ”local produce”

• The honest search for the taste of place

• The truly unique starting from the ingredients and

refined products rather than in the dishes

• Could include ”Sweidsh kitchen – Japanese

ingredients”

i.e. place-bound culturally extrapolating!

What is lacking?

Diversity and it opposite

(Multi-)national

standardisation

• McFeast

(McDonald’s)

• Pitchermeny med

läsk (Pizza hut)

• Jensen’s ribs

(Jensens Bøfhus)

Regional

diversity

• Kalakukko

• Brödost

• Lapin poron

liha

• Ålandspann-

kaka med

sviskonkräm

Internationell

diversity

• Pad Thai

• Lamb tikka sizlar

• Gulasz

• Crème brûlée

• Meatballs with

mushed potatoes

• Primary products

– Programmet för odlad mångfald

– Rare breed associations

– EU geographical indications

– SlowFood Ark of Taste

• Refined produdts, e.g. cheese

– EU geographical indications

– SlowFood Ark of Taste

• Dishes

Diversity on different levels

• Puruveden muikku

• Kainuun rönttönen

PDO & PGI

• Kitkan viisas

• Lapin Poron

kylmäsavuliha

• Lapin Poron liha

• Lapin Puikula

• Ark of Taste exists to gather knowledge

about small-scale products with cultural

historic dimensions – fruits, vegetables,

breeds, breads, cheeses etc.

• The Ark should also provide knowledge

about the products to ensure their longterm

survival

• Cloudberry

• Eastern Finncattle

• Kainuun Rönttönen

• Kalakukko

• Karelian Pastry

• Mesimarja Liquor

• Northern Finncattle

• Sahti

• Traditional Leipäjuusto

• Western Finncattle

Finnish products in Ark of Taste

• Globally 4548

products

– Italy 790

– France 289

– Spain 174

– USA 339

– Netherlands 76

– Papua New Guinea 0

Where do the products origin?(Numbers from October 2017)

• Nordic countries 113

/Scandinavia 83

– Sweden 39

– Norway 23

– Denmark 21

– Iceland 19

– Finland 10

– Faroe islands 1

– Greenland 0

– Åland islands 0

– Albania 43

Is Finland, the Nordic countries and Papua New

Guinea examples of cultureless areas – a global

reference to Kjell A. Nordström’s ”scrap areas”?

Time to move?

Could it be much tastier than this?

No, probably not!

Could it be much more Swedish than this?

Yes, indeed!

• The cow was domesticated in the Middle East,

so both meat and milk from cow has its origin

there

• Potatoes comes from South America

• Pepper comes from Southeast Asia – and

allspice from South America

• Sallad is a Roman invention about salting leaves

• Sugar to the jam comes from Southeast Asia

• REMAINS: Lingonberries!

Because…

The absolute Swedish

Swedish just as well as e.g. Finnish

WILD

DOMESTICATED AND GROWING WILD IN FINLAND

From which country comes

Carpaccio con Parmigiano?

• Neither the cow, the tomatoes nor the cheese

has its origin in Italy – or in Spain or France!

• We have just began to relate the dish with Italy

– probably largely because it has been given

an Italian name that has not been translated

• …and the wine comes from Georgia – period!

But…

Obviously we could make things

taste from a place without using only

products with a biological origin from

there

• In the wine business it is easy:

– Appelation: For a certain region typical choice of grape

variety and the processing procedures

– Terroir: The finetuned variations because of local

climate, soil type, mineral composition etc.

• T.ex. Appelationen Rhône with terroir from a

sundried slope of the South

• ”Terroir is a strictly scientific property that in

principle could be registered by an airplane”

Terroir – The taste of place

Rye

• The landrace is higher and has deeper roots

– The hight means that chemical pest control is less

urgent

– The deeper roots means that the landrace extacts

more minerals from the soil

– The flavour therefore becomes different compoared to

modern ryes

• This way you could understand the landrace

as a kind of terroir amplifier

Landrace vs modern cultivar

Pigs giving porc

• The landrace is kept outside since it would

not feel well inside small boxes

– It roots in the soil and eats what nature provides and

manure the ground at the same time

– The porc gets flavoured by the feed at the place –

unlike the case for modern breeds fed with largely

imported feed

• This way you could understand the landrace

as a kind of terroir amplifier

Landrace vs modern breed

• At a certain field a certain crop proved

particularly suitable to grow

– Certain plants of this crop showed properties better

than others. These were selected and further grown

– ”Better” contains more tasty/higher yield/better

resistance-resilience etc.

• The terroir affected the choice of crop in

general and over time the cultivar selection

• Landraces hence are not only terroir

amplifiers – but formed by terroir

Development of cultivars and

breeds

• The flavour of a food product is affected by

teroir through minerals, light etc.

• The terroir also affects crops and animals so

that cultivars and breeds develop over time

• Also man is affected by terroir

Bidirectional effect

• Terroir hence is not strictly

scientific but also hosts a cultural

component

• The strict division of the world by

the connoisseur becomes less

important – terroir becomes

diversity – the taste of place!

The winemake is also terroir!

• I usually prefer to use the term regional food

culture – the expression of diversity formed by

the place

The soil forms

diversity

• Biological origin OR Regional adaptation

– Rutabaga, Swedish whitebeam berry, Angelica, all-

fieldberry

– Landrace breeds and cultivars (FI: maatiainen)

• The composition of the soil

– Also affects conventional breeds and cultivars

• Cultural relation

– Landskapsfiskar, -äpplen m.m.

– Traditionally used methods and recipes, e.g. rye bread,

storage in a cave

– Traditionally used forms, e.g. kalakukko, karjalaan

pierakki

Terroir – The taste of place (I)

Regionallly adapted

Väneko

Melonäpple

Gestrikefår

Bohuslän-Dals

svarthöna

Vårspelt Gotland

Pride of our storage heritage

• Language

– Carpaccio, Camembert, Champagne

– Gravlax, Kalix löjrom, Prästost

– NEITHER: ”cured salmon”, ”bleak roe from Kalix”,

”matured Swedish hard cheese” – NOR ”sparkling

French white wine from the Champagne district”

• Dialect

– Röikt butte mei matroekas (instead of ’Rökt piggvar

med rotmos’)

– The dialect is a spice and causes questions and

thereby curiosity!

• Clothing and music!

Terroir – The taste of place (II)

Cutting scheme OX

Cutting scheme RUTABAGA

• Different cultivars

• Different storage times

• Cuts incl. leaves and oil seeds

• Time of harvest – harvest in June as a radish,

medium-sized or big boy

• The soil composition

• The preparation – raw, boiled, steamed,

baked, fried, puré, flamed

• Chips, flour – and…

The inherent diversity

– of a rutabaga!

Tastings…

Rutabaga

Sprat

Tap water

/Milk

Rye bread

/Limpa

Goat

Pork dripping

Diversity is everywhere in the gas-

tronomic adventure of our lives

Arctic bramble

Oysters

Red wine

/Whisky

Levain

/Crackers

Wagyu

/Rare breed cow

Deer saddle

• Of course it is both relevant and nice to taste

exclusive wines and oysters

– But noone drinks or eats this on a daily basis

• Accordingly it is much more exciting and

relevant to investigate what matters to more

people in their daily lives!

Exploring what matters to us in

daily life!

Be curious on the small

variations!

• Overall Swedish (7 st)

– Måltidsakademien

– Skolmatsakademin

– Svenska Dryckesakademien

• Geographically limited (7 st)

– Hagdahlsakademien

– Skåneländska Gastronomiska Akademien

• Thematically limited (32 st)

– Baljväxtakademin

– Sällskapet Hackkorvens vänner

The crusaders of diversity!

Beautifully pale rose colour and a distinct flavour

of pepper, herbal scent of red berries, lime,

aromatic citrus and salmiak. Hardly middle-

bodied with a very refreshing flavourfull, citrus,

bloodorange, lime, red berries, salmiak minerality

and a long, very fresh and somewhat strict

afterflavour of red berries and citrys. Elegant, with

a personal touch of southern France and faaar

away from sweets and softdrinks.

Anders Öhman, sommelier and educator

The taste of a wine…

• But also a sommelier

is claimed to have

problems to

distinguish between

red and white wine

• The cultural

dimension of taste

is very important

Sensory

is the science of the taste buds

• Where is the taste?

– Of course in the taste sense!

• But I would say also in the

– Sense of smell

– Visual sense

– Tactile sense

– Hearing sense

• Därför räcker det inte med att det smakar gott

– vi kan få det att smaka så mycket godare

genom att tala till fler sinnen!

”Most important is that it tastes

good”

Darling, I thought we’d have it cosy tonight…

– I have prepared cream with gelatine!

• Mild ost

• Mager ost

• Ekologisk ost

• Stark ost

• ”Gravlax”

• ”Swedish pannacotta”

• ”Plate of charcuteries from Swedish farms

with goat’s cheese, capres, artichokes &

pickled tomatoes”

What are we most proad to show

for our forreign guest?

• DESCRIPTIVE:

– ’Lax som sockersaltats och lagts i kylskåp i några dygn,

smaksatt med dill serverad med potatis som blandats

med smör, mjöl och mjölk’

• (SWEDISH) CULTURE:

– ’Gravlax med stuvad potatis’

• (WE DO NOTA HAVE ANY OWN) CULTURE:

– ’Cured salmon served with potatoe stew’

Three different ways

of presenting a dish

• DESCRIPTIVE:

– ’Cream with gelatine that has curdled served in a glass’

• (ITALIAN) CULTURE:

– ’Pannacotta’

• (WE DO NOT HAVE ANY OWN) CULTURE:

– ’Finnish Pannacotta’

Three different ways

of presenting a dish

• Developing names for cuts, preparation

techniques, refined products etc is very

important

• Developing products and names together

with others build CULTURE!

• Using the dialect as a spice could also make

the own country a little more exciting

The language is vital!

We make Finland Proper’s best Camembert!

…and here we make Bordeaux’s

very best kalakukko…

Culture builds pride!

• Identity

– Builds pride

– Could awaken memories when you get reminded,

perhaps of particular importance in elderly care

• Pride

– To create pride over the place you live at is important

wherever you come from, since then you could also be

a cultural carrier who tells your story to people living

somewhere else

• Diversity

– Curiosity on other places where things are not identical

– outside the borders, but equally obvious also inside

the borders

The food as a carrier of culture

• Be curious on the diversity in general and on

the diversity of common things in general

• Form academias, use them and work with

them

• Nominate to SlowFood’s Ark of Taste

• Build culture together with others as a chef or

as a producer

• Develop the language!

What YOU could do

• What do you get if you drain Savoiardi

biscuits in espresso blended with Marsala

wine and pour a mix of eggs, sugar and

Mascarpone cheese on top and garnish with

cacao?

• What do you get if you drain Finn crips in

blueberry juice blended with Koskenkorva

and pour a mix of Finnish landrace hen’s

eggs, sugar and Aura cheese on top and

garnish with powdered mesimarja?

• It is easy to culturally export

– Hamburgers, gravlax, panacotta, tiramisu, Champagne

• It is almost impossible to export

– ’Lax som sockersaltats och lagts i kylskåp i några dygn,

smaksatt med dill serverad med potatis som blandats

med smör, mjöl och mjölk’

– ’Cream with gelatine that has curdled served in a glass’

That is why you could buy

Savoiardi biscuits in Salla

Thank you for your attention!

Martin Ragnar – martin@sockerslottet.se