If you want to learn all there is about the Swedish meatballs you can head over here. I would say that I consume at least 90% of the lingonberries I eat with meatballs. With that said I’m, like most Swedes are a traditionalist when it comes to lingonberries. I even served lingonberries with a beef carpaccio once so it works for plenty of things. So pies, lemonade, jams, drinks all work great. The flavor and texture are close enough so most recipes work great. To make it easier you can say that you can use lingonberries in any recipe where you normally use cranberries. It is commonly served with traditional foods like Sunday steak, the famous Swedish meatballs, reindeer but also for other parts of the day like topping a bowl of porridge. In Sweden where I live lingonberry is consumed almost only as jam. How do you use this berry? Luckily there is no shortage of ways you can use it. Now let’s start with the important stuff. Lingon, puolukka, alpine cranberry, mirtillo rosso, foxberry, dry-ground cranberry, partridgeberry, airelle rouge, graines rouges, moss cranberry, mountain cranberry. Here’s what they are called in some parts of the world. The berry comes with plenty of other names as well. The name lingonberry comes from the Swedish word for the berry which is simply lingon. The same type of picking tool can be used for other berries like the bilberry as well but since those berries are softer they are easier damaged. Since the lingonberries are quite hard they can withstand the process. The comb on the tool separate the berries from the shrubs with little or no damage to the plant or berries. To make the picking easier a special tool is used. The downside is that it is very time consuming and after bending over the low lingonberry shrubs for a day your back will be sore. Foraging lingonberries and other berries are popular all over Scandinavia and Russia. Just as with the bilberry and other wild growing berries and mushrooms lingonberries are free to pick in Sweden under The Right of Public Access. In Canada and the Northern parts of the US, there is cultivated production of lingonberries but it’s not a major industry. It’s just cheaper to hire pickers for the wild lingonberries instead of cultivating them. In Europe, the lingonberry is rarely cultivated, most likely because the financial incentive is not good enough. So it’s nice that the lingonberry is a healthy berry but to me, the flavor is the reason for eating it. Benzoic acid is added to prevent the growth of mold. Therefore many products like lingonberry jam will naturally have a long shelf life. It naturally contains benzoic acid which is commonly added as a preservative to many other fruit and berry products. The berries also contain high levels of magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin C and a fairly high level of fiber. Lingonberries contain flavonoids and lignans which both are said to prevent cancer. Nutrition and Health Benefits of Lingonberry Further down in this article I’ll go through how you can use lingonberries. Most people don’t like them raw so they are almost always sweetened in one way or the other. The flavor is very similar to cranberries. How Do Lingonberry Tasteįreshly picked lingonberries are very sour and quite tart but with a little bit of sweetness. When too hot the plant will not produce much of the sought after lingonberries. Lingonberry requires moist preferably acidic soil and grows best in partial shade. However, the berries and flowers will not withstand such low temperatures so it does have a negative effect on the harvest. The plant can withstand temperatures down below -35☌. Altogether the lingonberry can be found in over twenty countries. Lingonberries grow throughout the Russian boreal forests, Scandinavia, Alaska, USA, and Canada. If you’ve neither seen bilberry plants or lingonberry you could describe it like thyme but with thicker stems and bigger leaves. The plant is similar to the bilberries but with darker and shinier leaves. The leaves are 5–30 mm / 0.2–1.2 inches long and dark green. Lingonberries grow on low dark evergreen shrubs and it spreads by underground stems. The plant is part of the same family as the bilberry and cranberry. Before the berry comes small bell shaped white to pink flowers. The Latin name for the berry is Vaccinium Vitis-idaea. The lingonberry is a red berry about 5-10 mm / 0.2-0.4 inches in diameter. But what is this berry, how is it grown and how can you use it, let’s find out. I’m sure that if you open a fridge in most homes in Sweden you will find a jar of lingonberry jam. The Lingonberry is a staple in Sweden where I come from. Let’s learn everything about it, including how to use it. This delicious red berry is a staple in some parts of the world and for good reason. This time that ingredient is the Lingonberry. It’s time to dig deeper than usual into a single ingredient.
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