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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Stockholm
Cubes of beef tenderloin, potato and onion browned separately and served side by side, with a raw egg yolk in the center and mustard or mustard cream. Named after the Hotel Rydberg, which operated on Gustav Adolfs torg in Stockholm, where the dish is said to have originated.
Traditional dish from Stockholm, Stockholm
Also known as: Biff à la Rydberg, Rydbergsbiff
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Biff Rydberg — Stockholm, Sweden
Biff Rydberg is one of the classic dishes of Stockholm restaurants. The name comes from the Hotel Rydberg, opened in the second half of the 1850s on Gustav Adolfs torg, the square in front of the Opera in the city center. The hotel was one of the largest and most elegant in the capital in the 19th century, frequented by writers and artists, and the city museum records that the dish originated there. The author of the recipe and the exact date of its creation are not known.
The dish is often described as a refined version of pytt i panna, the Swedish hash of meat, potato and onion in cubes. The difference is in the cut and the presentation: in Biff Rydberg, the meat is beef tenderloin, cut into larger cubes, and each ingredient is prepared separately and served apart on the plate, in piles side by side.
The potato, cut into small cubes, is fried until golden and crispy. The onion is slowly cooked in butter until soft and caramelized. The meat goes in last, seared over high heat to be browned on the outside and pink inside. A raw egg yolk is placed in the center of the plate, sometimes served in its shell, which each diner mixes with the meat and potato, and on the side come mustard, mustard cream or grated horseradish.
The Hotel Rydberg no longer exists. In Stockholm, the Sällskapet club reproduced the banquet room of the old hotel at its headquarters, and the dish remains on the menus of the city’s traditional restaurants.
Stockholm , Stockholm
Dish named after the Hotel Rydberg, on Gustav Adolfs torg in Stockholm, where it is said to have appeared in the 19th century.
Beef tenderloin in cubes, potatoes in cubes, onion, butter, raw egg yolk, salt and pepper; to accompany: mustard, mustard cream or grated horseradish and sometimes pickled beetroot.
The three ingredients arrive separated on the plate, with the raw yolk in the center; each person mixes the yolk into the meat and potato and uses mustard or horseradish to taste.
Served at lunch and dinner, in any season, especially at restaurants of traditional Swedish cuisine in Stockholm.
Your questions
Because of the Hotel Rydberg, which operated on Gustav Adolfs torg in Stockholm in the 19th century, from which the dish is said to have come.
Biff Rydberg uses beef tenderloin cut into larger cubes, and the meat, potato and onion are prepared and served separately. Pytt i panna mixes everything together in the pan.
Yes. A raw yolk is placed in the center of the plate and is mixed with the meat and potato when eating.
Flavors of Sweden
Raw salmon fillet cured in a mixture of salt, sugar and dill, sliced very thin and served with hovmästarsås, a sweet mustard-and-dill sauce. The name means “buried salmon” and recalls the old method of preserving the fish under the ground.
Sweet yeast bread flavored with cardamom, rolled with butter, sugar and cinnamon, and topped with pearl sugar. It is the pastry most associated with fika, the coffee break, and even has its own day in the Swedish calendar, Kanelbullens dag, on October 4.
Small meatballs made with ground meat, fried in butter and served with cream sauce, potatoes, lingonberry jam and pickled cucumber. They are Sweden’s best-known home dish, with the first printed recipe appearing in a 1755 cookbook.
Dome-shaped cake with layers of sponge cake, raspberry jam, vanilla cream, and lots of whipped cream, covered by a green marzipan sheet and decorated with a pink marzipan rose. The name recalls the three princess daughters of Prince Carl, pupils of Jenny Åkerström, the recipe’s author.
Wheat bread with cardamom, cut open at the top, filled with almond paste and whipped cream and topped with the cut-off lid dusted with sugar. It’s the sweet eaten on fettisdagen, the Fat Tuesday, and descends from the hetvägg, bread eaten soaked in warm milk.
Tall, hollow, lace-like cake made from eggs, sugar and potato starch, poured little by little onto a rotating spit in front of heat, layer by layer. Decorated with white or pink icing, it is a celebratory sweet from Skåne, and the name Skånsk spettkaka is protected by the European Union.
Baked saffron rice pudding tart with eggs, cream and almonds, yellow in color, served warm or cold with salmbär jam and whipped cream. Despite the name “pancake,” it’s baked in a pan. It is the sweet most associated with the island of Gotland.
A white stick candy with red spiral stripes and peppermint flavor, pulled and twisted by hand. It originated in Gränna, on the shore of Lake Vättern, where the widow Amalia Eriksson obtained a license to make it in 1859, and the town remains the center of its production.
Baked dessert made from curdled milk using rennet, enriched with eggs, cream, sugar and almonds, with a moist, granular texture. Served warm with jam and whipped cream, it is the festival specialty most associated with the Småland region, with Swedish records dating back to the 16th century.
Large potato dough dumplings filled with bacon or pork and onion, cooked in water and served with melted butter and red bilberry jam. The Öland version, gray and made with raw potato, and the Småland version, lighter and made with cooked potato, are the best known.
Boiled dumpling made from raw grated potato and wheat or barley flour, filled with pork, served with butter and red bilberry jam. It’s an everyday food in northern Sweden, and the name comes from the town of Piteå, considered the Swedish center of palt.
Baltic herring, lightly salted and fermented, canned in summer; strong-smelling with a salty, acidic taste. It’s eaten on the thin flatbread tunnbröd with potato, red onion and sour cream, in a communal meal at the end of summer. The tradition links the dish to the Norrland coast and the island of Ulvön in the High Coast (Höga Kusten).
