Äggakaka facts for kids
A Scanian äggakaka with fried pork, apples, and a bowl of lingonberries.
|
|||||||
| Alternative names | Äggakaga | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Batter | ||||||
| Course | Main dish | ||||||
| Place of origin | Sweden | ||||||
| Region or state | Scania | ||||||
| Cooking time | 30 minutes to 40 minutes | ||||||
| Serving temperature | Warm | ||||||
| Main ingredients | |||||||
| Ingredients generally used | |||||||
| 220 kcal (921 kJ)Arla.se | |||||||
|
|||||||
| Similar dishes |
|
||||||
Äggakaka (which means Egg cake in English) is a yummy traditional dish from Skåne, a region in southern Sweden. It's a bit like a thick pancake or a dish called kolbullar.
This special egg cake is usually served with crispy fried pork slices and sweet lingonberries. Long ago, äggakaka was a popular meal for farmworkers. It was easy to pack up and eat while they were working out in the fields.
Contents
Making Äggakaka: A Special Pancake
Making äggakaka starts with a batter. This batter is similar to what you'd use for regular pancakes. However, it uses more eggs and flour. This makes the batter thicker and creamier. Sometimes, a little bit of black pepper is added for extra flavor.
Frying the Batter
To fry äggakaka, people often use the fat left over from frying the pork. They might mix it with some butter. Or, they just use plain butter. If only butter is used, the melted butter from the pan is often poured over the finished cake. This adds a rich pork flavor to the dish.
When cooking, you need to pour enough batter into the pan. It should be at least 5 centimeters (about 2 inches) thick. To stop the bottom from burning, the cook gently lifts the batter. They do this until the cake feels firm but still creamy inside.
Flipping the Cake
When the äggakaka is almost solid, it's time to flip it! A large plate is placed over the pan. Then, the pan is quickly turned upside-down. This puts the cake onto the plate. More butter is added to the pan and allowed to melt. Finally, the äggakaka is carefully slid back into the pan, uncooked side down. The cake is ready when both sides are golden brown.
What Makes it Special?
Unlike kolbulle, äggakaka uses a lot of eggs. That's why it's called "egg cake"! It's also fried in plenty of butter, which gives it a unique taste. Making äggakaka properly needs good kitchen tools. Some recipes suggest baking it in an oven. But if you bake it, it becomes more like an oven pancake. It loses its special buttery, fried surface.
Serving Äggakaka: What to Eat With It
Äggakaka is always served with fried pork. Sometimes, the fried pork is cut into slices or small pieces. These pieces might even be mixed into the batter before cooking. However, this can make the pork flavor weaker. So, it's more common to fry the pork separately. Then, it's placed on top of the finished äggakaka with its melted fat.
Lingonberry jam is a very common side dish for äggakaka today. But this is a newer tradition. In the past, there weren't many lingonberries growing wild in Skåne. So, older recipes often used apple sauce or butter-fried apple slices instead.
