Life as I know it will never be the same. There are moments in one’s life when the very fabric of your being is torn apart, leaving you a shell of what you once were. Ok, this may not be one of those times, but I recently learned that an iconic tradition in our family is not what we thought it was.
Growing up in a Scandinavian household, there are unique Christmas traditions in our culture. Many of the ones we keep revolve around the food we prepare during the holiday season. One of those delicacies is what we call rullepolsa. It is a rolled dish of lamb and pork that we serve as cold cuts.
Thanks to the internet, we’ve learned that what we’ve been calling rullepolsa is actually a similar Danish dish that uses beef and pork. The Norwegians have their own version called ribberull, using lamb instead of beef. Thank you for destroying a Soberg family tradition with a few keystrokes and mouse clicks. I’ll let YOU tell my 88 year old mother that she has been fooling us by calling him the wrong rullepolsa all these years.
In our family, Christmas Eve is our biggest celebration. We eat our traditional Scandinavian food and open our presents. Afterwards, my mom prepares our SECOND round of food, which we call the second dinner. This consists of all the Christmas cookies she’s been baking for weeks, hers famous Cardamom Bread, Pickled Pig’s Feet, Flatbread and of course the riberull.
No one is hungry, as we are still digesting the dinner we just ate a couple of hours earlier. That doesn’t matter, it’s tradition. I skip the biscuits, leaving the little space in my stomach reserved for the riberull. This consists of the starter riberull sandwich I make and at least one pig’s foot. Then it’s another piece of riberull on a piece of mom’s flatbread. Okay, maybe two. I immediately pay for this with a bloated stomach, but heck, it’s a tradition!
Speaking of tradition, I’ve been calling it ribberull in this article. Regardless of what Wikipedia says, it is and always will be rullepolsa to me. Shhh… don’t tell mom.