The Unique Breakfast Sandwich Topping You'll Only Find In Sweden

There's nothing more invigorating than traveling the world through culinary exploration, whether you're actually visiting various places and trying the local cuisine or, for now, learning what people eat in different places so you can try some of those dishes yourself. Tasting Table has looked at what you're likely to eat for breakfast in Sweden before and marveled at the effective simplicity — the focus is really on the quality of just a few core ingredients, allowing flavors from bread, meats, eggs, yogurt, and coffee to shine, and you get a good amount of protein without a meal that's too heavy or filling. In particular, one of the meats popular for spreading over bread in the morning is something we're excited to try in our routines: leverpostej, or liver pâté.

Liver pâté is a Scandinavian staple, especially popular for the first meal of the day in Sweden. It's said to be so delicious that Swedes remain devoted to it besides liver in general not being a huge part of their diets in other ways. The exact recipe varies depending on the store brand or home chef, but it generally utilizes lean meat and pork, beef, or lamb liver with fat, eggs, and spices, seasonings, and sometimes even a cream sauce. Holiday-associated spices like nutmeg and clove are common thanks to leverpostej's historical roots of being made in the winter when pigs were butchered, but today you'll also see everything from rosemary to garlic.

Liver pâté goes on bread in the form of smørrebrød, a Scandinavian open-faced sandwich that basically allows you to spread and stack any manner of things you like on top of your bread. For breakfast in Sweden, a typical choice is to just focus on the pâté, perhaps adding some sweetness and acidity with pickled beets and earthiness with a sprinkle of fresh herbs. If you want the authentic experience, get some knäckebröd, a Swedish rye crispbread – you can also use whole grain bread or rye, or of course, any bread you like. 

To complete a Swedish spread, complement your leverpostej, bread, and possible beets and herbs with other known Swedish favorites like cheese, ham, boiled eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers — and, naturally, high-quality coffee. Coffee is important to Swedes even on a symbolic level, so if you choose nothing else for a Swedish breakfast, go with leverpostei, knäckebröd, and black coffee. The leverpostej tradition won't feel too out of the ordinary if you already know the joy of spreading chicken liver on toast — you can expect the same savory, rich, creamy goodness, supported by crisp and satisfying bread. But with a few specific ingredients, you can make that snack into a whole Swedish meal, and transport your morning routine to Stockholm.