Good for me for continuing to try something new — like buttermilk lefse!
I received an intriguing email from Bruce Ludvigson last Thanksgiving that has tempted me to change my lefse recipe, or at least add a wonderful change-of-pace recipe.
Hi Gary,
Just made lefse on Saturday with my 92-year-old brother. [ I’m 81. ] We have been rolling for a lot of years, and we found out our recipe using buttermilk has more flavor then using cream or whipping cream. Don’t know if you have tried this or not, but in the event you have not, give it a whirl. Best regards and have a happy and festive Thanksgiving.
Bruce Ludvigson
OK, Bruce, I got around to trying buttermilk lefse last week … and I love it! Thank you for goosing me to think a bit outside my box.
I simply swapped out buttermilk for cream in my regular lefse recipe. When I make it again, I will add a splash more of buttermilk than my regular amount of cream because I like the flavor so well. The buttermilk adds just the right amount of an engaging buttery sour to what can turn out to be a heavy dose of sugar when you add all the toppings to your finished lefse round.
In addition, the buttermilk made for a really soft, tender lefse round, and that’s notable because I make soft, tender lefse with my regular recipe.
Finally, when I put my buttermilk lefse rounds in a plastic bag and then into the refrigerator after a day or so, the lefse seemed to stay more tender than my regular lefse, which can toughen just a tad in the fridge.
What’s not to like? I may be caught up in the moment, but I am tempted to make buttermilk lefse my regular lefse. Give it a try!
Buttermilk lefse rounds look good and taste great!
After six years of watching and learning from the pros, I am now making the heirloom lefse rolling pins that I sell. Below is my article about making these pins, which appeared in last December’s issue of American Woodturnermagazine.
This t-shirt, which says it all, is the prize for the winner of the 4th Annual Lefse LImerick Contest.
This is a leap year, and I have leapt into 2024 by getting Covid and a colonoscopy. Kinda hit bottom! So I would say this is a perfect time for some levity and limericks. It’s time for the 4th Annual Lefse Limerick Contest (some ta-dah fanfare, please)!
The theme: Lefse Is Life!
This year, your job as an A1 limerick writer is to create limericks (you just can’t write one, right?) that are about Lefse Is Life.
So start cranking out limericks and send them my way. The 4th Annual Lefse Limerick Contest runs through until the end of March, 2024. That means one month of oodles of doodles about Lefse Is Life.
Refresher on limerick writing:
Make sure you have seven to nine beats in the first, second, and fifth lines, with the last word in those lines rhyming.
Have five to seven beats in the third and fourth lines, with the last word in those lines having a different rhyme than the last word in the first, second, and fifth lines.
You will rise quickly in the ranks if your limericks about Lefse Is Life adhere to these rules, or you’re pretty close 🤓. Email your limericks to glegwold@lutefisk.com.
High Risk, High Reward
A refresher on limericks. Wikipedia defines a limerick as “a form of verse, usually humorous and frequently rude,” in five-lines. Again, the first, second and fifth lines rhyme, and the third and fourth lines, which are shorter, have a different rhyme.
The form originated in England in the 18th century and became popular in the 19th century. Wikipedia says, “Gershon Legman, who compiled the largest and most scholarly anthology, held that the true limerick as a folk form is always obscene … . From a folkloric point of view, the form is essentially transgressive; violation of taboo is part of its function.”
Wikipedia cites the following example is a limerick of unknown origin:
The limerick packs laughs anatomical Into space that is quite economical. But the good ones I’ve seen So seldom are clean And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
A Clean Limerick on Lefse Is Life
So you see the risk of running a Lefse Is Life Limerick Contest. To be true to form, a lefse limerick, it appears, should be “obscene” and “frequently rude” and a “violation of taboo.” Oh, dear!
Well, following the exact form of a limerick will never do in here Lefse Land. We have our fun with lefse, but we are never rude or obscene. No, no, no!
And yet … and yet … it is possible to dance along the borders of the true limerick to create an entertaining Lefse Is Life limerick. Check this out:
“Simplify, simplify,” wrote Thoreau
Keep it simple, and skip all the woe
So lefse Leif made
Then sat in the shade
Saying, “Lefse Is Life, doncha know!”
Gary Legwold
For the Lefse Is Life Limerick Contest, again, you must write a limerick about life and lefse. Go deep, go hokey, make it all one big jokey. It’s limerick time in Lefse Land!
Ok, your turn. Write your Lefse Is Life limericks and enter the contest. Keep it clean, remember, but be bold and be brave! Check out this site on how to write a limerick. Again, do your very best with having seven to nine beats in the first, second, and fifth lines with the last word in those lines rhyming. Then five to seven beats in the third and fourth lines, with the last word in those lines having a different rhyme than the last word in the first, second, and fifth lines.
Send your limerick or limericks to glegwold@lutefisk.com. Submit as many limericks as you want until midnight on March 31, 2024. Winners will be announced in my April newsletter. Oh, winners will receive:
This t-shirt, which says it all, is for the winner of the 4th Annual Lefse Limerick Contest.
OTHER WINNERS. If you don’t win first place, there is a chance your Lefse Is Life limerick can still win one of the following two prizes:
Now is the time for lefse limerick writers to rise up and put down bold and clever limericks on Lefse Is Life. Enter the 4th Annual Lefse Limerick Contest by emailing limericks to glegwold@lutefisk.com. You have until March 31, 2024. Good luck!
To reduce the amount of toil in ricing potatoes when making big batches of lefse, I use an electric food grinder.
I am up late doing this blog for the newsletter because I’ve been making lefse dough, lots of it. In the morning, customers who ordered bags of lefse for Thanksgiving will pick up their rounds and folks will keep coming throughout the day. I love it! I get excited that so many people get excited about this tradition of serving good lefse for perhaps my favorite holiday. I can’t think of anything better than giving thanks.
I enjoy making these holiday batches, but it’s hard work. Of course, one way to reduce the work is to use instant potatoes. However, I like the flavor a little more that comes with boiling potatoes with the skins on, so I don’t usually go the instant route. With boiling potatoes to make lefse dough, I’ve learned how to lessen the work, so here are four tips on how to stress less and smile more when making mega amounts of lefse.
1. Use Instant Pots
You can schedule when you want your potatoes cooked with Instant Pots.to have
I boil potatoes in pots on the stove, plus I use Instant Pots. I can boil the same amount of potatoes in the Instant Pot as the pots on the stove, and I can program the Instant Pots to have the potatoes done at a certain time. They are electric, so I don’t have to use burners on the stove. And if I am not available when the potatoes are done, the Instant Pot keeps them warm for at least an hour. All in all, using Instant Pots gives me flexibility and makes it possible that I am not overwhelmed with all my potatoes getting done at once.
2. Use a Food Grinder
The grinder has a grinding plate with holes that are about the same size as ricer holes. After the potatoes are cooked, I peel the skins and use what’s called a stomper to feed the potatoes into an auger that pushes the spuds through the grinding plate (see opening photo). I skip the mashing potatoes step by using the grinder. However, I don’t skip hand ricing entirely. I hand rice the potatoes that have gone through the grinder to get as many lumps out of the dough as possible. I’m sure there is a grinder plate that has smaller holes yet, but I’m concerned that pushing potatoes through the grinder twice may leave them too soupy. Plus, ricing is traditional and not using a hand ricer in making lefse just wouldn’t seem right.
3. Use a Cushioned Mat
Get a cushioned mat that helps ease the strain on your feet and on up the line.
This mat is a must when I make lefse. I have one in my kitchen and carry one to markets when I roll there. Use one of these mats. Your feet, knees, hips and back will thank you — and let you know loud and clear when you are not standing on the mat when rolling.
4. Use Compression Socks
Keep your feet and legs happy wearing graduated compression socks. Ah, yes!
Keep your feet happy. After making lefse for hours and hours, my dogs are barking and my calves are calling! I have always used shoes with good arch support, but I also wear — and sell — Burlix Graduated Compression Socks. They are wonderful, and I’m not going back to plain old socks for lefse making. I also wear them when I do a lot of standing in the shop. And during the winter, they add a bit of warmth, which is always good.
Due North Gluten Free Bread Flour shows promise for making lefse.
In my ongoing campaign to find a gluten-free lefse recipe, I tried making lefse yesterday using Due North Gluten Free Bread Flour, which I discovered at last month’s Norsk Hostfest in Minot, North Dakota. Here is what I learned:
I substituted Due North’s GF flour for regular flour 1:1. However, when mixing the flour with my potato-butter-cream-sugar-salt mixture, I added one egg and mixed that in. I was told to do that by the Due North owners. The added egg created a sticky dough, so I added slightly more flour than what I normally add with regular flour just so this dough could be handled and rolled.
Rolling this dough with Due North’s GF flour was very good. Most GF flours make dough that is grainy, and the rolled out lefse rounds are thicker than normal and have an uneven edge with splits and cracks. This makes it impossible to roll a round round. Due North GF flour made a dough that could be rolled thin, and the edge, while not entirely smooth, had fewer irregularities than most rounds made of GF flour.
Turning the thin rolled-out round and transferring the round to the grill was also very good. The rounds did not fall apart, which often happens with rounds made of most GF flours. In fact, with many rounds made of GF flour, I have had to use two turning sticks to carefully lift one round to the grill. Not so, with Due North’s GF flour. No problem with the thin round hanging together.
Grilling was fine. My only wish is that the lefse would have been a bit more tender.
Taste was also fine. Jane Legwold, my wife who is gluten-free but not celiac, said the Due North had a little bit less of a potato taste but was good lefse overall. Butter spread on the lefse brought moisture to the round, she said, and this round made with Due North’s GF flour was more tender than lefse made with other GF flours — and she had no symptoms that she always gets with eating gluten. She added this lefse is not like tender, really good lefse made with regular flour by a really good lefse maker, but nothing is. All in all, thumbs up.
Ah, the good life: lutefisk at the Minnesota State Fair!
I asked at the information booth about THE new food at the Minnesota State Fair: Crispy Lutefisk Steamed Buns. Judging from the knowing “here’s another one” look on the volunteer’s face, I figured that the word was out and fair goers were going for the lutefisk a lot. Indeed, there were 173,724 people in attendance that Sunday, and I was sure that all but five of them were there to try the lutefisk!
The Minnesota State Fair was especially crowded the Sunday I was there, and I was sure the main attraction was THE new food at the fair: Crispy Lutefisk Steamed Buns.
Jane Legwold and I made our way through the crowds of strollers and backpacks and people waiting in long lines for Pronto Pups. (An average of nearly 30,000 Pronto Pups are sold daily at the fair.) We finally reached Shanghai Henri’s, where the Crispy Lutefisk Steamed Buns entree was sold. Now, the lines were nothing like Pronto Pup lines, but business was brisk. The guys waiting on me said they sold out of the “lutee” the day before, and things were hopping already at 11 a.m. In fact, the orders of “two lutees and a 20 oz.” (of beer) were in the air when I waited for my order. (Was the beer for washing down the food or for bracing for the lutefisk?)
I received my four buns, each cuddling a slice of baked lutefisk. The lutefisk was not boiled and jelly-like, which took off the table one of the typical complaints about lutefisk. Also, there was no fishy odor, another plus. The fish was covered with a delicious sweet hoisin sauce, then baked and topped with sesame seeds. Beneath the lutefisk was a blend of cabbage, carrots, cilantro and yum yum sauce.
I was about ready to eat my first bite, but I paused. It was the same kind of pause that happens before you push off on a zip line. A nearby man had been watching me. He laughed and shouted, “What are you waiting for?”
I smiled and said, “I’m collecting my thoughts.” I could have meant I was collecting my thoughts before I put together a prayer for strength and tolerance.
In a word, it was tasty. The hoisin over the fish and the vegetables dominated, but I could still detect enough of the lutefisk flavor to tell that it was indeed lutefisk. The bun was OK but a bit filling, but all in all the dish was good and very creative.
A man sat nearby with his daughter, I assumed, and appeared to be enjoying his lutefisk. His unsmiling daughter gave him sideways glances as if to say, “Dad, don’t do that in public.” She smiled when I asked her about what she thought of lutefisk and said she doesn’t eat it. The dad said he liked it and was impressed that for $14.25 there was a lot of food in the serving.
I asked another man what he thought of the lutefisk. “You know, I have not had lutefisk in 10 years,” he said, chuckling. “When I saw this was a new food at the state fair, I had to come and give it a try. I like it.”
There was relief in the responses, not only that the lutefisk was fun and tasty … but that the tasters had lived to tell about it.
For the first time, lutefisk is being served at the Minnesota State Fair. What if people actually LIKE it?
Jane Legwold, who is gluten-sensitive, savoring her first lefse she has eaten in years.
You know that old joke about the Norwegian who loved his wife so much that … that he almost told her? Well, two days ago I loved that Jane Legwold, my wife pictured above, could now eat lefse — good lefse — that I almost told her!
Actually, I did tell her how genuinely happy I was that she could once again eat tender, tasty lefse after decades of abstaining or eating crumbly, inferior lefse made with gluten-free flours. To these flours I would add xanthan gum in a effort to replace gluten and hold the lefse dough together as I rolled and baked. Often, however, the rolled out dough, which was a bit crumbly, never became a round round, just a jagged splat. And the round regularly fell apart in getting it to the grill, to the point that I had to use two turning sticks and a delicate touch to do the job. The end product rolled up and eaten fairly soon after making it passed as lefse, I suppose, and was a blessing to those who could eat that or nothing at Christmas.
The last time Jane and I were at both our local coop and grocery store, we found Jovial einkorn flour. You can also find it online. Jane had heard about einkorn. It is a wheat NOT recommended for those with celiac disease. However, for those who are not celiac but are gluten sensitive, which Jane is, einkorn can be a just the thing because it is very low in gluten. It is made of wheat that has never been hybridized and has tiny grains with less carbohydrates, more protein and a surprisingly sweet flavor. Here’s how it is explained on the Jovial website:
Einkorn has never been hybridized and contains the original 14 chromosomes while modern hybrids have 42. Over time, in an effort to increase yield to feed a growing population, wheat was transformed from this simple grain to a high yielding modern food source that was versatile and hardy. Einkorn does contain gluten but the proteins that make up the gluten in einkorn are short, weak and brittle and break easily when mixed with water. Einkorn has a very different ratio of glutenins to gliadins which are the proteins that make up gluten. This property has made einkorn easy to tolerate by many who find the strong, stretchy gluten of modern wheat flour impossible to digest.
This all sounded too good to be true, but we bought the einkorn flour and I made a small batch of lefse dough with it kneaded in. I used my same recipe that I use for my regular lefse, but I simply subbed in the einkorn flour for the King Arthur all-purpose flour I normally use.
The dough was indeed sweet naturally and not crumbly. It rolled to make a round round. No jagged edges. I was encouraged. There were sticking issues, so I went extra light on the rolling pin and kept my rounds smaller than I normally roll, turning the rounds often in the rolling and moving them around my covered pastry board to prevent sticking. I also “sawed” my turning stick under each finished round to make sure the round was not sticking.
This lefse round with einkorn flour rolls out nicely without the ragged edges that are typical with lefse dough containing gluten-free flour.
So far so good. Now getting the round to the grill. Using just one stick, I lifted the round and rotated the stick to flatten the round on the grill. No problem! My excitement grew.
This lefse does not fall apart when transferring the round to the grill, which often happens with rounds make with gluten-free flour.
On the grill, the lefse browned beautifully, and the rounds were tender and soft after cooling.
I tasted the einkorn flour lefse, and it was very good. Moist, tender, tasty — just like real lefse! I was jovial!
But I am not gluten sensitive. Jane is, and with hope but also some fear that this einkorn flour thing was more marketing than truth, she spread butter on the round and rolled it. She slowly ate the round, waiting for the signs of how gluten affects her: trouble swallowing, aching joints, foggy thinking and bloating.
Nothing. No symptoms as the hours passed and in the next few days.
We are wary still that with repeated eating of the einkorn flour lefse, symptoms will return. But maybe not, and this is a very good sign.
Again, this is not for people with celiac, just for those like Jane, who are gluten sensitive.
I get asked a lot if I have a gluten-free recipe, and I always have to say no. I have not found a gluten-free lefse recipe that I can get behind. They yield lefse that is just passable. But I am hopeful about einkorn flour lefse dough. It makes lefse that is more than passable. It’s pretty dang good!
Sharon and Bob Hovland to my left at this year’s Potato Days Festival in Barnesville, Minnesota.
Everyone has a lefse story, at least in Lefse Land, and I hear lots of them when I sell at events such as the recent Potato Days Festival in Barnesville, Minnesota. The following story was told to me by Sharon and Bob Hovland of Barnesville, pictured above.
It seems that Wilma Fredrichs (Meyer) once traveled from Iowa to visit the Hovlands. Wilma musta chuckled when she told of the time she made lefse for a dinner, and when she finished placed her stack of lefse rounds on the dining room table. It was a potluck, and one of the guests arrived with a casserole, warm and ready to serve. With Wilma prepping food in the kitchen, the guest saw this distinctly attractive hot pad with brown spots on the table and, thinking Wilma had meant the hot pad was for the casserole, placed the casserole dish on the hot pad.
Wilma emerged from the kitchen, and all appeared to be ready on the table for the dinner … except one thing. “Where’s the lefse?” said Wilma.
The guests who brought the casserole didn’t know what lefse was and were flummoxed. Wilma figured out PDQ that the lefse was under the casserole dish and removed the dish.
Guest were blown away with the lefse (no surprise) and how tasty and tender it was … especially served warm.
"Here's What You Do With Lefse"
Use lefse as a shingle or
As chaps if you're a cowpoke.
You want a saddle blanket then?
Try lefse ... just a small joke.
What else? How 'bout as napkins or
As tire patches, too?
A bath mat made of lefse, though,
Is soon to turn to goo.
Lefse makes some nice diplomas.
As sheepskins, they would do.
If just Norwegians got them, though,
Who would you give them to?
It's just like toilet paper, but
That's simply lacking taste.
I say to those who make this claim:
"Lefse surely ain't for waste!"
Don't use it as a handkerchief
No, lefse wouldn't do.
To those who say that this is done
Just say that that snot true.
Alas, we've had some fun here
You have to know it's so.
The only use for lefse is
For eating, don't ya know.
From The Last Word on Lefse: Heartwarming Stories—and Recipes Too!
The Minnesota State Fair has never selected a lutefisk dish as one of its official new foods. Until now.
Now it’s the dish on everyone’s radar as we approach the Aug. 24 kickoff to the Great Minnesota Get Together: Crispy Lutefisk Steam Buns at Shanghai Henri’s food stand.
Star Tribune July 14, 2023
The good is that lutefisk is finally getting its moment on the big stage, the Minnesota State Fair, the second largest state fair attracting 2 million visitors in 12 days, compared with Texas, the largest state fair attracting 2.25 million in 24 days. And the vendor has ordered 2 tons of lutefisk for the fair. Impressive!
The not-so-good, perhaps, is the State Fair lutefisk will be dressed up so much that it won’t look like lutefisk nor taste much like it, either. “The exterior,” says the article, “is brushed with sweet-salty hoisin sauce and broiled until there’s a crispy crust.” This preparation of lutefisk is served in white-bread soft buns (see opening photo).
I gotta admit, that looks and sounds delicious, and I am making a special trip to the State Fair to sample it. (I think the last time I was at the State Fair was in 2018 when I just had to try Uffda Ale, a beer with a lefse crisp served on the side. It was good!) My hope is a lot of people try the State Fair lutefisk and like it and become lutefisk fans.
My Fear
My fear is this: If and when they try traditional lutefisk—no hoisin sauce or broiled crust, just a white sauce or melted butter—they’ll be bummed and feel duped, joining the ranks of lutefisk haters who have good stories about bad lutefisk. Or think about this: What if they do like it and go around crowing about how great lutefisk is. Hmmm. It’s like they passed a test but the test was watered down, or in this case hoisined up. So without the fishy smell or the jelly texture that lutefisk veterans have proudly endured (like war scars), there was nothing to hate—and part of the lore of lutefisk is the love-hate. Lutefisk lovers still like to poke fun at lutefisk but feel as if they have earned the right to be in an elite club of true lutefisk lovers who fully comprehend the lye of lutefisk.
I’m hopeful, however, and optimistic. This State Fair lutefisk shows imagination and a willingness to honor a grand old traditional food by adding some pizzaz. (Hey, I’ve made aquavit lefse, so I get it. ) That lutefisk finally has become a State Fair food is an indicator that this delightful, disputed, enduring and I dare say endearing dish is important to a lot of people. Otherwise, it would not be at the State Fair.
But if you don’t make it to the State Fair but do make it to a church basement dinner where the lutefisk is not overcooked or, better yet, a lutefisk dinner prepared by a friend, then expect a wonderful meal—I kid you not—that you’ll remember the rest of your life.
Taking lefse to the streets in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.
Lefse is viewed as a limited edition of tradition, served at dressy Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with tablecloths and candles. But every summer, which is typically the lefse off-season, there are signs of life and vitality in Lefse Land.
Here are four examples:
I’m about ready to leave a wonderful fundraiser a couple of weeks ago when I’m invited into a friendly family feud about lefse. Which is better, brown sugar or white sugar on lefse? Of course, neither is better; it’s all personal. That bit of diplomacy didn’t fly, especially when Jane, my wife, jumped in and played the trump card by mentioning that I am the Lefse King. So I was pressed and said I prefer white sugar and cinnamon, which was the choice of part of the family but not the other, more vocal, part. The conversation went round and round, which supports my thesis that lefse and lutefisk are social ignitors. Mention those words at any—any—gathering and a lively and entertaining conversation will follow. This conversation ended with me and Mr. Brown Sugar bumping fists and smiling.
Back in June, Kristin Enger Niemi in Fresno, California, emailed that she usually makes her own lefse but couldn’t because she needed a shoulder replacement. Her 13-year-old son, Kurt, who had been making lefse since age 7, asked Kristin to make lefse so he could take it to school the next Monday. There was a happy ending because I made 15 rounds and FedExed it overnight so it arrived in time and in Fresno fresh.
Earlier this month, Jessie Turner in Spring Hill, Florida, sent an email on a Monday marked urgent. Oh dear! She needed 6 rounds of lefse delivered by Friday “for the star of a birthday party.” She could not find anyone from that lefse-less outpost to help her out. Could I fill the order and FedEx? I did and received a nice text from Jessie saying, “You have no idea how special this is for us to have for our celebration.”
Larry Lafayette of Minneapolis, who sends enewsletter items from time to time, sent this video of a lefse stand in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota (see photo). In the video, you’ll see Kathy Johnson and her grandchildren taking lefse to the people. She says she hopes their efforts will help make sure the grand old tradition will be “passed down to generations to come.” Someone say Amen!
