Kål, køkken og kulturlandskab - om anvendelsen af grønsager i det danske køkken cirka 1790-2010

Resumé

Det nye nordiske køkken er i dag et højtprofileret begreb i den gastronomiske verden, og der er udsendt et manifest med de bagvedliggende ideer. Begrebet forbindes blandt andet med restauranten Noma, der er kåret til verdens bedste spisested. I artiklen beskrives retningens ideer, og det analyseres, hvor tæt disse ideer ligger på det historiske danske landkøkken, og hvorfor dette køkken i 1960’erne blev forladt, blandt andet da kvinderne kom ud på arbejdsmarkedet.Det diskuteres, i hvilken grad disse ideer kan danne basis for en hverdagskost, der kan være med til at forbedre danskernes sundhedstilstand og mindske fødevareproduktionens skadelige virkning på miljø og klima.

Summary

In a cross-disciplinary research council project, the authors have analysed how a number of vegetables (kale, cabbage, ox heart cabbage, red cabbage, carrots, celeriac and beetroot) have been part of the Danish kitchen for the last two hundred years. The article does not analyse the specific use, but looks instead at how cookery authors have regarded and integrated these products in their recipes. We have investigated two major groups of sources: cookbooks since around 1790, and the women’s magazine Femina since the 1960s. We have focussed on four main periods: i) the bourgeois kitchen c.1790-1840 in the time of the open fireplace, ii) the bourgeois kitchen c.1880-1920 after the introduction of the burning stove, iii) the period 1965-1974 during industrialization and the creation of the welfare state, and iv) the period after 2000 where the health wave and the New Scandinavian Cooking movement played a significant role in the attitude towards cabbage and root crops. Our analysis shows that in the first two periods cookery authors considered cabbage and other root crops as subordinate in a kitchen strongly dominated by beef and later on other meats. The variation was small and the use of vegetables modest. During the nineteenth century, the potato became the dominant vegetable. vegetarianism was predominantly a northern European trend towards the end of the century as was a higher attention towards health and the useful effects of vegetables. The vegetarian movement, however, did not have a strong impact in Denmark. From the 1960s, Denmark experienced its real industrialisation and the welfare state expanded. It brought hundreds of thousands of women into the labour market and new kitchen machines and prefabricated foods and meals gained ground for these busy women with a job outside the home. For the period 1965-74, we have examined 3,652 weekly meal plans in Femina. They have shown that cabbage and root crops played a minor role and were looked upon as old-fashioned and time-consuming. After the turn of the new millennium, the interest for vegetables and especially cabbage and root crops changed strikingly. One reason was a new and strong attention towards the interrelation between food and health, and secondly the initiative of New Scandinavian Cooking or New Nordic Cuisine as it is also labelled. This study is partly a political-ideological project aimed at articulating the interest for the use of original Scandinavian foods. Simultaneously, it is a project that has evoked a considerable response within the middle class because it creates a narrative about authenticity and originality that speaks to the modern, individualised consumer.