Kalops

The Swedish beef stew that is beef, onion, bay, and a great many whole allspice berries

Origin: Sweden

From the journey of Allspice.

Kalops is one of Sweden's oldest surviving everyday dishes and one of the plainest, and it exists to demonstrate what allspice does. There are four things in it: beef, onion, bay, and kryddpeppar. No wine, no tomato, no stock cube, no herbs beyond the bay, and nothing to hide behind. The beef is a cheap cut browned and then simmered for two hours or more with the onions until the connective tissue has gone to gelatine, and the whole aromatic character of the finished dish comes from a small handful of whole allspice berries dropped in at the start. The word comes from the English collops, meaning slices of meat, and arrived in Swedish in the eighteenth century, which places the dish squarely in the period when allspice was becoming cheap and general across northern Europe. That is not a coincidence. Clove and nutmeg were luxuries; allspice tasted of both and, once Jamaica was producing at scale under British control, cost a fraction as much. A great deal of Nordic cooking that reads as clove-scented is allspice-scented and always was. The berries go in whole and stay whole, and Swedes eat around them rather than straining them out. Ground allspice does not work here: it clouds the sauce, gives up everything in the first ten minutes, and leaves nothing for the second hour. It is served with boiled potatoes and pickled beetroot, and the beetroot is not optional. Its sweet-sour sharpness is what the dish is balanced against.

Ingredients

Beef

  • 1 kg beef chuck or shin, cut into 4 cm cubes
  • 2 tbsp plain flour
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 0.5 tsp freshly ground white pepper

Cooking

  • 40 g butter
  • 3 whole onions, thickly sliced
  • 2 whole carrots, thickly sliced

Aromatics

  • 15 whole allspice berries, whole
  • 3 whole bay leaves

Liquid

  • 700 ml beef stock or water

To Finish

  • 3 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped

To Serve

  • 800 g boiled potatoes, to serve
  • 200 g pickled beetroot, to serve

Method

  1. Pat the beef thoroughly dry and toss it with the flour, salt, and white pepper.
  2. Melt half the butter in a heavy casserole and brown the beef hard in batches, setting each aside as it colours.
  3. Add the remaining butter and cook the onions and carrots over a medium heat for eight to ten minutes until softened and lightly golden.
  4. Return the beef with any juices, add the whole allspice berries and the bay, and pour in the stock so the meat is just covered.
  5. Bring to a bare simmer, cover, and cook very gently for two to two and a half hours, until the beef gives completely to a fork.
  6. Check the liquid once or twice and add a splash of water if it reduces too far. It should be a loose gravy rather than a thick sauce.
  7. Taste and adjust the salt. Do not remove the allspice berries.
  8. Scatter with parsley and serve with plainly boiled potatoes and pickled beetroot.

Notes

Whole berries only. Ground allspice gives everything up in the first ten minutes and turns the sauce muddy. Chuck or shin, not a lean cut. The dish depends on connective tissue turning to gelatine. Some recipes add a splash of vinegar at the end, which is a Skåne habit and worth trying. It is better on the second day and freezes well. Serve with boiled potatoes and pickled beetroot, and nothing else. Kalops is husmanskost, everyday home cooking, and dressing it up misses the point.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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