Kräftskiva Crayfish

Crayfish boiled in salted beer with crown dill for the August Swedish crayfish party

Origin: Sweden

From the journey of Dill.

Kräftskiva is the Swedish crayfish party, held on August evenings out of doors, with paper hats, paper lanterns of the man in the moon, bibs, schnapps, and a great deal of singing. It is one of the fixed points of the Swedish year. It exists because of a law. Crayfish stocks were falling by the late nineteenth century and fishing was restricted to a season beginning in August, which turned the first legal catch into an occasion. Premiär, the opening, fell on the second Wednesday of August for decades, and although the restriction was lifted in 1994 the party stayed exactly where it was. The cooking is nothing at all: crayfish are boiled for a few minutes in a heavily salted brine flavoured with beer and dill, then left to cool in that brine overnight. All the flavour comes from the soak rather than the cooking, which is why the recipe is really a marinade with a brief boil attached. What goes in is kronddill, crown dill, meaning the whole flowering head at the point where the seeds have set but not dried. It is a different ingredient from the leafy herb: more resinous, closer to the seed in character, and far more assertive. Swedish greengrocers sell it by the armful through August for exactly this and for pickling, and the two uses are the reason it is grown at all. The fish is eaten cold, with the fingers, noisily, with Västerbottensost pie, bread, and a schnapps for every song. Sweden imports vast quantities of signal crayfish for the occasion, since the native noble crayfish has never recovered its numbers.

Ingredients

Crayfish

  • 2 kg live or cooked-and-frozen crayfish

Brine

  • 3 litres water
  • 330 ml lager or light beer
  • 150 g coarse sea salt
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 6 heads crown dill (kronddill), flowering heads with seeds set
  • 1 large bunch fresh dill, for the pot and for serving
  • 1 tbsp white peppercorns, lightly crushed

Method

  1. Bring the water, beer, salt, sugar, four of the crown dill heads, half the fresh dill, and the peppercorns to a rolling boil in a very large pan and boil for ten minutes to make the brine.
  2. If using live crayfish, put them into the freezer for twenty minutes first to render them insensible, then drop them head first into the hard-boiling brine a few at a time so the temperature does not drop.
  3. Boil for six to eight minutes from the point the liquid returns to the boil, depending on size, until the shells are uniformly red.
  4. Take the pan off the heat and push the remaining crown dill heads and fresh dill down into the liquid amongst the crayfish.
  5. Cool the pan as quickly as you can, then refrigerate the crayfish in their brine for at least twelve hours and preferably twenty-four.
  6. Lift the crayfish out, pile them on a large dish, and tuck fresh dill fronds and a crown or two amongst them.
  7. Serve cold with bread, a strong mature cheese, and schnapps, and put out bibs and finger bowls.

Notes

Crown dill is sold by Scandinavian grocers through August and is worth ordering. If it cannot be found, substitute 3 tbsp of dill seed plus a very large bunch of leafy dill, which gets close; leafy dill alone will not, because the resinous seed character is most of what the brine is for. Cooked frozen crayfish are what most Swedes actually buy, and they are entirely legitimate. Thaw them in the refrigerator and give them a full twenty-four hours in the cold brine. The same brine works for prawns and for the Finnish and Estonian versions of the party. The traditional accompaniment is Västerbottensostpaj, a quiche of the hard, crystalline cheese from Västerbotten, along with crispbread, butter, and a strong cheese. Schnapps is drunk in small glasses after each drinking song, and the songs are not optional.

The Gastrographer

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