Kaviar

 

The Swedes call it "caviare" (kaviar), or more precisely "sandwich caviare" (smörgåskaviar). It's an iconic everyday brand in Sweden, but it's not actually that old.  It was introduced in 1954 by Aktiebolaget Bröderna Ameln (subsequently Abba AB, now Abba Seafood), a firm based in Bohuslän on the west coast of Sweden. (It isn't part of my very earliest childhood memories, and I suppose my mother, a northern Swede living in England since the mid-1950s, hadn't yet come across it.)

Though described on the tube as "mildly smoked" (mildrökt), it's a robustly flavoured spread, good with boiled eggs or straight on crispbread (or rye bread, as I'm demonstrating here in this photo of my breakfast). It's basically sweet-salted cod roe, mixed with rapeseed oil, potato flakes, and tomato puree, plus a bit more salt, potassium sorbate and ascorbic acid.

The recipe was purchased in 1954 from a gårdfarihandlare or nasare, i.e. a pedlar. (Once an important feature of rural life in Sweden, they supplied small grocery items and household goods to farms and villages.)

When the spread proved popular with children, Abba marketed it as "Kalle's caviare" (Kalles kaviar) and added the picture (based on a photograph of the CEO's son Carl) that still appears on the tubes 65 years later. (Kalle is an informal version of Carl.)

Swedes are much more attached than Brits to buying foods in tubes. Here, we'd typically think only of  tomato puree, and toothpaste. But over there, besides kaviar and messmör, there are a host of other sandwich spreads commonly sold in tubes: cheese, meat and fish products, pates, pickles and mayonnaise. A particular favourite of our family was buckling pate (böcklingpastej); apparently it's still around, but I haven't tasted it for far too many years. Maybe next time . . .

Predominantly these tubes are still made out of aluminium rather than plastic, so wise consumers roll them neatly from the far end to prevent any cracking. 

(As proudly shown on the tube, Abba Seafood were one of several cod fisheries that acquired MSC status in 2017 when stocks seemed to have recovered from the crisis of 2006; but this status may be temporary.  In 2019 it was reported that North Sea cod stocks were collapsing again.)