Whatever fløts your grøt

Fløtegrøt is a Norwegian creamy pudding still enjoyed on special occasions today in Norway and parts of the United States with a history of immigration from Norway. The word fløtegrøt is a compound of the words fløte (cream) and and grøt (porridge). It is thickened with flour and can be flavored with sweetener and spices.

A 100-year-old recipe from the St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN) Phi Kappa Phi Literary Society's cookbook explains the modern process of making the pudding:

“Use a round bottomed kettle; have a good pudding stick. Take rich cream – if a little sour it may be used anyway. Let it come to a boil, then sift in flour gradually, stirring rapidly. When about as thick as cornstarch pudding do not put in more flour. Let it boil and stir constantly, and the butter will be given off. As it floats pour it off into a cup and put on back of stove to keep warm. When you can drain off no more butter add a little warm milk and stir…Cook well, stirring continually. When done serve with the hot butter drippings, sugar and cinnamon. This mush is very rich and a quart of thick cream will make enough for six or eight persons.”

  

Kathleen Stokker in Remedies and Rituals: Folk Medicine in Norway and the New Land describes a childbirth tradition brought to Minnesota by 19^th-Century Norwegian immigrants: 

“Mothers who survived the birth could look forward to the far more joyous custom of receiving the sengemat (bed food)…” 

She also relates a story from a doctor about his mother’s experience in 1857:

“…the neighbor woman came to see her and brought along fløtegrøt, such as had been the custom on similar occasions in Norway.” 

Stokker writes that the practice of sengemat dates back to Viking times, but offers no further explanation for this claim.

Toying with this idea of Vikings making fløtegrøt, I came up with a process of making the dish with ingredients more likely to be available in medieval Scandinavia, where white flour, sugar and cinnamon were hard to come by. I won't bore you with the details from my research into other flour-thickened puddings of the Middle Ages, but will just jump to the recipe:

Fløtegrøt

Pour a quart of cow's milk cream into a heavy kettle over a very low fire or hot coals. Stir frequently with a frayed stick or whisk. If butter rises to the surface, skim off and keep in a bowl. While the cream heats, sift some freshly ground wheat flour through a cloth to remove the bran. When the cream boils, slowly sprinkle in the flour, stirring constantly with the whisk to prevent lumps from forming. Keep sprinkling in flour and stirring until you have a thick pudding. Cook until the floury taste is gone. Thin out with warm milk if needed and sweeten with a small amount of honey. Best served warm with some of the melted butter drizzled on it. 

I made this version for an event last weekend and its creamy, slightly sweet flavor got rave reviews.  It is decadent, so serve small portions and use a quart of cream only if you want at least eight servings.  

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This one's not edible

To start, a bit of whining. My hands have been very dry and scaly during this winter, which has been longer and colder than others I've spent in Illinois. Also not helpful: we changed to a harsher soap in the kitchen at work, and several of us have been complaining a little about how rough our skin is. I guess that should, in a way, be reassuring to the public to know that I and my colleagues wash our hands frequently enough in the kitchen for it to be hard on our skin. 

I can't solve the problem by washing my hands less often, and my favorite go-to heavy-duty moisturizer, straight shea butter, has not been cutting it this year. My friend Grace turned me on to the idea of making sugar scrub at home for exfoliating. She had some simple recipes she tried using olive and coconut oils with regular table/baking sugar. Her hands looked great and felt soft, so I thought I'd give the idea a try. 

Turns out I'm not the only person from work trying homemade sugar scrub. My colleague Paige came in on her off-duty hours to purchase some ingredients for making hers with honey and olive oil. Putting together the ideas I got from these two ladies with some pieces of recipes from the Internet and a splash of some favorite oils I had around the house, I've devised a sugar scrub that has been a success. My hands are smooth again and less irritated.

Cedar-Orange Sugar Scrub with Argan Oil
Yield: about 1 1/2 cups sugar scrub

Note: this may sound and smell delicious, but the sugar scrub is not edible.

1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp argan oil
1 cup sugar (special coarse sugar not required, just use ordinary white sugar)
1 Tbsp honey
8 drops cedarwood essential oil
20 drops sweet orange essential oil

Adjust the amounts of essential oil to suit your sense of smell. I like mine more orangey. These are essential oils straight from the plants, not scented oil, which is another oil mixed with the essential oil.

Stir all the ingredients together in a bowl with a spoon or spatula. Package in a clean, dry, airtight container. Fill a very small container to store in the bathroom and refill it from the larger quantity stored in a cool, dry place somewhere else in the house. 
When you use the scrub, stir it around with your fingers, take up a small lump, rub it for several seconds on your hand/other dry skin area and rinse off the sugar with warm water. Dry by patting, not rubbing, with your towel. Follow up with another moisturizer just before bedtime for extra hydrating. Careful of using this scrub in the shower/bathtub. The oil can make your shower floor/bath slippery. 

Variations: use alternative essential oils to find the scent you like. Relax with lavender or ylang-ylang, wake up with citrus or lemongrass, get woodsy with cedar or patchouli. You could even copy kitchen scents with vanilla extract or coffee powder or ground spices from your own kitchen shelves.

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