Sweden
Janssons Frestelse
Jansson's Temptation: potatoes, anchovies and onions, baked golden in heavy cream
30 min hands-on · 60 min waiting·8 servings
anchovy fillets
Scandinavian ansjovis are not Mediterranean anchovies but sprats cured in a sweet spiced brine with allspice, clove and cinnamon, soft, mildly salty and aromatic.
What Swedes and Norwegians call ansjovis are filleted sprats matured for several months in a brine of salt, sugar and spices, often tinted reddish with sandalwood. Apart from the name they have little in common with the salted anchovies of Mediterranean cooking: they are much milder, sweetish and spiced rather than sharply salty, and the flesh is so tender that it nearly melts when baked. The brine is used in cooking as well and carries much of the flavour. The closest relatives outside Scandinavia are spiced cured sprats or herring sold as Anchosen in Germany. Genuine Scandinavian ansjovis come in small tins and can be found in Scandinavian food shops or ordered online.
Substitute:
The best stand-in is spiced cured sprats or herring in brine, which come fairly close to the original. Mediterranean anchovies are a poor substitute: they are far saltier and fishier, and the sweet spiced note is missing entirely. If you use them anyway, take about half the amount and balance with a pinch of sugar and ground allspice, but the dish will still taste noticeably different.
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