Name: Janssons Frestelse
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Swedish
Ingredients: 800 g waxy potatoes, in 5 mm matchsticks; 2 onions, thinly sliced; 40 g butter; 100 g Swedish anchovy fillets (ansjovis), with the brine; 300 ml double cream; 100 ml whole milk; ¼ tsp white pepper; 3 tbsp dry breadcrumbs; 1 tbsp butter, to dot

Janssons Frestelse

A Swedish gratin of sliced potatoes, onions and anchovy fillets baked in cream for 50 minutes, the Christmas table classic.

1 hr 10 min total Serves 4 servings Easy

Make Ahead and Storage

Keeps for 3 days in the fridge. Reheat in the oven.

How to Make Janssons Frestelse

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Heat the oven to 200°C / 390°F. Soften the onions in the 40 g butter for 10 minutes.
Layer half the potatoes in a buttered dish, add the onions and fish, and cover with the remaining potatoes.
Mix the cream, milk, fish brine and pepper and pour over slowly.
Scatter with the breadcrumbs and dot with butter. Bake for 50 minutes until deep golden.
Rest for 10 minutes before serving.

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Worth Knowing

Look for Swedish anchovies in tins.
Pour the cream slowly.
Rest before serving.

Behind the Recipe

Does the dish need Swedish anchovies? It does, because these are not the same as the Mediterranean kind. Swedish anchovies, sold as ansjovis, are sprats cured with sugar and spices, sweeter and milder, and the flavour is the point of Janssons frestelse, the potato gratin of the Swedish Christmas table. Look for them in tins marked ansjovis, or use regular anchovies in smaller quantity.

Cut potatoes into thin matchsticks, about 5 mm, and soften sliced onions in butter for 10 minutes. Layer the potatoes, onions and fish in a buttered dish, starting and finishing with potatoes. Pour over the cream and the fish brine slowly, so that it seeps down. Dot with butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Bake at 200°C / 390°F for 50 minutes, until the top is deep golden and the potatoes are soft when pierced. Rest for 10 minutes before serving. Serve hot with cold meats, fish and bread on the julbord, or alone with a green salad. The dish is better the next day, reheated, as the flavours have mingled and the cream has set into the potato.

Serving Ideas

Ham · Green salad · Aquavit · Crisp bread

Ingredient Swaps

In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.