Rotmos med fläsklägg

The story

Rotmos means root mash in Swedish: rutabaga, carrots and usually some potato, boiled soft and mashed with a little of the meat broth. Served with a lightly salted pork hock boiled until the meat slides off the bone, it becomes fläsklägg med rotmos, one of the standard dishes of husmanskost, Sweden's traditional everyday cooking. The rutabaga has deep Scandinavian roots. The Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin noted in 1620 that it grew wild in Sweden, the American name comes from the Swedish dialect word rotabagge, and the vegetable reached Scotland by way of Sweden around 1781, which is why the British call it a swede. Like other roots, rutabagas keep for several months in a cold cellar. ICA's recipe simmers the hock with allspice and bay leaves for about three hours, then seasons the mash with a little of its salty cooking liquid. ICA's husmanskost guide describes it as the kind of dish for which grandmother's old recipe comes out of the drawer. Serve it with mustard, as Swedes usually do, and keep the leftover broth for a pot of pea soup later in the week.