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The wet lefse is dipped in water, and then placed within a towel which has also been dipped in water and wrung out. Many people maintain that dipping in salted or seawater enhances the flavor. The dry lefse regains its bread-like texture in about 60 minutes. Often that time is used to prepare such ingredients as eggs or herring, which are wrapped in the lefse once it has softened.
==Lefse in the United States==
===Holidays===
Lefse is a Scandinavian treat that is especially popular around the Christmas holidays.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Prichep|first1=Deena|title=For Norwegian-Americans, Christmas Cheer Is Wrapped Up In Lefse|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/12/19/371941681/for-christmas-cheer-is-wrapped-up-in-lefse|website=Npr.org|publisher=Npr.org|access-date=8 November 2017}}</ref> Many [[Scandinavian-Americans]] eat lefse primarily around [[Thanksgiving]] and [[Christmas]].
[[File:Dessert_Lefse.jpeg|thumb|Dessert lefse, butter and sugar]]
===History===
====General====
[[File:Lefse.jpg|thumb|Potato lefse sold at the [[syttende mai]] festival in [[Spring Grove, Minnesota]]]]
While the Midwest generally always makes its lefse with potatoes, this is not necessarily the case in Norway. When one uses the term “lefse” in the United States, it typically refers to what Norwegians call potato lefse. Norwegians, however, also make Hardanger lefse with egg yolks and buttermilk.<ref name="dregni"/> The tradition of making lefse was brought over by [[Norwegian Americans]], and potato lefse itself was made when their potato crop was successful.<ref name="blegen 188">{{cite book|last1=Blegen|first1=Theodore|title=Norwegian Migration to America: The American Transition|date=1940|publisher=Haskell House|pages=188}}</ref> Due to this, it became more prevalent than other types in the United States. When lefse was able to be made, it was stored in small storage buildings called bryggehaus. When Norwegian immigrants first arrived in America, they did not have the usual foods they were used to back home, including milk and porridge, dried meat, and lefse,<ref name="blegen 188"/> but early Norwegian-American immigrants brought folded lefse to eat for the beginning stages of their journey via ship.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Blegen|first1=Theodore|title=Norwegian Migration to America: The American Transition|date=1940|publisher=Haskell House|pages=8}}</ref> After these were eaten, the lack of food they were used to is likely why they turned back to tradition so quickly.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dregni|first1=Eric|title=Vikings in the Attic: In Search of Nordic America|date=2011|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|location=Minnesota}}</ref>
During [[World War I]], Americans were encouraged to eat potatoes to be patriotic, as wheat was needed to feed the troops on the front lines. Lefse, a staple for Norwegian Americans, was eaten with gusto during this time.<ref name="dregni 17">{{cite book|last1=Dregni|first1=Eric|title=Vikings in the Attic: In Search of Nordic America|date=2011|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|location=Minnesota|pages=17}}</ref>
While lefse is generally not eaten with day-to-day meals in Norway today, Norwegian Americans traditionally give prominence to having lefse with dinner.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pilcher|first1=Jeffrey|title=The Oxford Handbook of Food History|date=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=437}}</ref>
====Keeping the tradition alive====
*Family members often gather to cook lefse as a group effort because the process is more enjoyable as a traditional holiday activity. This gathering also provides training to younger generations keeping the tradition alive.
*The [[Sons of Norway]] have lodges to teach making lefse to younger generations. A lodge in [[Vancouver, Washington]] uses up to 60 pounds of potatoes to make lefse every month.<ref name="vinje">{{cite web|last1=Vinje|first1=Judith|title=Lefse: Norwegian America's holy bread|url=https://www.norwegianamerican.com/food/lefse-norwegian-americas-holy-bread/|website=The Norwegian American|date=6 September 2016|publisher=The Norwegian American|access-date=26 October 2017}}</ref> While lefse used to be eaten as a snack food, it is now more often made in large quantities for such lutefisk dinners.<ref name="zanger"/>
*Some professional lefse makers can roll 85 to 100 lefse per hour, or even up to 140.<ref name="herzog">{{cite news|last1=Herzog|first1=Karen|title=Labor of lefse keeps tradition rolling|url=http://archive.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/35293984.html/|access-date=25 October 2017|publisher=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|date=2008-11-30}}</ref>
===Where lefse is found===
In Norway today, most families tend to purchase their lefse rather than making it. While today's Norwegian Americans consider making lefse at Christmas a tradition, more families are turning to purchase it from the store instead. For example, around $80,000 worth of lefse is generally sold around Christmas from Ingebretsen's Scandinavian Gifts in Minneapolis, Minnesota, yearly. Lefse can also be found in many grocery stores around Midwestern states,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dregni|first1=Eric|title=Vikings in the Attic: In Search of Nordic America|date=2011|publisher=Minnesota University Press|location=Minnesota|pages=249}}</ref> including [[Minnesota]], [[North Dakota]], [[South Dakota]], [[Iowa]], [[Wisconsin]], [[Oregon]], [[Alaska]], and [[Washington (state)|Washington]]. Norsland Lefse, a factory in [[Rushford, Minnesota]], produces about a half million rounds of lefse each year.<ref>[http://www.starbuckmn.org/content/lefse-dagen ''Lefse Dagen'' (Starbuck Chamber of Commerce)]</ref><ref>[http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/35293984.html ''Labor of lefse keeps tradition rolling'' (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)]</ref><ref>[http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2010/12/05/finding-minnesota-norsland-lefse-factory/''Finding Minnesota: Norsland Lefse Factory'' (WCCO. Rushford, Minn)]</ref> The foodway of Scandinavian lefse stretches from the Midwest all the way through northeastern [[Montana]]. Small lefse factories dot the landscape throughout this area, mostly in Norwegian communities. In the larger of these communities, Lefse can be found in grocery stores year round. In the Red River Valley specifically, “restaurants, supermarkets, and clubs all serve fish, lefse, and other specialties.”<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Madar|first1=Gregory|title=An Examination of Selected Ethnic Foodways in the Upper Midwest|journal=Theses and Dissertations of South Dakota State University|date=1996|pages=37, 46}}</ref> Many United States Scandinavian festivals have booths to sell lefse,<ref name="vinje"/> and it can also be ordered online.
===World's largest lefse===
The town of [[Starbuck, Minnesota]], is the home of the world's largest lefse. It was made on July 1, 1983.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dregni|first1=Eric|title=Vikings in the Attic: In Search of Nordic America|date=2011|publisher=Minnesota University Press|location=Minnesota|pages=250}}</ref>
===Celebrations and festivals===
Lefse is celebrated in cities and towns with large Scandinavian populations. [[Fargo, North Dakota]] hosts the popular Lutefisk and Lefse Festival in August each year. [[Fosston, Minnesota]] invites area lefse makers to compete for the title of Champion Lefse Maker at its Lefse Fest in November.<ref name="fest">{{Cite web |url=http://www.lefsefest.org/ |title=''Lefse Fest'' (City of Fosston) |access-date=2020-02-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307025832/http://lefsefest.org/ |archive-date=2016-03-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In [[Mankato, Minnesota]], Minnesotans of Scandinavian descent celebrate lefse day, a day for cooking lefse, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.<ref name="fest"/><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xLlQ3ff2GM ''Lakeland News at Ten (PBS) clip of Lefse Fest'']</ref> The Potato Days festival has been taking place in Barnesville, Minnesota since the early 1930s; this festival also takes part in the National Lefse Cookoff.<ref name="dregni 17"/>
===Rumors and jokes===
Rumors surrounding the initial use of lefse are claims by Norwegian Americans that it was made by and used to sustain the [[Vikings]], but potatoes were not introduced into Norway until long after the Vikings’ time.<ref name="herzog"/>
Although many Scandinavian-Americans do enjoy and eat the foods of their ethnic traditions, there is no shortage of tall-tales and jokes surrounding certain food, as well. Lefse was not excluded from these rumors. Lefse has been said to be “so tasteless that many mistakenly eat the paper doily under the stack and do not know the difference.”<ref>{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Kay|last2=Mussell|first2=Linda|title=Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States: The Performance of Group Identity|date=1984|publisher=University of Tennessee Press|location=Tennessee|pages=56}}</ref>
===Integrating lefse into other foodways===
Sometimes Norwegian foods are integrated into other ethnic foodways. One may use lefse to make [[enchilada]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Madar|first1=Gregory|title=An Examination of Selected Ethnic Foodways in the Upper Midwest|journal=Theses and Dissertations of South Dakota State University|date=1996|pages=49}}</ref> American lefse is sometimes served with butter, cinnamon sugar, brown sugar, or [[Lingonberry jam|lingonberry jelly]] before being rolled, to be eaten like a [[crêpe]]. One may add eggs, sausage, and cheese to make it into a breakfast burrito.<ref name="herzog"/> One may also roll Smørrebrød into their lefse.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Deptolla|first1=Carol|title=At Nordic bar Valhalla, aquavit and lefse|url=http://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/blogs/mke-diner/2017/03/30/nordic-bar-valhalla-aquavit-and-lefse/99787050/|access-date=26 October 2017|publisher=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel}}</ref>
==See also==
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