Janssons Temptation

The name "Janssons frestelse" first appears in print in a 1928 Swedish recipe book, though the dish itself is older. Who the "Jansson" was is contested. The most-credible account, favored by Swedish researchers, traces it to the 1928 silent comedy film Janssons frestelse (directed by Sigurd Wallén, starring Edvin Adolphson): per Gunnar Stigmark, his mother Elvira had her cook name the familiar casserole after the film at a dinner party, and the name spread from there into cookbooks. An older, widely-repeated theory credits the gourmand opera singer Pelle Janzon (1844–1889), but food writer Jens Linder calls this unlikely since the dish only acquired the name about 40 years after his death; a folk story instead names the austere religious revivalist Erik Jansson, said to have broken his own strict rule for a sprat-and-potato gratin in 1846 (the "temptation"). Either way the dish became fixed on the Swedish Christmas julbord by the mid-20th century.

First named in print 1928 — possibly after opera singer Pelle Janzon, possibly after preacher Erik Jansson whose followers were caught eating it (the temptation). Swedish ansjovis are sprat sweet-cured with cinnamon, allspice, sandalwood — not Mediterranean anchovy.

A baked gratin of julienned potato, sliced onion sweated soft, and Swedish anchovy fillets (sprats, actually — sweet-cured, not Mediterranean salty anchovy) layered together and flooded with cream. Bakes 45 minutes until the top is brown and the cream has thickened around the potatoes. Salty, sweet, and rich at once. Served at Christmas and on the smorgasbord.

Swedish ansjovis are not anchovies. They are sprat (a small herring relative) cured with sugar, salt, and warm spice — cinnamon, allspice, sandalwood. Substituting Mediterranean anchovies makes the dish savagely salty and wrong; nothing else replicates that sweet-cure profile. The brine from the tin goes into the gratin too — it's part of the seasoning.