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Nov 23, 2008 11:18 pm US/Central
Finding Minnesota: Traditional, Handmade Lefse
SPICER, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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The folks at House of Jacobs bakery are in the business of keeping the tradition of handmade lefse alive.
At kitchens across the country, planning is already under way for Thanksgiving feasts, and one kitchen in Minnesota is particularly busy. That's because in order to keep tradition in a lot of Norwegian families, a lot of lefse needs to be made between now and the holidays. (And if you don't know what lefse is, it's likely you are not a native Minnesotan.)
"It's a Scandinavian bread. It's made with -- its base is potatoes, a little sugar, a little salt, a little shortening and flour," explained Dennis Jacobs, owner of
The House of Jacobs in Spicer, Minn. "It was a way for farm wives to use up excess mashed potatoes."
Today, it's simply tradition for families all over Minnesota and, in fact, all over the world. The folks at House of Jacobs bakery are in the business of keeping that tradition authentic, year after year.
"We've shipped to Australia, we've shipped to Japan, places in South America, to Texas," said Jacobs. "We ship one order every year to a fellow in Amsterdam. He orders like just clockwork every year. It costs him three times as much for the postage as it does for the lefse, but he doesn't matter."
And that's largely because of the ladies who roll it out at House of Jacobs by hand.
Joan once owned a pizza shop with her husband, but now she rolls lefse most of the day. Joyce says she answered a newspaper ad for the job after she retired as a nurse, and has worked there ever since.
Margaret says she married a "full-blooded Norwegian" who likes lefse. She's been making it the longest, on and off for 42 years. And Larose does the packaging.
"I eat lefse, but I can't roll it too perfect so I just package it," she said. "But I'm a Swedish, so I know about lefse. I've done it quite a long time, packaging lefse, ya."
You'll find a lot of pride in the folks that work at House of Jacobs, but what you won't find at the bakery are any rolling machines.
"Most of the people who make lefse commercially do it on a machine, and in order to do that, they need to add too much flour to it. So it's no longer tender. It gets just tougher and not near what -- not the tender lefse that people expect," said Jacobs.
"You're darned right," said Joan. "They make lefse with machines, and I know it's not as good as this."
"I wouldn't bother trying to buy machine-made lefse, no." echoed Larose.
The workers at The House of Jacobs roll their lefse out on the grill two, three and four at a time. They make it look easy, but take it from me when I say it's not. Amazingly, they put out about 1,000 rounds a day, often without burning a single one.
They often make more when they go home for their own families.
"If I have to make some at home, I usually make between 30 and 45," said Margaret. "All winter long I usually make lefse, 'cause I work at a nursing home, and they're always asking for lefse. So of course I make it for them."
If you've never had it, you serve lefse a lot like bread. Each flat, circular piece is typically section into thirds before yielding to its diner's toppings of choice -- often butter and sugar.
"People will put just butter on it and eat it with that like bread. Some put butter and a little cinnamon and sugar, or just sugar, jams and jellies, lingonberries, things like that," said Jacobs.
"My husband puts peanut butter on his sometimes," Margaret added, shaking her head in dismay.
However you serve it, don't settle for anything less than having history rolled into every round and grilled by someone who cares about preserving this Minnesota holiday tradition. How can you go wrong adding that taste of dedication to your Thanksgiving feast?
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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