Boiled potato dumplings made from grated raw potatoes mixed with cooked potato and barley flour, served Thursday lunchtimes with salted lamb, rendered bacon and rutabaga mash.

Raspeballer (also called komle or klubb depending on the region) have been Norway's Thursday tradition since the 19th century, a Western Norway peasant dish elevated by Oslo's husmannskost rooms. The dumpling is built around grated raw potato bound with cooked mashed potato and barley flour, dense and savoury rather than fluffy. Kaffistova, Asylet and Smalhans run the canonical Oslo Thursday-lunch versions with salt-cured lamb, rendered bacon and rutabaga mash.

Where to eat Raspeballer in Oslo

3 editor picks for Raspeballer in Oslo, ranked by editorial score. All Oslo signature dishes · Raspeballer across every city.

  • Smalhans dagens husmannskost

    Try Husmannskost plate of the day, one-plate menu

    Smalhans on Ullevalsveien plates a 175 $ dagens husmannskost menu between 16:00 and 18:00 every day, the single best-value seat in Oslo's Michelin Bib.

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  • Asylet

    Order Kjottkaker with brown sauce and lingonberry; reindeer stew in winter.

    Asylet on Grønland in Oslo's old town is the wood-panelled 1730 merchant-yard timber building, one of the city's oldest, serving kjottkaker.

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  • Kaffistova

    Try Norwegian home cooking, raspeballer and meatballs

    Kaffistova on the ground floor of Hotell Bondeheimen on Rosenkrantz' gate has served Norwegian home cooking since 1901, with raspeballer, boknafisk.

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Make it at home

Serves 41 hr 30 minIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 1kg raw floury potatoes (Maris Piper or King Edward)
  • 400g cooked floury potatoes, cooled
  • 150g barley flour (substitute wholemeal flour)
  • 75g plain flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1.5 litres lamb or vegetable stock, simmering
  • 400g salted lamb (or smoked gammon), simmered separately
  • 200g streaky bacon, diced
  • 500g rutabaga, mashed with butter, to serve
  • 60g unsalted butter, melted, to serve

Method

  1. Peel the raw potatoes and grate them finely. Tip into a clean tea towel set over a bowl and squeeze hard to release the liquid. Reserve the liquid; the starch settles at the bottom.
  2. After 5 minutes, carefully pour off the watery liquid and scrape the white starch back into the grated potato.
  3. Mash the cooked potatoes through a ricer onto the grated potato. Add the barley flour, plain flour, salt and nutmeg.
  4. Work the mixture briefly with cool hands to form a soft dough. Do not over-knead; it goes gluey.
  5. Bring the stock to a gentle simmer in a wide pot. With damp hands, shape the dough into balls the size of a small orange.
  6. Lower the dumplings into the stock and simmer very gently for 30 to 40 minutes. They are done when one cut in half is the same colour throughout.
  7. While they cook, render the bacon in a dry pan until crisp.
  8. Serve a raspeball per person with sliced salted lamb, a spoon of rutabaga mash, the bacon and its rendered fat, and a generous pour of melted butter.

Editor tip. Grated potato browns within minutes; work fast and have the flours measured before you start. A pinch of vitamin C powder in the bowl keeps the colour.

Common allergens: Gluten.