Articles
Historical context, archive dives and “then and now” from the cookbook.
- How Henriette Schønberg Erken taught Norway to cook: the 24 kitchen demonstrations
Before The Big Cookbook made her famous, Henriette Schønberg Erken was a teacher. Her cooking course – 300 recipes in 24 demonstrations – became one of Norway's most widely used home-economics textbooks. This is the story of the method behind the recipes.
August 19, 2026
- How Erken preserved food: jams, juices and canning
"A housewife of today must know how to cold-preserve," wrote Henriette Schønberg Erken in 1943. Here is her advice for saving the season's bounty – with a note on safety today.
August 18, 2026
- Erken's baking advice: how to succeed with home-baked bread
"With good will, anyone can learn to make a good daily bread," wrote Henriette Schønberg Erken in 1943. Here is the craft behind a good loaf – in her own words.
August 18, 2026
- Erken's advice for a well-kept and economical kitchen
Before the first recipe in her Little Cookbook (1943), Henriette Schønberg Erken gave several pages of advice on kitchen management, cleanliness and economy. Here is the essence – in her own words.
August 18, 2026
- Fårikål Day: autumn's most predictable pleasure
Cabbage, mutton, whole peppercorns and a little salt. Fårikål (the Norwegian mutton-and-cabbage stew) is a recipe that is barely a recipe at all – and yet it changed between Henriette Schønberg Erken's editions: from Stor kokebok in 1914 to the revised 1949 edition.
August 11, 2026
- Why we brought Henriette Schønberg Erken back to life
A manifesto for why we've made Stor kokebok available again – and why Erken's kitchen still has something to say to us.
August 8, 2026
- Ultra-processed food — and why Erken's kitchen matters more than ever
Norwegian adults get roughly half of their calories from ultra-processed food. Here's why Henriette Schønberg Erken's whole-ingredient cooking from 1914 has suddenly become strikingly relevant.
August 8, 2026