Rotmos with sausages over an open fire – swede mash in the pot, sausages fried alongside

Swede, potato and carrot mashed in the pot, sausages fried alongside

4 servings
Time: 20 min at home + 50 min by the fire
Difficulty: Easy
12 ingredients
9 steps

Photo: Skrällinge, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The lid rattles on the pot, and a yellow cloud of steam drifts off across the snow with the smell of swede. Someone pokes a knife into a cube and nods. Time to drain. Next to the pot the sausage slices sizzle in the frying pan, and the children who have been waiting with a bowl each in their mittens creep closer to the fire.

Rotmos (mashed swede with potato and carrot) has always been winter food. Swede, potato and carrot keep for a long time, weigh little in the pack and turn into a mash that really fills you up in the cold. Over a fire it is easy as long as you know where the difficulties lie: the swede is much harder than the potato and has to be cut smaller, it takes time to bring things to the boil below freezing, and a thick mash easily burns on the bottom but goes cold quickly on the plate. If it is your first time cooking in a pot outdoors, read about cooking in a pot over the fire first.

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At home or by the fire

There are three ways to split rotmos between the kitchen and the fire. Choose according to how cold it is and how long the children can stand still.

Everything by the fire, diced at home. This recipe. Swede is hard and needs a big knife and steady hands, so peel and dice it at home rather than with stiff fingers by the fire. Peel the potatoes and carrots at home too. Allow just under an hour by the fire.
Cooked at home, mashed by the fire. Boil the vegetables until soft at home, drain them but save a mug of cooking water, and put everything piping hot into a preheated food flask. By the fire you tip them into the pot, heat them briefly and mash. The sausage is fried while the vegetables warm up. Half an hour by the fire is enough.
Ready-made mash in a food flask. Make the whole rotmos at home and fill a preheated food flask right to the top. By the fire all you need to do is fry or grill the sausage. It suits a really cold day, or when the little ones cannot face waiting.

How the ingredients cope with the cold on the way out:

The root vegetables must not freeze. Peeled, diced potato that has frozen turns watery and slightly sweet. Put the cubes in a sealed bag and pack it inside the rucksack among the clothes, not on the outside of the pulk.
Peeled potato goes dark. Swede and carrot cope with a few hours in the bag, but peeled potato turns grey in the air. Leave the potatoes whole in a sealed bag and cut them by the fire, where they are easy to cut.
The sausage should be cold but not frozen. Frozen sausage splits in the frying pan and burns on the outside before it is hot in the middle. The cold outdoors keeps it chilled all the way.
The butter goes rock hard. Cut it into pieces at home, and it will melt quickly into the hot mash.
No milk needed. Classic rotmos is mashed with the cooking water and butter, not with milk. That is an advantage outdoors, since there is nothing that can freeze or go sour in the bag.

Water is the heaviest thing to carry. A litre of almost boiling water in a flask brings the pot to the boil much faster, and you can top up the rest with cold water or melted snow. More about what to do at home and what to do outdoors on a winter's day is in cooking outdoors in winter.

Tips for rotmos over the fire

Cut the swede smaller than the potato. Swede takes much longer to cook soft than potato of the same size. Small swede cubes and large potato chunks mean nothing turns to mush while something else is still hard.
Bring hot water. Below freezing it takes a long time to bring a full pot to the boil. Hot water from the flask saves more time than anything else, and the lid should stay on all the way to the boil.
Save the cooking water before you drain. It has more flavour than plain water and is all the mash needs to turn smooth. If it has all run off into the snow, the mash will be dry.
Mash it roughly. Outdoors, rotmos does not need to be smooth. A few pieces of carrot and swede left in give both colour and bite.
The mash burns on the bottom. A thick mash does not move around in the pot the way soup does, so the heat collects at the bottom. Keep the pot at the edge of the embers once the mash is ready, and stir every time someone takes more.
The mash goes cold quickly on the plate. Serve it in deep bowls, ideally warmed with a splash of hot water, and have two small portions rather than one big one.

Safety at the pot and the fire

Draining is the most dangerous step. A pot of boiling water is heavy, and the steam that billows out in the cold can scald just as badly as the water. That is why you ladle out most of it before pouring off the rest. The children stand well back while the pot is lifted and the water is poured off. Do not pour the water into the fire, as it sends up a cloud of ash and hot steam.

Hot mash sticks to the skin. A thick, hot mash sticks like porridge and can cause deeper burns than water. Stir the children's portion and let it cool for a while in the bowl, and test the middle with a spoon before you hand it over.

Burns outdoors in winter. Cool the burn with cool water for about a quarter of an hour, never with snow or ice, and keep the rest of the body warm. Seek medical care for blisters larger than the child's hand, for burns on the face, hands or feet, and always if the child is 12 months old or younger. More about staying safe at the fire in fire safety in nature.

Raw pork sausage must be cooked through. Swedish pork sausage, including värmlandskorv, comes both raw and ready-cooked, and it says which on the packet. The raw kind is thick and must be cooked through before it is eaten. Over a fire it is hard to be sure of that, especially if the sausage has been out in the cold. So cook it at home according to the instructions and bring it cold. Then it only needs to be heated by the fire, just like the falukorv.

Hot in the flask, and leftovers. Mash that is to be eaten later from a food flask should go in piping hot, at least 60 degrees, and be eaten the same day. Leftovers can cool in an airtight tub in the snow when it is a few degrees above freezing or colder, and should go in the fridge as soon as you get home.

Allergens: the butter contains milk. Sausage can contain milk protein and sometimes gluten, so read the packet. Mustard is an allergen in itself. If you swap the swede for celeriac, the mash will contain celery.

Rotmos with children

At home, school-age children can peel carrots and potatoes with a peeler. Swede is so hard that the knife easily slips, so an adult cuts it. By the fire the children can thread sausage pieces or hot dog sausages onto sticks and cook them at a distance from the embers, see food on a stick.

The most fun part is the mashing. Once the water has been poured off and the pot stands steadily on a flat stone, with an adult holding the handle in fire gloves, the child can mash with the potato masher. The pot is still hot on the outside, so the child should wear mittens and not lean over the steam.

Swede has a distinct flavour that not every child likes the first time. More carrot and potato and a little less swede gives a milder, sweeter mash. More about sharing responsibility around the fire is in cooking with children over a fire.

Common mistakes

The swede is cut the same size as the potato, so the potato turns to mush while the swede is still hard.
All the cooking water is poured into the snow, and the mash is dry and goes cold even faster.
The pot sits right over the embers once the mash is ready, and the bottom burns on.
The vegetables have frozen in the pulk and turn watery and tasteless.
The sausage goes into the frying pan frozen and splits or burns on the outside.
Bringing it to the boil takes so long in the cold that everyone gets frozen. Bring hot water and keep the lid on.

Vary the rotmos

With lightly salted pork knuckle: the classic partner for rotmos, but pork knuckle needs to simmer for several hours. Cook it at home, bring it sliced and heat the slices in the frying pan. The stock from the pork knuckle can replace the cooking water in the mash.
With celeriac or parsnip: swap half the carrots for parsnip for a sweeter mash, or some of the swede for celeriac for a more aromatic flavour.
With fried pork belly: fry slices of pork belly in the frying pan instead of sausage. With onion sauce it becomes a meal of its own, see stekt fläsk med löksås over an open fire.
With Christmas sausage: in December it is nice to swap the sausage for Swedish Christmas sausage, grilled on skewers over the embers.
Vegetarian: fry halloumi or vegetarian sausages instead of sausage, and mash with butter or rapeseed oil.
Rotmos patties the next day: mix cold rotmos with an egg and a little plain flour, shape into patties and fry them in the frying pan for breakfast.

If sausage is what the children want most but you would like something easier than mash, beans and sausage over an open fire works in the same pot.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between rotmos and mashed potato?

Rotmos is made from swede, potato and often carrot, and is classically mashed with the cooking water and butter. Mashed potato is made from potato alone and mashed with milk or cream. So rotmos is a little coarser, more yellow and has a clear taste of swede.

How long should swede boil?

It depends on how big the pieces are. Cubes of about one centimetre usually turn soft in 15–25 minutes once the water is simmering. Large pieces can take twice as long, and swede that has been in storage for a long time takes longer than fresh. Always check with a knife: it should go through without resistance.

Which sausage goes with rotmos?

Pork sausage is the classic with rotmos, but outdoors ready-cooked pork sausage or falukorv is easiest, since they only need heating. Sliced falukorv gets a nice browned surface in the pan. More about what makes a good falukorv better than a poor one is on the falukorv page.

Do you have to put milk in rotmos?

No. Traditional rotmos is mashed with the cooking water and butter. If you want it creamier you can loosen it with a little milk or cream, but outdoors in winter it is easier without.

Can you take rotmos in a flask?

Yes. Preheat a food flask with boiling water, pour it out and fill the flask right to the top with piping hot rotmos. Eat it the same day. If it has gone lukewarm, heat it in the pot by the fire and stir well.

Can you freeze rotmos?

Yes, rotmos can be frozen in portions. It often turns a little looser after thawing, but that goes away when you stir and heat it. Frozen rotmos will not thaw on the way out on a winter's day, so take it hot in a flask instead.

For the children, a mug of warm apple juice goes down well while the pot is boiling. More dishes for the same fire are gathered under fire food.