Food processing is one of the most important survival skills. The earliest evidence of
fixing this skill are recipes. Cookbooks appear first in Southern Europe; in Denmark and
Sweden — in the XVIIth century. Poor and provincial Norway lagged behind. However, soon
after gaining independence from Denmark in 1814, a whole series of cookbooks were
published there. Mostly they are intended for housewives from poor rural areas and written by
such. The most important authors of the XIX century are Bang and Winsnes. At the same
time, the folklorist Asbjørnsen took part in the culinary discourse and attempted to criticize
traditions from a scientific point of view. The end of the century opened for fundamental
cookbooks. In Norway, more financially stable now, this was the book of Schønberg Ærken,
which had prevailed for half a century. With the involvement of women in wage labor,
compilations of inexpensive and simple recipes prevailed in the middle of the last century. The
spread of television made famous a domestic science teacher, Espelid Hovig, also celebrated
for culinary books, which she published about fifty. In rich modern Norway, literature on
cooking is in great demand. Only in 2000 there were published at least 100 cookbooks.
Nevertheless, Norwegians prefer traditional food.