Crispbread

Peter's Yard
Artisan Swedish crispbread
200g, £3.50, petersyard.com
This looks and tastes more artisanal than the others. It's good, but could be more complex - bread should have secondary aromas.
★★★

Scandinavian Kitchen
Leksands Brungraddat
200g, £1.50, scandikitchen.co.uk
Half artisanal, as you can see by the burnt sides. Reminds me of home.
★★★

Lidl
Rivercote crispbread
250g, 59p, lidl.co.uk
What I ate as a kid – mass-produced crispbread. They're OK – cheap, tasty, they serve their purpose.
★★

Wholefoods
GG Foods Oat Bran Crispbreads
100g, £1.59, wholefoodsmarket.com
Lacks salt and texture – a bit like chewing on a Weetabix without milk. It breaks up inside your mouth. I don't like it.
★

Cinnamon buns

BEST BUY
Selfridges
Cinnamon swirl
£1.45 each, selfridges.com
This looks the best of the four. Nicely golden and crisp on the outside. There's a butter vanilla cream among the cinnamon sugar and it's soft inside.
★★★

Tesco
Cinnamon swirl
70p each, tesco.com
This is too dry for a Scandi cinnamon bun and the cinnamon flavouring is too powerful, but otherwise it's an acceptable pastry.
★★

Harrods
Cinnamon swirl bun
£1.85, harrods.com
Enormous! They are usually much smaller, but it does look impressive. To taste, the cinnamon is too aggressive and the texture too spongey.
★★

Sainsbury's
Danish cinnamon whirl
£1 for two, sainsburys.co.uk
It's never a good start when a pastry falls apart as soon as you pick it up! This is far too dry and the flavours lack subtlety.
★

Havarti cheese

Scandinavian Kitchen
Ulkjaer Havarti
500g, £5.50, scandikitchen.co.uk
Cheese is not one of Scandinavia's great strengths, but this one is the best of the bunch. It's simple and good with pickles.
★★★

Danish Food Direct
Havarti Fløde
400g, £4.39, danishfooddirect.co.uk
Havarti is essentially cream cheese with lots of fat. This is a really typical one. I'm not keen but this one's OK.
★★

Marks & Spencer
Sliced havarti
230g, £2.10, marksandspencer.com
This just doesn't taste like cheese. There's very little flavour and it has the texture of a pig's skin – partly because it comes ready-sliced.
★

Waitrose
Sliced Danish havarti extra mild
250g, £2.65, waitrose.com
Plastic, flat and soggy. To me, this is not what cheese is about but I guess it's OK for quick sandwiches.
★

Herrings

Danish Food Direct
Elsinore Herrings in Dill Marinade
275g, £3.25, danishfooddirect.co.uk
Nice texture and good firmness. Less sweet than the others. There's a bit of acidity and tasty seasoning.
★★★★

Scandinavian Kitchen
Abba Dillsill
240g, £2.75, scandikitchen.co.uk
A little too sweet for me but I like the dill and sweet pickle.
★★★

Selfridges
Klädesholmen Onion Herrings
250g, £3.29, selfridges.com
There's some nice spicing and seasoning here but I think the herrings were frozen before marinading which compromises the texture.
★★

Sainsbury's
Marinated Herrings
280g, £1.69, sainsburys.co.uk
Weird texture, very mushy, very white, very strange. Big departure from our homemade pickled herrings.
★

Meatballs

Scandinavian Kitchen
Per I Viken Farmor's Kottbullar
300g, £2.50, scandikitchen.co.uk
There's lots of meatiness and lovely seasoning here but the texture is almost like it's been cooked twice – it's slightly too firm.
★★★★

Ikea
Kottbullar
1kg, £4.30, ikea.com
Looks like a meatball should – both outside and inside. Good mass-produced meatballs – we ate these at school.
★★★

Danish Food Direct
Beauvais Kodboller
420g, £3.60, danishfooddirect.co.uk
These are tiny, which is off-putting. They look a bit like roe deer droppings, but they don't taste of much.
★★

Tesco
Swedish style pork and beef meatballs
350g, £2.20, tesco.com
Very industrial. It's meat but doesn't quite taste like it. I don't like the texture and it tastes bland.
★

Pickles

Danish Food Direct
Beauvais Sliced Gherkin
570g, £2.75, danishfooddirect.co.uk
Really good. There's a nice balance of sweetness and acidity and there is a generous number of lovely dill seeds.
★★★★

Sainsbury's
Pickled Gherkins in Sour Vinegar
675g, £1, sainsburys.co.uk
These whole gherkins are much bigger than any of the others. They have a good crunch and satisfying texture.
★★★

Lidl
Freshona sandwich gherkins sliced
530g, 99p, lidl.co.uk
Soggy – more like zucchini than a pickled cucumber.
★★

The Cooperative
Baby Gherkins in Sweet Vinegar
340g, £1, co-operative.coop
Small and crunchy but tasteless. I can't taste anything except for a kind of mild acidic water.
★