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FOOD AND DRINK

Denmark selects its first national dish

The Danes have spoken and their favourite meal is fried pork served with potatoes and parsley sauce. Sound good? Try the enclosed recipe.

Published: 20 November 2014 11:06 CET
Denmark selects its first national dish
Want to eat like a Dane? Dig in to a plate of stegt flæsk med persillesovs og kartofler. Photo: Søren Bidstrup/Scanpix
Food and Agriculture Minister Dan Jørgensen launched an initiative in September to find Denmark’s national dish. After more than 63,000 votes, the clear winner among 24 initial candidates was stegt flæsk med persillesovs og kartofler, thick fried slices of pork served with boiled potatoes and parsley sauce. 
 
Just under 28,000 Danes expressed their love for stegt flæsk, earning it 44 percent of the vote and the right to be called Denmark’s national dish. 
 
“The declaration of Denmark’s national dish initiated a debate on Danish produce and our common food culture. The national dish topped the agenda at workplace canteens, around Danes’ dinner table and in the media,” Jørgensen said in a press release. 
 
 
Traditional Danish open-faced sandwiches, smørrebrød, received the second highest number of votes, with 17,041. 
 
The national dish competition was the culmination of Jørgensen’s ‘food revolution’, an effort to get Danes to focus on eating healthier and more local foods. 
 
“Danish and New Nordic Cuisine have become known the world over. But here at home in our own kitchens, we often forget our culinary roots. The national dish has helped us to rediscover and develop our food traditions,” Jørgensen said. 
 
Stegt flæsk med persillesovs og kartofler. Photo: Jens Morten/Scanpix
All hail Denmark's national dish. Photo: Jens Morten/Scanpix
 
So, want to eat like a Dane? Here is an English-language recipe for stegt flæsk from Mikkel Gadegaard, the co-founder of recipe site Pabular:
 
Ingredients
600 g pork belly in slices
1 kg potatoes
30g butter
3 tbsp wheat flour
5dl milk (approximately)
2 handfulls chopped parsley
salt
pepper
 
Potatoes
Peel the potatoes unless you prefer your potatoes with skin. Put them in a pot and cover them with water, add salt and put on stove. They need to boil 15-20 minutes.
 
The pork
Meanwhile you should prepare the pork. Dry the slices (they should have a thickness of 5mm) and season them with salt and pepper. Then fry them for one minute on each side on moderate heat, lower the heat and keep turning the slices until they are golden and crispy. Put them on a piece of paper when they are done to drain a bit of fat. Keep them hot in your oven while you prepare the parsley sauce.
 
The sauce
Melt the butter in a pot. Once it is melted, add the flour and stir until the butter and flour is a coherent mass. It shouldn't take long and make sure that it doesn't burn so and turn brown. This should be a white sauce, with sprinkles of green. Add a little bit of milk and stir. When the milk is mixed in and has reached the boiling point stir for a few seconds and then repeat. Add milk stir, boil, stir. Repeat until the sauce has a consistency that you like. 
 
Add the parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper.
 
Prep time: 15 minutes. Cooking time: 30 minutes. Serves 4. 
 
And just how much do the Danes love stegt flæsk? Enough that Danish duo Jimi & René had a breakthrough hit in 1988 with an ode to the dish: 

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FOOD AND DRINK

Five dishes that every newcomer to Denmark should try at least once

Denmark may have a stellar reputation as a world leader when it comes to fine dining, but it’s also home to plenty of hearty dishes. Here are a few you should try.

Published: 19 April 2024 17:30 CEST
Five dishes that every newcomer to Denmark should try at least once

With dozens of Michelin stars scattered across the country, world-famous restaurants like Noma and Geranium and Bocuse d’Or winning chefs, it’s not surprising Denmark is known as a gastronomical destination.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t many simple, traditional meals that make up an important part of the culinary landscape.

Danish dishes often reflect the country’s agricultural roots, its heavy use of pork and fish and common “meat and two veg” style of meal composition.

Here are a few dishes that are time-honoured favourites in Denmark and, as well as tasting great, might tell you a bit about the Nordic nation’s past and present.

Frikadeller

Frikadeller is Denmark’s answer to Sweden’s köttbullar or meatballs, made famous worldwide by their presence in IKEA cantines.

The Danish version consists of ground meat – commonly pork – rolled into a ball with salt, egg and seasoning like thyme and cumin, fried on a pan. There are other variations and styles but this seems to be the most common.

Usually, the frikadeller are pressed flat to make them more cylindrical than ball-shaped.

They can be served with anything from a salad to pasta or a slice of rye bread, but seem most at home with boiled potatoes, gravy and some cabbage or beetroot.

Look out also for fiskefrikadeller – where the meatballs are made of fish.

Karrysild med æg

Curried herring with egg might sound like a potent mix of ingredients and it can be an acquired taste, but once you’ve got used to it you may join many Danes in favouring it as a rye bread topping on occasions like Easter lunches.

It’s easy to make – you chop up the herring (which can be bought in pre-marinated jars at supermarkets, if you prefer) and mix it with a creamy dressing consisting of mayonnaise, crème fraiche, curry seasoning and red onion.

Mix in some chopped boiled eggs or serve them alongside the curried herring for your finished article. If you want to add a fancy twist, include some chopped apple in the cream for a bit of extra crispness.

Curried herring with egg. Photo: Vibeke Toft/Ritzau Scanpix

Brændende kærlighed

Translating literally to “burning love”, brændende kærlighed is a classic Danish winter dish that will, as advertised, warm you up on cold nights.

It includes buttery mash potatoes and usually a side of pickled beetroot, but its crown it the topping: a hefty portion of chopped bacon, fried up with onions, pepper and sometimes a little chili.

Make sure the bacon is as crisp as possible.

READ ALSO: Five classic Danish cakes you need to try

Grønlangkål

Kål is the Danish word for cabbage. Grønlangkål or “green long cabbage” isn’t a type of cabbage in itself but a way of preparing and serving regular green cabbage, often at Christmas dinners or as a side with a pork-based main like glazed ham, the giant medister sausage or the aforementioned frikadeller meatballs.

Prepare by finely chopping the cabbage, mixing with cream, butter, sugar and muscat, and sautéing on a pain until it is soft.

Grønlangkål (top right of picture) with medister sausage and leverpostej (pate). Photo: Nils Lund Pedersen/NF/Ritzau Scanpix

READ ALSO: Påskefrokost: What are the essentials of a Danish Easter lunch?

Hotdog

Although it wasn’t invented in Denmark, the Danes have certainly made a version of the hotdog their own.

There are a few types which could be considered typically Danish, but the hotdog with rødpølse (“red sausage”), remoulade relish, pickled cucumber and dried fried onions is a classic and arguably the Scandinavian country’s signature street food.

You could also try a fransk hotdog or “French hotdog”, a somewhat blander affair in which the sausage is placed into a hollowed out miniature baguette, usually with ketchup or mayo.

Although fast food has diversified hugely since the hotdog’s arrival in Denmark over a hundred years ago, it is still as popular as ever – just ask the country’s police officers.

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