This week's post will teach you how to make your own homemade Danish liver paté, called leverpostej, and provide you with a few examples of how to create very traditional smørrebrød using leverpostej and assorted toppings (pålæg). Here is one common example:

Simply good - leverpostej and pickled red beets

Meat Grinder - Not by Georg Jensen

Leverpostej is not particularly hard to make, but it does require a bit of special equipment, namely a meat grinder, and ideally a food processor (or a blender). Therefore, the Danish Degree of Difficulty for leverpostej is Georg Jensen Medium.  Georg Jensen was a Danish silversmith born in 1866 in Rådvad, Denmark. A proponent of the Art Nouveau style, Georg Jensen's works were defined by simple organic beauty, and while, to my knowledge, he never made leverpostej, if he had, it would have undoubtedly been very beautiful. Check out Georg Jensen here.

The Royal Café and
Georg Jensen on
Amagertorv in
central Copenhagen 

In fact, if you are in Copenhagen, you can visit the main Georg Jensen flagship store and see the beautiful works of art, silverware and jewellery in person. Located right in the centre of the city, in the heart of the pedestrian walking street called Strøget, Georg Jensen is located right next door to an excellent locale for sampling gourmet Danish smørrebørd - The Royal Café. Check out their website here.

Nestled in between TWO of the most iconic shops in the city (Georg Jensen and the Royal Copenhagen ceramic company), the Royal Café aims to blend Danish smørrebørd flavours with Japanese aesthetics and refers to their small, expensive, but lovely sandwiches as Smushis. It's a bit of a stupid name - I am not surprised that it hasn't taken off internationally with a name like that - but it is a lot easier to pronounce than smørrebørd. And they do taste super good.

Smushis at the Royal Café

See? It is gross.

In order to make leverpostej (and most any other paté), you need to thoroughly combine meat, fat, and flavouring spices into a thick paste which you bake gently in a bain marie. You can use either pork or veal liver, but I prefer the taste when using veal. Veal liver is generally a bit more expensive, but to me it's worth the difference in price. To be honest, making leverpostej is not for the squeamish. Liver itself looks like something out of a horror movie, and putting it through a meat grinder is downright nasty. But, if you live outside of Denmark and want the real thing, there is no other option but to tough it out (even if you live in Denmark, home-made leverpostej is far nicer than the store bought varieties).

There are a number of pålæg combinations that compliment leverpostej nicely, but perhaps the most typical combo is leverpostej with bacon and fried mushrooms. In order to make this smørrebørd, first you fry up a few strips of bacon, then fry sliced mushrooms quickly in the bacon fat. Organize these ingredients on neatly on top of buttered Danish rye bread, and you are ready to enjoy a delicious Danish treat. Sinfully good, the combination of toothsome bread, crispy bacon, earthy mushrooms, and light Danish paté turns any lunch into a luxurious meal that should be savoured with a clean, cold lager.

Leverpostej with bacon and fried mushrooms

If you are looking for a more casual smørrebørd, say a quick lunch and you don't have time for cooking, leverpostej with pickled red beets (syltede rødbeder) on Danish rye bread is simple, quick, and delightful. If you want to pickle your own beets, you can find an easy recipe here. Here's what to do in order to make Danish leverpostej:

Ingredients

Like I said - not pretty

• 400g pork or veal liver, sliced into pieces
• 200g pork fat, chopped
• 2 chicken livers
• 1 tbsp (heaping) wheat flour 
• 1 tsp (heaping) butter
• 200 ml beef broth
• 100 ml milk
• 1 egg
• 1 small white onion, chopped
• 4-5 anchovy filets
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 6 springs thyme
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice

Instructions
1) Using a meat grinder at the finest setting, pass the liver through the meat grinder twice.

2) Grind the pork fat, two times as well.

3) Make a thickening roux to help bind the paté together  - melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan and add the flour, stirring to combine. Add the broth gradually while stirring and then add the milk. Cook gently over med-low heat while whisking constantly until the "batter" is smooth and thickened. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

4) Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, process onion, egg, chicken liver and spices, until smooth.

5) Thoroughly combine ground liver, fat, roux, and blended ingredients together.

6) Pour mixture into 4-5 small aluminum baking pans and top each with a Bay leaf.

7) Place small baking pans into a larger one, and fill half way with warm water.
bake in an oven pre-heated to 350F (175C) for 35-40 minutes.

8) Remove cooked leverpostej and allow it to cool somewhat before using.

Leverpostej...ready to eat!

Note: You can also freeze the uncooked paté mixture and then place it right in the over when ready to eat it. In this case, bake for 45-50 minutes instead.

Like with all cuisines from countries with northern climates, what we eat changes with the seasons. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter all have their own characteristic tastes and this holds true for Danish smørrebrød.

For instance, some smørrebrød, like shrimp, are at their best in the spring. This is when the tiny shrimp are harvested. Tomatoes and chives are perfect in the summer when fruit and vegetables are plentiful and ripe. In the winter, I like something that provides warmth and comfort while whisking away the bone-chilling feeling that pervades our frigid nights. This week's blog post is dedicated to one such smørrebrød, a succulent and savoury meat treat that is perfect in the colder, dark months or winter. It is a true Danish comfort food made simply from roast beef, fried onions, sliced pickles and grated horseradish heaped high on buttered Danish rye bread.

A hyggelig cafe in Copenhagen. Where is it?

Speaking of comfort food, I should probably use this opportunity to introduce everybody to a very Danish concept called HYGGELIG (pronounced with great difficulty as something like hu-ger-li). This little word is used all the time in converesation by Danes and is often cited by foreigners as "the word" that can most quintessentially sum up the totality of Danish psyche - the never-ending pursuit of hyggelig. So what does it mean? Well, unfortunately it doesn't really translate to a single English word, but perhaps words like Cozy or Snug come close to capturing the meaning of hyggelig. For me, it simply means that something is enjoyable, pleasant, happy, fun, and cozy all at the same time. It is an adjective that can be applied to many nouns, but I find it is used most often by Danes to describe parties, dinners, homes, and other places where one has enjoyed themselves a great deal. So, with this concept in mind, I find that eating smørrebrød together with friends and family can be a very hyggelig thing.

Hyggelig homes near Roskilde. Where is it?

So, getting back to the subject of this week's post - roast beef. Yum!  In my opinion, what makes this smørrebrød so good is that the combination of ingredients are just so perfectly together, certainly in terms of the savory, tart and spicy flavours, but also in terms of the different textural components - tender beef, chewy rye bread, crunchy pickles and the silky smoothness of carmelized onions.

Sliced flank steak

Building the Open-faced Sandwich 

In terms of preparing the smørrebrød, there is not much to do. Of course, roast beef is the basis for this sandwich, so you want to make sure you have excellent meat. Roasting in the oven is an option, but I prefer to simply fry a thick flank steak until it is done to medium-rare (you know the steak is cooked when a meat thermometer inserted into the middle of the steak reaches a temperature of about 145 F). Once cooked, allow the meat to cool for about 15 minutes and then slice as thinly as you can. Place the slices of beef on a slice of buttered rye bread.

Place the following garnishes atop the sliced steak and you're ready to go: 3-4 rings of fried onion, 1 sliced dill pickle, 1 tablespoon of freshly grated horseradish (prepared horseradish will also work), and optionally a sprinkling of chopped chives.

The Danish Degree of Difficulty for this smørrebrød is Brigitte Nielsen Easy as no special ingredients are needed other than the Danish rye bread (recipe here) and Brigitte Nielsen probably loves to make it (I'm not suggesting she is easy). For those of you who were not alive in the 1980s, Brigitte Nielsen is a fantastisk Danish actress best known for her dramatic roles in great films such as Rocky IV and Red Sonja.

Brigitte Nielsen Shopping for Horseradish

If there is one ingredient that may pose problems for North American shoppers it's fresh horseradish. Horseradish is a perennial plant of the brassica family (like broccoli and mustard). The amazingly phallic-looking horseradish root has no aroma, however when grated, enzymes in the damaged root produce a compound called allyl isothiocyanate that can irritate the nose and eyes. This is what gives horseradish its punch. (You can read lots more about amazing horseradish at Wikipedia). If you can't find fresh horseradish, use the prepared variety instead. Personally, I think it works great here, too.

By the way, if you don't believe me about the phallic appearance of horseradish, check out the pics at the following blog.

Ida Davidsen's in Copenhagen

If you want to experience a wonderful roast beef open-faced sandwich in the most traditional of Danish sandwich establishments, you have to visit Ida Davidsen's Restaurant on Store Kongensgade in Copenhagen. The reference in smørrebrød for generations (since around the 1880s), this restaurant touts a list of sandwiches at least 250 long. While smorrebrod is an everyday food in Denmark, at Ida Davidsen's the presentation and ingredients are decidedly more fancy. Her philosophy on the presentation is very interesting - when it comes to smorrebrod in a restaurant, the rye bread must always be completely covered by the pålaeg (toppings). If you can see the bread, it's cheap - like something you would eat in the woods or when on a picnic with your hands - not something dignified that must be eaten with fork and knife! I confess that occasionally my bread is visible - which is something I'll have to work on - but Ida Davidsen's family have had five generations to perfect their art, so please don't judge me too harshly.

So delicious even with visible bread

This week’s post is all about rullepølse and asier, but before getting into explaining the recipes, I wanted to spend a few minutes providing a bit of background on the culture of open-faced sandwiches and the component parts that are used to build them. Of course, the Danish rye bread is key, as is the butter, but it won’t be smørrebrød without the pålæg.

Pålæg (Pronounced Po-Leg) is the Danish word for "sandwich toppings" and is used to describe the myriad of items that can be placed atop a slice of buttered rye bread. One thing that is important to understand when it comes to pålæg is that there are some toppings that go together, and many others that do not. For instance, while ham and Swiss on rye is a North American deli classic, one would not eat this as smørrebrød in Denmark. There is nothing wrong with it, it just isn’t smørrebrød.

Smørrebrød as art

I think of Danish smørrebrød as an art form that has reached a highly evolved state and as such Danes universally recognize certain pålæg combinations as quintessential examples of the art form. In the same way that all Americans know what goes into making a BLT, all Danes know about the ingredients needed to make dozens of their traditional favourites. Many pålæg are the same or similar to ingredients you can easily find in other parts of the world (like ham or pickled beets), but there are a few pålæg that are uniquely Danish. Rullepølse with asier is a perfect example of a traditional pairing known to all Danes, but good luck finding either of these items anywhere else in the world!

Rullepølse is a Danish charcuterie that ranks right up at the top of the classic and original Danish toppings. Admittedly, the recipe for making rullepølse is a little more involved than some of the others, but you haven’t experienced all that smørrebrød has to offer until you’ve sunk your teeth into rullepølse.

Homemade Rullepølse

Rullepølse is made by slowly simmering a rolled up pork belly that is spiced with Jamaican all-spice and then molding it into a very compact rectangular form. Before you begin cooking, you’ll need to step back and take stock of what you have handy. Obviously, you don’t have rullepølse – that is why you are reading this recipe – for that you’ll need a porkbelly and some spices. But, more importantly, do you have a rullepølse press? A rullepølse press is a medieval-looking contraption – basically a trash compactor for meat -  that is used to form the cooked meat into the distinctive shape. In true MacGyver fashion, you can also jerry-rig a press using regular household items, but more about that later.

Jorcks Passage

If you need a rullepølse press and time/money is not a factor, you can travel to Copenhagen and peruse the cooking shops located in and around Copenhagen’s central pedestrian street called Strøget. What? You tried that already and couldn’t find anything other than H&M shops, fancy furniture and souvenir kitsch? Try this: head toward Gammeltorv and watch out for the entranceway to Jorcks Passage, just before the Baresso Cafe and on the way to Vor Frue Kirke. At the end of this little street to the left, you will find a magical cooking shop full of Danish esoterica - kitchen devices that serve purposes unguessable by non-Danes (and probably a few Danes as well). But don’t be discouraged. Here you can find a reasonably-priced hardwood rullepølse press - just what you need! Now that you are armed with porkbelly and press, a bit of butchers string, and a few other common household ingredients, you are ready to begin to prepare this Danish delight.

Niels  Bohr

In terms of the Danish Degree of Difficulty, I’d have to give rullepølse a rating of “Niels Bohr Hard” due to the amount of preparation and the specialized equipment needed in making this treat. Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who won the Nobel Prize for his contributions to understanding the atomic structure, radiation, and quantum mechanics. He also worked on the Manhattan Project. According to his mother, the complexities of making rullepølse always confounded the young Niels Bohr. Instead, he focused his efforts on understanding a less tasty form of matter.   

Here are the ingredients you need to make rullepølse...

• 1 ½ kg pork belly 
• 1tbsp coarse salt 
• 2 tbsp sugar 
• 1 large onion, minced 
• 1 clove garlic, minced 
• 4 tbsp ground all-spice 
• 5 tbsp ground black pepper 
• 2 carrots, chopped 
• 2 celery stalks, chopped 
• 1 onion, chopped 
• 2 bay leafs 
• 4 springs of thyme 
• 2 tbsp oregano

Instructions

1. To begin with, rub both sides of the pork belly with the sugar and salt and then place in a large, thick plastic bag (such as a Zip-lock freezer bag). Allow the pork belly to cure in the refrigerator for about 24 hours.
2. Mix the ground spices together.
3. Remove the pork belly from the bag, pat dry with paper towel, and cover with the minced onion and garlic.
4. Sprinkle the ground spice mixture evenly across the minced onion.
5. Roll up the pork belly into a tight roll (with the onion and spice on the inside.
6. Bind the roll tightly with kitchen string.
7. Place the pork roll, the chopped vegetables, and the herbs in a pot large enough to old everything and cover with water.
8. Heat until the water begins to boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer, cover tightly and cook for about 2 hours.
9. Remove the cooked pork roll from the broth and allow to cool slightly.
10. Cover the roll in plastic wrap, place in the rullepolse press, and gently screw the press closed. The pressing will cause liquid ooze out, so you should have the press on a platter or tray to catch any drippings.
11. Place the closed press in the refrigerator for 7 days to allow the flavours to mellow.
12. Remove from the fridge, unmold the meat, slice thickly, and enjoy on buttered Danish rye bread!

Press the hell outta the  porkbelly!

Improvise

Note on making your own rullepølse press: I’ve come up with all manners of ways over the years of pressing rullepølse into the requisite brick form, but easiest and most effective is simply to place the meat roll into a plastic wrap lined bread form, find a solid flat object that just fits inside the bread form (say a bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin), and press it down on top of the meat as far as it will go. Strap it all together with good old duct tape. Done!

Making the krydrere asier

Homemade Asier

So you’ve made the rullepølse. Is that all that is needed? Alas, no. As I mentioned above, you will also need the natural pairing that accompanies the rullepølse – another exclusively Danish oddity called asier. Asier can best be described as a kind of cucumber that is sliced thickly and pickled. The problem for those of us outside Denmark, is that you cannot easily find asier. So, if you want the authentic experience, you’ll have to make the pickled asier as well. Not to worry - it is not hard.

Real asier is not made from a regular cucumber, but rather a larger, meatier cuke-like gourd called asieagurk (plain old cucumbers are called agurker). I’ve gone so far as to try growing it from seed, but with little success. So instead, I’ve adapted my recipe to use regular cucumbers. If you visit Denmark, be sure to bring back a few jars of asier in your luggage. If that isn’t an option, make it yourself with the recipe below. I find that it is close enough. Note on growing asier yourself: if you want to eat this smørrebrød in October, you’ll need to begin the preparations in April or so. This is definitely not a last-minute smørrebrød.

Make sure, if you make your own asier, that you go out of your way to find some Danes and invite them over for smørrebrød. They will be completely flabbergasted when you present them with your homemade asier. Honestly, they won’t know what to make of it. They’ll say things like: “My mormor used to make this when I was a kid.” And they will weep.

Here’s what you need to know to make krydrere asier (spiced cucumbers):

Ingredients (for about 6x500ml Mason jars)

• 3 kg cucumbers (or asier if you can find it) 
• 2 L water 
• 200g coarse salt 
• Pickling liquid (see below) 

Ingredients for pickling liquid

• 1.5 liters vinegar 
• 600 g sugar 
• 10 small shallots, sliced 
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped 
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds 
• 1 red chili, seeded and chopped 
• 1 tbsp ground All-spice 
• Small piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped 
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh dill 
• 1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Prepare a brine solution by dissolving the salt in boiling water and allowing it to cool thoroughly.
2. Prepare the asier or cucumber by peeling, cutting in half, and removing the seeds.
3. Place the cucumbers in a large plastic container, cover with the brine and place in a cool place for 24 hours.
4. Drain cucumbers and cut them diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices.
5. In a saucepot, heat the vinegar and sugar together until just boiling and the sugar is dissolved.
6. Reduce heat, add shallots and garlic and simmer for 3 minutes.
7. Add the remaining spices and dill to the cooking liquid, remove from heat and cool completely.
8. Prepare 6 sterilized Mason jars, and then distribute the cucumbers and the spices evenly into each jar.
9. Cover cucumber completely with the pickling liquid.
10. Seal the jar by processing for 5 minutes in boiling water.
11. Place the sealed jars in a dark place. Try to wait 2-4 weeks before eating (the flavours will mellow and blend nicely if you manage to wait longer - I usually can't).

Rullepølse and asier together - a happy marriage indeed!

Many among you took the time to vote for your favourite seafood Danish open-faced sandwich, and I don't know why, but I was sure that Smoked Eel would win - it was in first place until a last minute surge by the eventual winner...Gravad Laks with almost 30% of the popular vote!

The winner and new world champion! Gravad Laks!!! Yum!

So here to present Gravad Laks with Lord Smørrebrød's Cup is none other than the pride of Canada himself...Justin Beiber...!!!!!!!

Image Courtesy of Zimbio.com ✌

Apparently the Vegas odds makers, still smarting from last week's lop-sided Super Bowl payout, had Gravad Laks at 5-1 odds to win it all. Not a long shot, but not the favourite either. Congrats if you picked the winner, go brag to your friends! And a big thank you to everybody who voted. Here are the detailed results:

Next month come back and vote for your favourite meat smørrebrød...

 

Some smørrebrød are definitely easier to make than others, and this one ranks up there with the easiest while still retaining plenty of unique Danish character. What I am talking about is an open-faced sandwich made from dark buttered rye bread, thick slices of baked ham, and a generous dollop of a special element that transforms this otherwise ordinary lunch into one of Denmark's most popular smørrebrød.

Italiensk Salat

The special element is called Italiensk Salat, a quintessentially Danish sandwich topping that is almost always paired with ham (and occasionally sliced beef tongue). The name translates to Italian salad, and while I have searched for exotic origins to this name, the only explanation I can come up with is the fact that the salad and the country share at least one thing in common - the colours on the Italian flag. That is, if you think carrots are red.


Remembering my childhood, this was probably the first open sandwich I really liked. Some of the others  are considerably more potent-tasting and, as such, took some getting used to. For instance, many Danes (myself included) do not eat pickled herring until after they survive the adolescent years. With that in mind, for anybody who is looking to get into this form of cuisine, ham and Italiensk salat is the perfect place to start. On the Danish Degree of Difficulty scale it ranks as a Little Mermaid (Easy). Indeed, it is a popular choice for all ages.

Separated at birth? This popular sandwich garnish and
the iconic flag on the right are so similar that the
Danes named the garnish after the country. 

The trick to getting this simple open-faced sandwich just right is using the correct ham. I find that it is best to avoid anything smoked, as the smoke flavour can be overwhelming. Instead opt for a baked ham with subtler flavours. Thickly cut baked ham is definitely the best way to go here.

Here's what you need to know to make italiensk salat.

Ingredients

• 1 medium carrot, steamed and cubed
• 4 asparagus spears, steamed and cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup of peas (frozen are fine), cooked
• 1 tbsp chopped onion
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp sour cream
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• lemon juice and salt to taste

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Allow to sit in the refrigerator for about an hour to allow the flavours to meld.
3. Serve on slices of baked ham and buttered Danish rye bread.

Ham and Italiensk salat - A true Danish classic!

Sol Over Gudhjem (Smoked Herring and Egg Yolk)

Smoked Eel (Røget Ål)

Gravad Laks (Cured Salmon)

Rejermad (Shrimp)

Pickled Herring (Marinerede Sild)

Fish filet with Remoulade

Fish filet with yellow Remoulade - for Danish purists!

Gudhjem is a small town on the north coast of the Danish island of Bornholm - an island that lays way out in the Baltic Sea, somewhere between Denmark, Sweden and Poland. The town itself has served as a harbour since the 18th century and is a popular tourist attraction for Danes in the summer thanks to its picturesque streets and, or course, the beach.  Click here for a map of Bornholm.

"Sol Over Gudhjem" is the name of a very well-known Danish open-faced sandwich made from the famous Bornholm smoked herring, dark danish rye bread, radish, onions and chives and - yum - a raw egg yolk. The sandwich's name means sun over Gudhjem, and it is so named because of the bright yellow egg yolk glistening brightly atop the golden-hued herring filets. 

One of only a handful of open-faced sandwiches that are universally recognized by an official name, Sol Over Gudhjem is a pure Danish delight, packed with potent flavours which are fused together with the silky richness of the raw egg yolk. The perfect accompaniment to Sol Over Gudhjem is a cold lager beer, for instance a Tuborg or a Carlsberg. While there are other sandwiches that may be more common, for me few have the combination of flavours that evoke eating smørrebrød along the beach during the summer solstice somewhere in Denmark.

Smoke stacks of traditional Bornholm smokehouse

In Bornholm, they still smoke their herring in the old manner - first by curing the silvery fish with salt and sugar, and then by cold smoking them in white smokehouses with their distinctive white smoke stacks. You can smoke herring yourself if you can find it, but many fish markets will offer smoked fish. If you cannot find herring, mackerel and trout are suitable substitutes.

A note on eating raw egg yolk: Generally there is no problem with eating raw egg, but it is important to use the freshest eggs possible (for instance from an organic farm). If you have concerns about the freshness of the eggs, or if you are simply not into raw egg, you can always pasteurize the egg yolk by cooking it gently over a double boiler - just make sure that the heat is gentle and that you stir constantly until the egg thickens slightly and lightens in colour. In Denmark, you can conveniently buy individually pasteurized egg yolks in the supermarket - one of the many reasons that Danes are the happiest people on Earth.

Instructions for building your own Sol Over Gudhjem:

1. Place a smoke herring filet atop a generously buttered slice of dark Danish rye bread. Optionally, break the filet into pieces.
2. Place 2-3 red onion rings and a sliced up radish on the herring.
3. Spoon pasteurized egg yolk over top of the sandwich.
4. Using scissors, cut chives over the sandwich (keep cutting until you're happy).
5. Add freshly ground black pepper and enjoy with fork and knife. 

"Sol Over Gudhjem rocks."