Dyrlægens Natmad (the Veterinarian's Midnight Snack)
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| Dyrlægens Natmad - takes time, but it's worth it! |
Dyrlægens Natmad, along with Sol Over Gudhjem, is one of the very few named Danish open-faced sandwiches. The name translates to Veterinarian’s Night Snack, which always struck me as odd as a child, since the sandwich contains a lot of meat and I assumed that the name was implying that the veterinarian was eating his former patients!
The sandwich is sinfully delicious, made from paté, rich meat aspic (called sky in Danish), and a kind of corned beef (called saltkød - I make it from silverside veal). Frankly, because of the meaty ingredients, I always thought it would have made more sense to refer to the sandwich as the Vegetarian’s Nightmare. Anyway, it’s eaten on buttered Danish rye bread, or better yet, rendered bacon fat, and it’s super delicious - like nothing else in this world. Trust me.
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| Grocery shopping in Denmark is different! (Images from Super Best and Nemlig) |
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| Tycho Brahe and his nose... |
The observations and precision work carried out by Brahe (1546-1601) ultimately contributed to Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion – one of the most revolutionary scientific discoveries of the time. You may not have known this, but Johannes Kepler was, in fact, assistant to Tycho Brahe, and thus had access to all of Brahe's astronomical measurements. Kepler used this data in figuring our the planetary motion, but who cares about Kepler? Let's just say that, thanks to Tycho Brahe, we know that our solar system is more than a giant celestial mobile hanging from some heavenly bedroom ceiling.
So what does this have to do with Smørrebrød? Nothing. But it is interesting and could – if greatly embellished with loads of artist license and maybe even a few outright falsehoods - allow me to concoct a plausible reason for how this week’s open-faced sandwich came to be tagged with an “official” name. So here is my version of the story...
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| The Round Tower |
The King’s horses were kept in a stable at the top of the Round Tower. Next to this stable there lived a veterinarian whose job it was to tend to the horses’ medical needs – should there be any. It was a lonely job, as royal visits to the observatory were few and far between. Anyway, rumour has it that the veterinarian often enjoyed his midnight snack by himself while looking out over the city of Copenhagen. His favourite midnight snack? You got it – paté, sky, saltkød on buttered rugbrød.
Anyway, you get the picture...
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| The Round Tower's 210m spiral ramp - perfect for horses carrying kings |
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| Copenhagen as viewed from the Round Tower |
One last thing about Tycho Brahe from the “strange but true” file. Apparently, he lost his nose in a sword duel (It's all fun and games until somebody loses a nose!). In order to cover his injury, he wore a fake nose made of silver and gold making him the first bling’ed out astronomer. Pretty cool, eh? If you want to read more about Tycho Brahe’s nose, check this out...
Making Dyrlægens Natmad
Now lets get down to the business of making this week's open-faced sandwich. First of all, you need dense Danish rye bread. You can find the recipe here.
Next, you want to cover it with either butter or rendered bacon fat (I like my bacon fat cooked with a bit of apple and thyme).
Then, liberally spread a few tablespoons of Danish leverpostej (liver paté). You can find the leverpostej recipe here. If you were to stop at this point, you'd have a very tasty sandwich. But we're far from finished.
Next comes a few thin slices of saltkød. Saltkød is basically like corned beef. Made from veal, you should use the silverside cut, which comes from the cattle hindquarter and explains the meat's characteristic multi-colour shimmer.
If you want to make saltkød, you first salt the meat to cure it, then you cook it in a flavoured broth to spice it. It takes about a day and a half to make - but most of the time is due to the curing process. You'll probably need to explain exactly what cut of meat you need to a butcher. Use this web page as a guide. It worked for me. The recipe for saltkød is below.
Still building vertically, you top the other meats with a few shiny cubes of sky, basically meat aspic. Making aspic from scratch (in other words without the addition of gelatine) takes more than a little while, in fact it takes an eternity. It involves slowly simmering meat, bones, and vegetables in water until it's all reduced to a very small amount of deeply brown liquid. You then strain it all, throw away the solid parts, and chill the rest until the aspic is set. What's that? Your aspic's not firm enough? You can always reheat it and continue the reducing process if you find that the aspic is not "tight" enough. In all, the entire process can take anywhere from 5-7 hours. So patience is needed - but homemade aspic tastes so good - the meaty richness just melts in your mouth and it adds so much character to Dyrlægens Natmad. You can find a recipe for sky at the bottom of this post.
Finally, crown the majestic smørrebrød by adding a few rings of crunchy red onions plus a small bunch of cress of radish sprouts. Then you are finally ready to savour the most Danish of open-faced sandwiches.
About Saltkød
Ingredients for Saltkød
Instructions for making saltkød
Sky is meat aspic. It takes time to make. If you want to cheat and make something quickly, just add some gelatine to beef broth. But don't tell your guests. They won't be excited by your ingenuity.
Ingredients for sky
Making Dyrlægens Natmad
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| Step-by-step... |
Next, you want to cover it with either butter or rendered bacon fat (I like my bacon fat cooked with a bit of apple and thyme).
Then, liberally spread a few tablespoons of Danish leverpostej (liver paté). You can find the leverpostej recipe here. If you were to stop at this point, you'd have a very tasty sandwich. But we're far from finished.
Next comes a few thin slices of saltkød. Saltkød is basically like corned beef. Made from veal, you should use the silverside cut, which comes from the cattle hindquarter and explains the meat's characteristic multi-colour shimmer.
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| Sliced saltkød - tender and meaty! |
If you want to make saltkød, you first salt the meat to cure it, then you cook it in a flavoured broth to spice it. It takes about a day and a half to make - but most of the time is due to the curing process. You'll probably need to explain exactly what cut of meat you need to a butcher. Use this web page as a guide. It worked for me. The recipe for saltkød is below.
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| Sky - like precious gems in a spoon! |
Still building vertically, you top the other meats with a few shiny cubes of sky, basically meat aspic. Making aspic from scratch (in other words without the addition of gelatine) takes more than a little while, in fact it takes an eternity. It involves slowly simmering meat, bones, and vegetables in water until it's all reduced to a very small amount of deeply brown liquid. You then strain it all, throw away the solid parts, and chill the rest until the aspic is set. What's that? Your aspic's not firm enough? You can always reheat it and continue the reducing process if you find that the aspic is not "tight" enough. In all, the entire process can take anywhere from 5-7 hours. So patience is needed - but homemade aspic tastes so good - the meaty richness just melts in your mouth and it adds so much character to Dyrlægens Natmad. You can find a recipe for sky at the bottom of this post.
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| Dyrlægens Natmad: Wash it down with a beer! |
About Saltkød
Normally when making cured meats like saltkød or corned beef, the meat is first brined in a spiced salt solution for at least a week prior to cooking. I find that you can expedite the process by simply giving the meat a good salt rub the day before you are planning on cooking it - this helps to draw out the moisture and salts the meat. It may not be exactly the same, but since I'm not planning on bringing my saltkød on any month-long seafaring expeditions, I'm less concerned with the preservation properties, and more into how it tastes. This recipe works.
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| Salted silverside veal shank |
- 1 kg silverside veal shank (boned)
- 3 tbsp coarse salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 small celery root, peeled and chopped
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/4 tsp whole all-spice
- 1/4 tsp whole peppercorn
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 bunch parley
- 2 sprigs of thyme
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| Cooking saltkød - Get rid of the scum! |
- Combine the salt and sugar, and rub it in to the veal, coating everywhere. Place the veal in a plastic bag and let sit in refrigerator for 24 hours.
- Place the cured veal in large casserole.
- Add the vegetables and spices and cover with water.
- Heat until boiling and then reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. Periodically, skim the foam that forms on top.
- Remove from heat, and allow the meat to cool thoroughly sitting in the broth.
- Slice thinly and enjoy with Dyrlaegens Natmad!
Instructions for making sky
1) Begin by placing the bones, meat and onion on a baking sheet, and then broil it under a hot broiler for about 5 minutes per side. This browns the meat and ultimately adds a richer flavour to the aspic.
2) Add the oil to a large pot and quickly sweat the vegetables over medium-high heat.
3) Add the wine, tomato paste and spices and simmer a few minutes.
4) Add the meat, bones, and onion to the pot and cover with water (about 3 litres).
5) Heat until just boiling and then reduce the heat and simmer. Make sure you do not disturb the ingredients in the pot for about 5 hours. You will need to periodically skim the foam off the top of the broth (this foam, if not removed, will end up affecting the taste and appearance of your stock).
6) When the liquid is sufficiently reduced, strain in a fine mesh sieve and discard meat and vegetables.
7) You should have 500ml or less. If you don't, return the liquid to a small pot and keep reducing slowly.
8) Once you've finished reducing the stock, add salt to taste, pour the liquid into a small clean container and allow it to cool completely in the refrigerator until the aspic is firmly set.
9) Enjoy atop a Dyrlægens Natmad or with a sharp Danish cheese like Samsø. Don't forget the fork and knife!
1) Begin by placing the bones, meat and onion on a baking sheet, and then broil it under a hot broiler for about 5 minutes per side. This browns the meat and ultimately adds a richer flavour to the aspic.
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| Roasted meat and bones gives flavour and body! |
3) Add the wine, tomato paste and spices and simmer a few minutes.
4) Add the meat, bones, and onion to the pot and cover with water (about 3 litres).
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| Simmer for hours - you'll need patience. |
6) When the liquid is sufficiently reduced, strain in a fine mesh sieve and discard meat and vegetables.
7) You should have 500ml or less. If you don't, return the liquid to a small pot and keep reducing slowly.
8) Once you've finished reducing the stock, add salt to taste, pour the liquid into a small clean container and allow it to cool completely in the refrigerator until the aspic is firmly set.
9) Enjoy atop a Dyrlægens Natmad or with a sharp Danish cheese like Samsø. Don't forget the fork and knife!
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| Ingredients |
Ingredients for sky
- 1 kg beef bones
- 1 pork shank
- 300g beef cubes
- 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
- 1 onion
- 1/2 bunch of parsley
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup of red wine
- a bit of olive oil
- Water
- Salt to taste
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