Danish Lunch ‘Frokost’

Not much is known about Danish lunches outside Scandinavia, but my Mother doesn’t let anyone home for the weekend without one. I’ve come to believe that its these magic lunches which keeps our house full on public holidays. Above is a photo of our leaving lunch after Easter.

Its really quite simple and always cold, but washed down with a few cold beers and Danish Schnapps. Its built around having lots of different cured meats, salted fish, hard boiled eggs, vegetables and cheese. It originates from the peasant farmers before the Industrial Revolution. A variety of bread and crackers is also put out but usually rye.

It is the perfect meal to bring family and friends together over a long and sometimes boozy lunch.

Here is a rough list of things to include:

– Hard boiled eggs

– ‘Spanish Salad’ – (mixed cold peas and carrot chunks, cooked, cooled and then mixed with mayonaise)

– Cheese board

– Farmhouse pate

– Cold vegetables (such as carrots, cucumber, celery and radishes)

– Cold, cooked new potatoes

– Herring, smoked salmon or other salted fish

– Cured meats (such as ham and pastrami.)

– Aalborg Aquavit (Danish Schnapps)

– Cold beers.

Served with a bread basket of various rye breads. Typical to Danish lunches is the open sandwich known as ‘smørrebrød’ which consists of a large variety of sandwich toppings on the dark rye bread discussed. Below are a few examples:

There are so many options but the list of commonly used ingredients above help you to build an idea of the likely things that find there way on to open Danish sandwiches.

Enjoy. x