Search
Brazil
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
French Guiana
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Germany
Austria
Belgium
CroatiaDenmark
Spain
Finland
France
Greece
the Netherlands
Hungary
Ireland
Iceland
Italy
Luxembourg
Norway
Poland
Portugal
the United Kingdom
the Czech Republic
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Canada
the United States
Mexico
the Dominican RepublicTurkey
South Africa
Australia
Fiji
New Zealand
Papua New GuineaFlavors · Denmark
A slice of rye bread with butter and a generous, carefully arranged topping, eaten with fork and knife. It’s Denmark’s traditional lunch, and the tall, decorated version became famous in Copenhagen restaurants in the late 19th century.
Traditional dish from Denmark
Also known as: smørrebrød dinamarquês, open sandwich
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
Smørrebrød — Denmark
Smørrebrød means buttered bread. The base is almost always a thin slice of rugbrød, the dark, dense rye bread, spread with butter or fat. On top goes a topping that can be simple or elaborate: pickled herring, boiled egg and shrimp, roast beef with horseradish, leverpostej (liver pâté) with pickles, frikadeller with red cabbage, flæskesteg with cabbage and plum.
Smørrebrød is an essential part of the country’s food culture, eaten by all social classes, especially at lunchtime. For a long time it was just a bread-and-butter or lard snack. In the late 19th century the tall, decorated smørrebrød was born: in 1883 Louise Nimb introduced at her restaurant in Copenhagen’s Tivoli a menu where customers ticked the pieces they wanted.
The restaurateur Oskar Davidsen made the dish famous worldwide. His establishment in Copenhagen, opened in the late 19th century, became renowned in the 1930s for a smørrebrød list 1.4 meters long with about 170 varieties. In recent decades chefs have reinvented the dish with more vegetables and new techniques.
Each piece is eaten with fork and knife, and a festive lunch can include several of them, accompanied by beer and snaps.
Smørrebrød is served in homes, cafés and restaurants throughout Denmark. At Christmas, the julefrokost, the year‑end lunch, brings together the most traditional toppings.
Denmark
Traditional lunch eaten across the country.
Rye bread (rugbrød), sometimes white bread; butter; toppings such as pickled herring, egg and shrimp, roast beef, leverpostej, frikadeller, flæskesteg; garnishes of pickles, onion, horseradish, radish and herbs.
With cutlery, one piece at a time.
Everyday lunches and festive luncheons, such as the year‑end julefrokost.
Your questions
With fork and knife, piece by piece.
Almost always rugbrød, the dark, dense rye bread; some toppings, like shrimp, are served on white bread.
Late‑19th‑century Copenhagen restaurants, such as Louise Nimb’s at Tivoli and Oskar Davidsen’s establishment, with its list of about 170 varieties.
Flavors of Denmark
Soft little dough balls fried in a cast-iron pan with round cavities and served with powdered sugar and jam. Despite the name, which means apple slices, they generally do not contain apple: they are the Danish Advent and Christmas sweet.
Nordic spirit flavored with caraway and, sometimes, dill, served chilled in small glasses at Danish celebratory lunches, alongside herring and beer. In Denmark, the drink’s industrial history is linked to Aalborg.
Flattened meat patties made from ground meat, typically half pork and half veal, fried in butter until a crust forms. They are homestyle food across Denmark, served with potatoes, a dark gravy and pickles or cabbage.
Hot sausages served in a bun from the pølsevogne, the hot‑dog carts that have operated in Danish cities since 1921, with mustard, ketchup, remoulade, fried onion and pickled cucumber slices. The first carts appeared in Copenhagen.
Cold rice pudding with whipped cream, chopped almonds and vanilla, served with warm cherry sauce at the end of the Christmas dinner. A whole almond is hidden in the serving dish, and whoever finds it receives a gift.
Thickened compote of red fruits such as strawberry, raspberry, currant and cherry, served cold with cream or milk. It’s the classic Danish summer dessert, and the name is famously hard to pronounce.
Slices of pork belly fried until crispy, served with boiled potatoes and a white parsley sauce. It was chosen as Denmark’s national dish in a vote held by the Ministry of Food in 2014.
Honey and spice cakes made from a dough that rests for months before baking, often coated in chocolate. They have been produced in Christiansfeld, the Moravian Church town, since 1783, with recipes kept secret.
Sweet yeast pastries with layers of butter, shaped as a snail, bow, braid or envelope, filled with custard, remonce or fruit. The first Viennese bakery in Denmark opened in Copenhagen in the 1840s, and the city became associated with the pastry the world calls Danish pastry.
Rye bread with smoked herring, raw egg yolk, radish, chives and onion: the smokehouses’ dish from Bornholm. The name means sun over Gudhjem, and the yolk plays the role of the sun over the village where the island’s first smokehouse opened.
Soft yeast cake topped with a layer of melted butter and brown sugar that forms syrupy pools on the surface. It is regarded as the cake of Fyn, and the earliest records are from Odense, in 1830.
