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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Denmark
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.
Traditional dish from Denmark
Also known as: stegt flæsk, stegt flæsk med persillesovs og kartofler
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Stegt flæsk med persillesovs — Denmark
Stegt flæsk med persillesovs is a simple dish: thick slices of salted pork belly, fried in a pan or roasted in the oven until the fat is crispy, served with boiled potatoes and a thick white sauce made with butter, flour and milk and full of chopped parsley.
The dish has been known in Denmark at least since around 1890 and became a family lunch and dinner staple, as well as a neighborhood restaurant and canteen dish. Many households add pickled beets or apple compote on the side.
In 2014, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries organized a vote to choose Denmark’s national dish. After regional rounds covered by the press, the result was announced in November: more than 60,000 people voted, and stegt flæsk med persillesovs won, ahead of smørrebrød.
The choice sparked debate. Food critics found the dish unambitious, and others said it excluded those who do not eat pork. Still, the title stuck, and the dish came to be presented as Denmark’s national food.
It is served year-round. In restaurants of traditional Danish food, it often appears as the dish of the day.
Denmark
National dish chosen in a nationwide vote in 2014.
Salted pork belly in slices, potatoes, butter, wheat flour, milk and parsley; sometimes pickled beets or apple compote.
Served hot, with the potatoes covered in parsley sauce and the crispy pork on the side; usually accompanied by beer.
Year-round; family lunch and dinner.
Your questions
It won a nationwide vote organized by the Ministry of Food in 2014, with more than 60,000 participants.
Crispy sliced pork, boiled potatoes and a thick, pale sauce green from parsley.
The dish has been known at least since around 1890.
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.
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.
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.
