Julefrokost - Christmas lunch, Danish style

[stormylee]

The julefrokost, Christmas lunch, is an essential part of Danish Yuletide culture. Christmas lunches are very popular and from late November to Christmas all sorts of groups hold their own annual julefrokost: most companies arrange one for their employees, clubs and organisations have a Christmas lunch for their members, and friends meet in restaurants or homes for yet another Christmas lunch. Despite its name, the Christmas “lunch” is an evening affair, usually on a Friday or Saturday night. It involves plenty of food, beer and schnapps, and often also music and dancing; the lunch usually continues into the wee hours of the morning.

Food-wise, the julefrokost is a veritable feast. The food is served smorgasbord-style, so everyone can assemble their own meal. The lunch usually begins with a variety of fish courses: open face sandwiches with gravlax and dill sauce, makral i tomat (mackerel in tomato sauce), plaice filet with remoulade, pickled or curried herrings on rugbrød, smoked eel and salmon, and so on. The fish courses are followed by a variety of cold and warm meats: liver paté, ham, roast beef, flæskesteg (pork roast) with pickled red cabbage, frikadeller (meatballs), chicken tartelettes... The fish and meat courses are of course accompanied by a plethora of side dishes, garnishes and toppings, such as cucumber slices, tomatoes, onions, olives, potato salad and the like. Typical desserts include a cheese platter with crackers, dried fruit and nuts, and rice pudding.

As you can imagine, it takes quite a long time to eat through the whole menu. There is also a special order to eating the dishes (cold pork products before warm pork products, for example) as well as rules about which kind of bread goes with which filling – but the main thing is, of course, to eat, drink and be merry! Guest should remember to toast often by raising their glass and calling out “skål!”, but only when their glass is full – and the host will make sure it always is, as an empty schnapps glass in a guest’s hand is an embarrassment to the host.

[stormylee]

Fish & Meat

Danish Meatballs (Frikadeller)
Danish Pork Frickadeller
Danish Pork Liver Pate
Chicken Liver Postej
Danish Roast Pork With Prunes (Flaskesteg Med Svesker)
Danish Pork With Crackling



Onion and Herring Sandwich - Smorrebrod
Danish "Sillsallet" (Herring Salad)
Festive Tuna Salad
Smoked Salmon Open Faced Sandwich (Laks Sm�rrebr�d
Shrimp and Smoked Salmon Smorrebrod With Lemon Cucumbers
Gin and Juniper Cured Salmon - Scandinavian Gravlax



Pickled herring
Karrysild - herring in curry

[stormylee]

Side dishes & bread

Mom's Danish Potato Salad
Curried Eggs on Toast
Danish Braised Cabbage
Cabbage With Wine - Hvidk�l I Vinsauce
Danish White Cucumber Pickles
Herbed Glazed Onions



Danish Rye Bread
Danish Dill or Caraway Bread
Danish Rye Bread
Danish Sourdough Bread - Dansk Surdejg
Ester's Danish Rye Bread

[stormylee]

Sweet treats

Danish Christmas Rice Pudding With Almonds and Warm Cherry Sauce
Danish Christmas Rice Pudding
(don't forget that one important almond from the rice pudding! )
Chocolate-Oat Balls With Marzipan
Sm� Fl�dekager -Small Cream Cakes - (Danish)
Napoleon's Hat Cookies (Napoleonshatte)
Almond Butter Balls - Danish Mandelsm�rboller
Havregrynskugler (Cocoa-Oat-Coconut Balls)

[stormylee]

Don't forget to check out the Topic of the Month - Let's Party!

[duonyte]

My Scandinavian friends are the only ones who appreciate herring the way we Lithuanians do - here are a couple of recipes for you to consider, just to mix things up a bit!

Herring Salad With Apple and Potatoes (Silke Su Obuoliu Ir Bulve
Lithuanian Herring Salad With Onion and Tomato (Silke Su Pomidor

And this salad would be a part of an holiday luncheon for us, Lithuanian Mixed Vegetable Salad (Darzoviu Misraine)

[stormylee]

Oh wow, dyonute, those recipes have so many of the same features as Rosolli - Finnish Beetroot Salad - which often includes the beloved herring too!

[duonyte]

Why I always liked flying through Copenhagen or Oslo when flying to and from Lithuania - I knew the food at the airport would be ok! Well, through Amsterdam, too - always get a herring sandwich and a beer!

[stormylee]

Hmm, are salty licorice (ammonium chloride) candies to be found in the Baltic states too? They're popular in the Netherlands, parts of Germany and the Nordic countries... Can we draw a herring - salty licorice parallel??

[duonyte]

I don't remember seeing those, we weren't much for candy overall in my family. I will need to look next time.