Danish Food Culture
If you ask Danes you will get a lot of different answers because truth is, most families have their own adapted version. And since all households in Denmark knows the frikadelle ......well.
Some families have "secret" ingredients, spices, herbs or tools, temperatures, cooking methods or ways of mixing the meat. These methods or secrets have become a known way of making frikadeller (plural) in each household and will be carried on to the next generation. Most likely to be adapted further by them.
One of the tricks my father taught me, was to use a dough spoon - like the spoons you see in the picture above. The dough spoon a.k.a. the frikadelle spoon as we called it in my family, will make the meat come together nicely. Not as mashed as an electrical mixer will.
A frikadelle that has too little salt will become quit plain. In Danish we would tend to say that it tastes boring / den smager kedelig. Some people don't mind tasting the raw meat before cooked, just to make sure the seasoning is perfect. My apporach is to shape a small frikadelle, fry it and taste it. Then you know how this particular meat has to be seasoned perfectly.
I think it's fair to claim that there is a frikadelle for every tastebud out there. The traditional Danish frikadelle is simple, plain, goes with just about everything and it is fairly cheap to make if you mix the meat with oatmeal and mineralwater to leave out the bit more expensive milk and eggs. If you want to go in a more luxurious version you could use eggs, cream and some fresh herbs. Or why not use a good stock to juice them up a little? That's the thing about frikadeller - you can make your own version. Just know, that they might not be as good as the traditional.
I prefer the traditional organic pork meat version with eggs, flour, milk and onions. Or a really nice vegan frikadelle can be a very delicious bite as well. Just make sure they don't fall apart when cooked. They have to stay in their rather flat, roundish shape. Not too perfect. It is nice to be able to pick out a frikadelle (or 2 ... read about the quota further down) on the plate that looks exactly like you want it to.
Obviously the chicken frikadelle is a good choice if pork is not an option or available. I'm adapting to the chicken frikadeller little by little. They were never my favourite but depending on the ingredients they might be very tasty, light and low fat.
Because the frikadelle is so delicious and an all time favourite by kids, you might need to set up restrictions or rules as to how many frikadeller your family members are allowed to eat during supper. Most Danes live by the frikadelle rules: eat at least 2 potatoes and some veggies for every frikadelle you eat.
About sanseliv
My name is Charlotte and I love to cook with others. Food culture has always been an interesting area to explore on my journeys to different parts of the world. Especially diving into food cultures with locals and get to know the secrets of the everyday authentic meals.
I was raised in a commune where chldren and adults entered in a kitchen duty rotation. We had to cook once a week. Supervised by adults we learned to make shopping lists, cook dinner, wash the dishes, set the table and so on. Before getting into a tech career with websites and photography, I went to cooking school and had a couple of weeks training at Birmingham College of Food as part of curriculum. After that I worked in an industrial kitchen cooking healthy and fresh meals for approximately 200 older citizens at the local nursing home.
Join a frikadelle cooking class
Dates in September coming soon.
In this class we will cook and eat a traditional Dansih frikadelle meal.
Where
Spiren at Maltfabrikken,
DK-Ebeltoft
Price
50 euro
All ingredients are organic.
This class is in English.
Small class of 6 people.
Fun facts about the frikadelle
You can buy different versions of readymade frikadelle mixtures in the supermarkets. You just add the mixture and some milk or water to the meat and that's it. Shape them and fry them. That's not my favourite but it's easy.
More facts about the frikadelle
Danes are very particular about their frikadeller. You can make frikadeller with pork, chicken, a vegan version or a mix of veal and pork, duck and pork and so on. As long as you understand that a beef version is not a frikadelle. That's a meatball.
Requests or questions?
Send me an email on cooking@sanseliv.dk if you're looking for a vegan or chicken frikadelle class or wish a cooking class with your friends and family on other dates.
Dansk klasse?
Jeg holder også frikadellekurser på dansk. Send en mail på cooking@sanseliv.dk
In need of accomodation?
I recommend the calm yet central ibsens gaard with a shared kitchen to store any leftover frikadeller from class. They are very tasty the day after on bread or in a sandwich.
Please get in touch if you have any questions or maybe a request for other dates for cooking classes, a desire to arrange a cooking class for a small group of people as part of your journey, or want to recieve information about future cooking classes.
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Du er meget velkommen til at skrive, hvis du ønsker et frikadellekursus på dansk eller har samlet en gruppe af deltagere til et frikadelle eller vega-delle kursus.