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Smørrebrød

Name: Smørrebrød
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Danish
Ingredients: 12 slices Danish rugbrød (dense rye bread), sliced thin; 150 g Salted butter, soft; 200 g Pickled herring fillets; 1 Red onion, thinly sliced into rings; 250 g Cold roast pork with crackling, sliced; 150 g Red cabbage, pickled; 200 g Cooked cold-water prawns; 3 Hard-boiled eggs, sliced; 80 g Mayonnaise; 20 g Fresh dill; 1 Lemon, cut into wedges; 1/2 tsp Curry powder for the egg; 1/2 tsp Salt

A slice of dense rye bread, buttered to the edges, with one topping built on it and eaten with a knife and fork — three classics here: herring, roast pork, and prawn with egg.

Source

Recipe by Danish home kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · Rye bread, pork and butter, and an insistence that lunch is a slice of bread with something carefully arranged on top — hygge is a real constraint on how food is served, not a marketing word.

Danish · open sandwich — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms the buttered rye base, the single-topping construction, the standard toppings including herring, roast pork and prawn, and the knife-and-fork convention. Quantities and assembly are this book's own.

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⏱ 35 min🍽 4 servings🔥 480 kcal🇩🇰 Denmark

Nut-free

Steps

Butter every slice right to the edges. This is not optional and it is not about flavour.
💡 The butter is a waterproof layer. Without it the rye soaks up brine and mayonnaise and goes to paste within minutes.
Herring: lay two pieces on the bread, top with onion rings and a sprig of dill.
Roast pork: overlap slices with the crackling standing up at one end, then pickled red cabbage along the other.
Prawn and egg: fan the egg slices along one half, pile the prawns on the other, and pipe a line of mayonnaise between them.
Season the egg with the curry powder and a little salt, and put a lemon wedge on the prawn side.
Serve immediately, on a board, with a knife and fork for each person. Nobody picks these up.

💡 Tips

There is a correct order at a Danish lunch: herring first, then other fish, then meat, then cheese. Ignoring it is the sort of thing people notice.
One topping per slice. Piling three things onto one piece is not generosity, it is a different sandwich.
Assemble at the last minute. Even buttered, rye under mayonnaise has about twenty minutes in it.

Photo coming soon

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