Frikadeller

Ingredients

• Minced pork400 g
• Minced veal200 g
• Onion — grated1
• Egg1
• Plain flour3 tbsp
• Milk150 ml
• Ground allspice½ tsp
• Butter60 g
• Boiled potatoes800 g
• Pickled red cabbageto taste
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Mix both minces with the grated onion, egg, flour, salt, pepper and allspice.

   5 min

2. 2

   Work it for five minutes, adding the milk in stages. The mixture should turn tacky and string off the spoon.

   7 min

3. 3

   Chill it for half an hour: cold farce holds its shape better.

   32 min

4. 4

   Melt the butter over medium heat. With a spoon dipped in water, scoop the mixture into the pan and flatten each one.

   5 min

5. 5

   Fry six minutes a side, to a dark brown crust. Do not hurry: the colour is the flavour.

   14 min

6. 6

   Serve with boiled potatoes, pickled red cabbage and the gravy from the pan.

About the dish

The mixture is worked until it strings off the spoon. The Danes call it farce, and here the working replaces egg as a binder: the proteins bind to each other.

They are shaped with a spoon directly in the pan rather than by hand. Hence the characteristic flattened, slightly irregular form that tells a frikadelle from a meatball.

They fry long and at medium heat, about six minutes a side. A fast fry leaves a pale crust and a raw middle, because a frikadelle is fairly thick.

Worth knowing

• — Dip the spoon in water before each one, or the mixture sticks and the shape comes out ragged.
• — The pork and veal mixture is what makes it classic. Pork alone gives a fattier, denser result.
• — Cold frikadeller the next day go onto an open sandwich with red cabbage — a Danish dish in its own right.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

36 g

Fat

34 g

Carbs

42 g

More from Denmark

• Smørrebrød — An open sandwich on rye with butter. The order of the layers and the thickness of the butter both matter.