Danish

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Smørrebrød (Open Sandwiches on Dark Rye)

Denmark's open sandwich. Leaving the lid off is not a flourish, it is what the bread allows: rugbrød is a dense wholegrain sour rye that cracks if you fold it and is already stiff enough to work as a plate on its own. One slice therefore is one course, and a meal becomes a sequence of them in a fixed order, from herring at the start to cheese at the end. It is eaten with a knife and fork.

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Koldskål (Cold Buttermilk Bowl)

The Danish summer bowl, and the name means exactly that: cold bowl. Every custard on this site is set or thickened by heat — crème brûlée sets with yolk alone, crème caramel stands up because the whites are in it, blanquette de veau stops just short of setting. Koldskål never meets heat at all, so that method is simply unavailable, and three things stand in for it: the acidity the buttermilk was cultured to, sugar dissolved into raw yolk, and the fridge. Which makes the order of addition the hard part — yolk dropped into cold acidic buttermilk seizes into threads instead of dispersing.

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Stegt Flæsk med Persillesovs (Crisp Pork with Parsley Sauce)

Denmark's national dish, chosen by public vote in 2014: pork belly sliced 5 mm thick and roasted on a rack until glassy and crisp, served with boiled potatoes and a white sauce loaded with parsley. The thickness, the amount of parsley, and the pickled beetroot on the side are the whole thing.