Smørrebrød (Open Sandwiches on Dark Rye)

Variations

• Dyrlægens natmad: "the vet's late supper" — liver pâté, salt beef, onion and aspic on one slice. The name is modern; the combination is not.
• Stjerneskud: "shooting star" — fried and poached white fish, prawns and asparagus, the showpiece version.
• Håndmad: one slice with butter and one thing on it, eaten standing in the kitchen. The simplest form there is.
• Toasted rugbrød: mackerel or scrambled egg is sometimes built on lightly toasted bread instead.
• A Danish table: stegt flæsk is the hot dish and koldskål the summer sweet.

Tips

• There is no lid because of the bread. Rugbrød is a dense wholegrain sour rye and it cracks if you fold it. As pumpernickel explains, rye builds no wheat-style gluten network and carries pentosans that hold water instead, which is what makes the crumb that tight. That loaf cannot be folded — and does not need to be, because one slice is already stiff enough to carry what is on it.
• Which also separates it from the dishes that use bread as a plate. Injera and lavash are wide flatbreads under something wet, and you end up eating the plate with your hands. Smørrebrød puts a dry composed topping on a single slice and is eaten with a knife and fork. Pick it up and it stops being the dish.
• The butter is a membrane, not a flavour. Jambon-beurre calls its butter "waterproofing" and ftira quotes that back. It matters more here, because almost everything that goes on top is wet — pickled herring, prawns in mayonnaise, pickled cabbage. Leave a gap at the edge and the crumb goes soft from there.
• There is an order, and you do not go back. Herring, then other fish, then warm dishes and meat, then cheese. It follows from one slice being one course: you start with the sharp pickled things and finish with cheese so that nothing early flattens what comes after.
• Use the meatballs and the pâté cold. Warm toppings melt the butter, remove the waterproofing and wet the bread from below. There is a reason most of what goes on smørrebrød is cured, pickled, or cooked and cooled — the whole construction is keeping things on a keeping bread.
• One idea per slice. More on top does not make it better. The classic combinations stop at two or three things because a forkful cut off the slice has to contain all of them at once.