In the old days, the majority of Danes had to prepare their food from the ingredients that were at hand. Along the coasts, the bold fishermen and their families' food consisted for the most part of fish dishes, whereas the hardworking and hungry farmers, who lived in the middle of the country, predominantly ate vegetables, cabbage and pork.

On top of this, the different regions came to have their own culinary specialties. Most of these specialties are long forgotten - they simply disappeared in the melting pot of the great international kitchens. Moreover, most of them required several days' preparation which people do not have the time for these days. Fortunately, some of them have survived and are today served in restaurants and inns in different parts of the country.

Join us for a gastronomic journey in pursuit of the regional dishes - from plaice á la Skagen to herring from Møn.

One of the finer dishes on the menu in the small fishing community of Skagen consisted of pan-fried plaice with a mixture of cranberries, cowberries or gooseberries. Vegetables were not common as it was hard to grow in the bare, sandy landscape. Wild berries, on the contrary, were plentiful in the surrounding nature for the people from Skagen.

These days, you can get an excellent "plaice á la Skagen" with cowberries at Brøndum's Hotel.

Also further down Jutland's west coast you'll find regional dishes where the main ingredient is fish - e.g. around Limfjorden where the predominant food is eel, served in a variety of ways.

The eel roll is one of the really old dishes of the region. After the eel has been skinned and de-boned, it is stuffed with chopped onions, salt and pepper. Next, it is rolled from the tail and upwards, packed in fabric and cooked. The roll is served cool and in slices and with potatoes in white sauce. At Venø Kro (Venø Inn) in Struer, they serve eel rolls that make the angels sing.

People from the western part of Jutland are also famous for Ølben, a dish that dates back to the 18th century, and it has been served at Sevel Kro (Sevel Inn) for many years. It is made from spareribs that have been brined for 24 hours and subsequently they are cooked with herbs in a mixture of bouillon and porter. When the soup has rested for three days, the spareribs are removed, roasted and served with a thickened stewed kale made the West Jutland way. Eat it with a beer and the inn's homemade snaps made from herbs from the Jutland heath.

During the 19th century, the barges sailed up and down the Gudenå bringing a variety of goods from one town to the next. Working as a bargee was hard and they satisfied their hunger at the inns along the river, and there was always a big pot of food on the stove - ready for when the people from the barges need a bowl of food. The dish was called pramdragergryde and it consisted of large lumps of pork and meat, coarsely chopped vegetables and smoked side pork.

Svostrup Kro (Svostrup Inn), which is located a stone's throw from the Gudenå, still serves pramdragergryde - however in a more sophisticated version with lumps of tenderloin, deep fried potatoes and crisp bacon.

Southern Jutland, on the other hand, is known for its sausages. And when the Christmas season is nearing, you are certain to find cabbage sausage, a dried and smoked sausage made from pork, on the menus of the inns. The word cabbage stems from the fact that it is traditionally served with thickened stewed kale made the South Jutland way. This winter meal is, among other places, served at Tyrstrup Kro (Tyrstrup Inn).

Solæg (sun eggs) is another old dish that originates from Southern Jutland. It is eggs cooked with the brown shells from onions for more than half an hour after which they are soaked in brine for up to three weeks. Before they are eaten, they are peeled, cut into two halves and the egg yolk is carefully removed. The hole is filled with a bit of tabasco, oil, vinegar, mustard or other strongly flavoured ingredients and afterwards the yolk is returned to the hole. The tasty eggs are mainly served in inns and pubs with a glass of nice draught beer - like in the old days. Buchs Vinstue (Buchs wine bar) in Haderslev has them in a big glass on the bar year round.

When they were celebrating weddings on Fanø Island in the old days, they served Sakkuk. It is a kind of flour pudding served with cured lamb, pork filet, greaves and syrup.

Sakkuk is still made several places on the island, among other places at Café Nanas Stue (Café Nana's living room) where it, according to tradition, is served with a glass of warm "hvidtøl" ("white beer": a dark, bottom-fermented, sweet ale) and snaps. However, it is necessary to pre-order the dish and it is only served for groups of more than eight people. You could also sign up for one of the Thursday events during summer where the café offers sakkuk and traditional music from Fanø.

Ærø island, on the other hand, is known for its pancakes that are almost 1 cm thick. The thickness is due to the fact that they put yeast in the doe so they rise on the pan. Over summer, the island is home to a number of festivals and other events and it is tradition that the stalls and tents on the street corners sell pancakes with honey and mashed apples.

An omelette from Funen is an old specialty, and it still smells of omelette on the island. As a matter of fact, Restaurant Carlslund is famous for its version, which has been on the menu since 1860 when the restaurant first opened its doors in the middle of the Fruens Bøge forest. The omelette is traditionally served with pan-fried side pork, rye bread and mustard.

On Møn, the specialty is called bidesild. This is a regional dish that dates back several centuries and it consists of herring that has soaked in brine for up to several days in large barrels. It is usually eaten with bread and fat - that is how it is served at Restaurant Kaj Kok.

This is also the place to enjoy another old specialty from Møn; wheat cake. The name is misleading as it is actually not a cake, but in the old days, bread that was made from a special fine kind of wheat was called a cake. The wheat cakes are served with cheese and homemade prune plums and they are served for brunch as well as in the evenings.

Herring and Bornholm belong together. Everybody who has visited one of the old smokehouses on the island knows that fact. One of the dishes is Sun over Gudhjem; smoked herring on rye bread with chives and a raw egg yolk.

Salt fried herring is one of the very old dishes. It is herring that has soaked in brine and afterwards it is dipped in flour and fried in pork fat. Another dish is the sweet and sour sauce with bacon, Gudhjemmadyppa, which is served with e.g. cod fish. Both dishes and a number of other regional dishes are served at restaurant Bokulhus that is specialising in old dishes from Bornholm.

While the rest of the country has plenty of regional dishes to offer, they are fewer and further between on Zealand. The closest you get to a regional dish today is old-fashioned open-face sandwiches (smørrebrød). The famous open-face sandwich stems from Copenhagen where a number of small open-face sandwich restaurants opened in the 1880s. Actually, you will find a number of old regional dishes from all over the country on the rye bread, e.g. cured brisket of beef with horseradish and a slice with salt herring.

If you want to taste a nice open-face sandwich, you should visit Ida Davidsen in Copenhagen, where the guests can choose from 250 different kinds of sandwiches.

Brøndums Hotel, www.broendums-hotel.dk
Sevel Inn, www.sevelkro.dk
Venø Inn, www.venoekro.dk
Svostrup Inn, www.svostrup-kro.dk
Tyrstrup Inn, www.tyrstrupkro.dk
Café Nanas Stue, www.nanas-stue.dk
Restaurant Bokulhus, www.gudhjem.nu/bokulhus.htm
Ida Davidsen, www.idadavidsen.dk
Restaurant Carlslund, www.restaurant-carlslund.dk
Restaurant Kaj Kok, www.kaj-kok.dk

Author: Mariette Tiedemann/MT Press ApS.