Danish cuisine (2024)

FAQs

What is traditional Danish food? ›

In general, people eat home-cooked food in Denmark, and many families eat together every night. A typical lunch in Denmark consists of slices of rye bread with different toppings such as chicken salad, roastbeef, paté, or herring. For dinner, traditional Danish dishes often includes potatoes on the side.

Denmark's national food dish: Stegt flæsk

The crispy pork with parsley sauce and potatoes is a very old dish that has won the hearts, and tummies, of Danes for centuries. You can try the Danes' national dish in many restaurants around Denmark.

The must-try traditional dishes in Copenhagen include smørrebrød, a Danish open-faced sandwich, frikadeller (Danish meatballs), and the Danish hot dog.

Typical Danish breakfast is bread (white or rye bread) with cream or soft cheese, sausage, cured cold meat or jam with coffee or tea. Among popular breakfast dishes are also cereals and porridge. One of the most interesting things and a very traditional Danish food you can eat in Copenhagen is øllebrød.

The "national dish of Denmark" is stegt flæsk - pieces of pork, fried until crisp, and then served with boiled potatoes and parsley sauce. Ironically, the tasty frosted pastries known to much of the world as "Danish" are not Danish at all.

Main meals. Most Danes have three regular meals a day, usually consisting of a cold breakfast with coffee or tea, a cold lunch at work and a hot dinner at home with the family. Some also have a snack in the middle of the afternoon or in the late evening.

Akvavit, translated from Latin to mean 'water of life', is a Scandinavian drink distilled from potatoes and grains and flavoured with herbs. It is the national drink of Denmark and is enjoyed as a celebration drink, sipped from a shot glass.

You can get a very classic Danish Lunch with smørrebrød, beer and aquavit. It is good but also an old school culinary style. You can get open sandwiches or open face sandwiches with ryebread and e.g. smoked eel, plaice with remoulade, beef tatar the traditional way with horseradish, hen salad and aged cheese.

A hot dog with mustard, ketchup, rémoulade, fried onions, fresh onions and pickles from award-winning Den Okologiske Polsemand.

What are the manners of eating in Denmark? ›

Table manners are Continental -- hold the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right while eating. Always keep your hands visible when eating. Keep your wrists resting on the edge of the table. Try everything.

Danish eggs are animal welfare of a high quality. The eggs are produced under sound conditions and with high demands for the well-being and welfare of the hens throughout the production period. Unlike many foreign hens, Danish hens are not beak trimmed.

noun. hyg·​ge ˈhyü-gə ˈhü- ˈhu̇- : a cozy quality that makes a person feel content and comfortable. During the long, dark winters when Danes retreat inside their homes, hygge is what brings them a great sense of comfort and joy.

"The tradition to eat lunch early, at 12, might be that lunch in Denmark is not a big meal like other European countries. It's a cold meal and often a lunch pack from home, often a few sandwiches," Professor Lotte Holm of the University of Copenhagen told The Local.