Today's blog entry is dedicated to my Grandma P. who came to Canada from Denmark many years ago. Enjoy!
Breakfast or Morgenmad in Denmark is a simple affair. Coffee (a staple in every country it seems), various rolls, cold cuts, cheeses, and jam is the norm for most people. Other alternatives include Ymerdrys (danish yogurt with a rye bread granola topping), cereal or porridge.
What about the famous Danish pastry you ask? Well, although it is popular for breakfast, after some research I discovered that the eponymous pastry actually has Viennese heritage! Apparently, when the bakers of Denmark went on strike in 1850, bakers from foreign countries, including Austria, were brought in to fill the pastry gap. Not familiar with Danish pastries the Viennese bakers baked what they knew. The Wienerbrod (Viennese bread) was instantly popular and voila, the "Danish" was born. Now of course, Danish bakers have taken the pastry, made it their own and it's become popular around the world.
But for today's entry I wanted something more traditional and simply Danish... Enter the Øllebrød!
When translated, Øllebrød simply means beer-bread and basically it's a warm porridge made from left-over rye bread and beer. (doesn't that sound delicious?) It was a staple in Danish cuisine until sometime in the 1800's and there are two theories as to it's origins. One is that it was invented by Monks who used to dip their old rye bread in beer. Another says that it was a classic peasant dish, wherein a big pot was kept on the hearth all-day, everyday and as needed old rye bread and beer was thrown in.
Either way, although it's an old-fashioned recipe, from what I can tell Øllebrød has made somewhat of a comeback. Partly due to renewed public interest in "vintage" recipes and partly due to it's place on the menu of the Copenhagen restaurant Noma. Rated the #1 in the world, this Danish restaurant focuses on using regional ingredients and culture to sculpt their cuisine. If Øllebrød was good enough for them, I figured we should give it a go.
Simple enough to make, I concocted a recipe using inspiration from the classic Øllebrød recipe and Noma's version. The porridge was made using rye bread, beer, water, sugar, lemon juice and a dash of vanilla. We topped that with sweetened whipped cream and some delicious homemade rye bread croutons.
For such a simple recipe, Øllebrød packed a ton of flavour. It was tart, sweet, yeasty, bitter and just a little bit salty (from the croutons). We decided it was probably an acquired taste and although extremely foreign to our palates was one of those dishes that would be craved by those that grew up with it.
The Verdict:
For Ease of Preparation:
If you have an hour or so, you can have Øllebrød. It wins bonus points for being made with ingredients commonly found in our pantry.
For Degrees of Separation:
Although it resembles porridge, the flavour was far different from anything I've ever tried.
For Guestability:
This would be a really challenging meal to serve guests - unless of course, they're Danish!
For Sustainability:
This is one hearty breakfast, chock full of fiber and protein.
Overall appeal:
It was fun to delve a little bit in Danish food history and I feel inspired to look into other dishes. However, I don't know that Øllebrød will be making it back onto our breakfast table in the near future. It was just a touch too challenging for our taste buds in the morning.
The last two weeks everything's been coming up breakfast! We've been a little bit breakfast happy and have several breakfasts saved up to show you. So join us in the coming week for a mystery breakfast. Will it be Cuban, Lebanese, Singaporean or Filipino......? (or all of the above)
No comments:
Post a Comment