Food is modern, and some food can hardly be modern enough. It should preferably be raw, or new Nordic, or smoothies. But then there’s also the non-modern food, the traditional food. Food that Grandma made with béchamel sauce, boiled potatoes, and a hearty portion of love. It’s food that warms both body and soul and spreads joy in a way that a smoothie never could.
Danish Traditions
Even though new modern interpretations of classic dishes and vegan or Asian menus are becoming more and more popular, we Danes find it hard to completely let go of our Danish food tradition.
Back in 2014, the Ministry of Environment and Food held a poll to determine Denmark’s national dish. Stegt flæsk won this poll, but another thing the poll proved was that Danes certainly haven’t forgotten the passion for traditional Danish cooking. Over 60,000 Danes voted, while discussions raged on Facebook – are karbonader more Danish than hamburgers? Is there really anything better than tarteletter?
Maybe we find it difficult to agree on which of the classic grandma dishes is actually the best, and everyone also thinks that their own grandma makes the best frikadeller, so we can’t agree on that either. But the love for grandma’s food is something we all agree on.
Food for Family Time
When Grandma cooks, it takes time. The sauce isn’t just poured from a carton and heated up but is made from scratch. The chicken must be boiled and peeled before it can go into the tarteletter. And it takes an incredibly long time to get all that love into the food.
Therefore, you should also take your time eating the food. For some reason, it just tastes best if you eat it as a family around the table – without the TV or other distractions going at the same time.
Grandma’s food is not just rich and meat-heavy food. It is quality time with the family, nostalgia, and memories of childhood, traditions, and not least really, really delicious.
See our collection of recipes for grandma’s food here:
- Brown cabbage
- Traditional beef roast. We have a recipe here.
- Tarteletter. We have a recipe here, here and here.
- Danish hash. We have a recipe here, here and here.
- Fish fillet with parsley sauce. See the recipe here.
- Fried pork with parsley sauce. See the recipe here.
- Burning love. See the recipe here.
- Oat cake. See the recipe here.
- Rolled sausage. See the recipe here.
- Fried herring. See the recipe here.
- Egg cake. See a recipe here, here, here, here and here.
- Stuffed leeks. See a recipe here.
- Kale stew. See a recipe here.
- Fried pork. See recipes here, here and here.
- Tenderloin steaks. See recipes here and here
- Hearts in cream sauce. See the recipe here.
- Grandfather’s beard. See a recipe here.
- Toasted rye bread with avocado and egg. See a recipe here.
- Fried fish fillet. See a recipe here, here,
- Blind birds. See the recipe here.
- White bread. See recipes here, here, here, here and here.
- Meatloaf. See the recipe here.
- Creamed potatoes. See the recipe here.
- Pork chops in sauce. See the recipe here.
- Burning love. See recipes here and here.
- Mashed potatoes. See a recipe here.
- Potato salad. See recipes here, here, here, here, here and here.
- Vanilla wreaths. See recipes here and here.
- Meatballs in celery. See the recipe here.
- Cabbage dish. See a recipe here.
- Medister sausage. See a recipe here.
- Meatballs. See recipes here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
- Meatballs with potato salad. See the recipe here.
- Smoked pork loin. See recipes here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
- Breaded pork chops. See the recipe here.
- Banana roulade. See the recipe here.
- Swedish sausage dish. See the recipes here and here.
- Stuffed tenderloin. See recipes here, here, here, here and here.
- Homemade red cabbage. See recipes here and here.
- Apple cake. See the recipes here and here.
- Wienerschnitzel. See recipes here, here, here and here.
- Roast pork with all the trimmings. See the recipe here.
- Vienna bread. See the recipe here.
- Rum balls. See recipes here
- Prune trifle. See the recipe here.
- Oatmeal with apple. See the recipe here.
- Lemon mousse. See recipes here and here.
- Cream ring. See a recipe here.
- Traditional white cabbage. See a recipe here.
- Stewed white cabbage. See a recipe here.
- Skipper stew. See recipes here.
- Pickled beets. See recipes here and here.
- Rice porridge. See recipes here, here, here, here and here.
- Cream puffs. See recipes here, here, here and here.
- Æbleskiver. See recipes here and here.
- Chicken salad. See recipes here, here, here and