Frikadeller

Frikadeller

I must still have Denmark on the mind leftover from Solvang. I was looking up the correct spelling of medisterpolse for the medisterpolse post when frikadeller caught my eye. I had no idea what a frikadeller was but it sure was fun to say. Frikadeller! Frickadeller! Frickadeller! Sounds like a swear word. Okay, that's a bit juvenile.

After reading up on these things, I learned they are simply, Danish meatballs. Now, having been to IKEA I've consumed my share of Swedish meatballs. No assembly required. (If they're from IKEA they must be authentic right?) but Danish meatballs? This was new to me. I was intrigued and had to try them out.

What is it about the universal appeal of meatballs and gravy? It seems to be one of those meals that every culture has a version of. Take ground meat, roll it up, cook it, add gravy of choice. Easy. Actually come to think of it, in the old days, dishes like this were probably created as an economical way to utilize all the left over scraps of meat after all the good cuts were used up. If these balls of mystery meat contained offal or other strong flavors, they could be masked with spices and a ladle of gravy. Moreover, if you had a few extra mouths to feed, no worries, just throw in more breadcrumbs, rice or *insert filler here* and you now have enough to go around. Good kitchen economics at work here.

Frikadeller Close-up

Nowadays, we have the luxury of using the choice stuff even when it comes to the lowly meatball. For my version of frikadeller I used ground beef, breadcrumbs, an egg, some diced onion and seasoned the mixture with ground nutmeg, salt and pepper. We ate them with the traditional sides of braised red cabbage with bacon and parseleyed potatoes. A simple gravy was made with the deglazed frikadeller pan scrapings and poured all over everything.

Whether you call them schnitzla, koenigsberger klops, albondigas, or polpette, (all as much fun to say as frikadeller by the way) meatballs are a hearty, flavorful and economical meal.

Medisterpolse

On my first trip to England to visit T1's family, we landed at London Heathrow and were met by T1's Mum and Pop. We then jumped in Pop's car for the long car ride back to Liverpool. I can't remember why we just didn't fly into Manchester Airport which would have made more sense but I'm glad we didn't. In retrospect, the car ride, which took the whole afternoon gave me a chance to see the beautiful English countryside. I'm glad we drove the 200 or so miles instead. Thanks to Pop's impeccable driving skills we made the journey in good time and along the way we stopped at a Granada rest stop on the side of the motorway to stretch our legs and get a drink and a prawn sandwich. The rest stops in England seem quite civilized compared to the ones you see here in the states. It was clean for one thing and the cafeteria area offered hot plates as well as pre-packaged sandwiches. It was here in the steam table that I saw for the first time, a savory, coiled, snake-like rope of mince occupying it's own pan and bathed in it's own gravy. "What the heck is that?" I asked T1. She said it was a Cumberland sausage. I never got to try one while in England but the image of that thing sitting there waiting for my fork remained in my mind all these years.

The Setting: Solvang Countryside

Fast forward to last week. We were in Solvang on our road trip. I did a little research on Solvang before the Folks came out and ran across an image of what I thought was a Cumberland Sausage. Turns out it was a Danish sausage called a Medisterpolse. Looked very similar to my memory of a Cumberland sausage. We went to a local supermarket in town called Nielsen's to pick up provisions so I beelined over to the refrigerated meat case and that's where I found the Medisterpolse. Needless to say, I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to try this thing and bought it.

Medisterpolse from Nielsen's (my thumb went through the package)

The next morning I cooked it up in our kitchen equipped room to have for breakfast with some scrambled eggs, potatoes, fruit, pastry and bagels.

Medisterpolse Done!

Now That's a Breakfast!

It rocked! Although the label doesn't reveal the ingredients, (sometimes when it comes to sausages, you're better off not knowing) I could taste perhaps pork or veal and a hint of mild spice like allspice or clove maybe. Anyway, it all went together well. A few years ago while visiting Solvang, I had a sausage with an order of aebleskivers and it was served on the plate with some berry jam. I can't remember if it was Medisterpolse. It didn't share the same coiled shape, but the jam complimented the sausage nicely. For this Medisterpolse, I ate it with a good strong mustard.