Smørrebrød (Danish Open-faced Sandwiches)

An Introduction to Open-faced Sandwiches

It’s about time we wrote out a recipe for Denmark’s national dish – smørrebrød, aka open-faced sandwiches! We grew up eating simplified versions of the sandwiches in this recipe for lunch, and fancier versions for family events around Christmas or Easter. The basic concept of an open-faced sandwich is to add toppings onto a slice of buttered rye bread (you can also use lard on top of the bread!). The toppings vary from seafood to meat to veggies – there is a lot of flexibility! For more information about smørrebrød, read our blog post here! The ultimate goal of each sandwich is to create a balanced mouthful. As far as actually eating the sandwich goes – use a knife and fork; these are not for eating with your hands!

Today’s Recipe

This recipe post is going to be a little bit different from usual. The recipe portion itself functions as more of a checklist/grocery list to make sure you have all the items you will need to make 9 different sandwiches. We make note that the number of ingredients should be enough for four people (with leftovers in some cases)! In the rest of this post, we will include instructions about how we like to assemble each sandwich. Of course, you can change up a lot of the garnishes and condiments based on what you like! For a more in depth explanation of open faced sandwiches and each one that we chose to highlight, read our blog post!

Our Nine Favorite Sandwiches

Below you will find step by step instructions on assembling each of our favorite sandwiches. Here’s a list of the sandwiches to jump to a specific one:

1. Sild (Herring)
2. Makrel (Mackerel)
3. Laks (Smoked Salmon)
4. Rejer (Shrimp)
5. Frikadelle (Meatball)
6. Leverpostej (Liver Pate)
7. Roast Beef
8. Æg (Egg)
9. Kartoffel (Potato)

1. Sild (Herring)

1. Begin with a slice of rye bread; spread butter on the bread, or lard if you would like!
2. Add 3-4 pieces of marinated herring.
3. Top with slices of red onion or pickled red onion.
4. Garnish with slices of radish, capers and top with micro greens.

2. Makrel (Mackerel)

1. Begin with a slice of rye bread; spread butter on the bread, or lard if you would like!
2. Add about half of a tin of mackerel in tomato sauce.
3. Top with slices of fresh cucumber or alternatively, mayonnaise (this is a popular topping in Denmark, we just prefer the cucumber!)
4. Garnish with chives and micro greens on top.

3. Laks (Smoked Salmon)

1. Begin with a slice of rye bread; spread butter on the bread, or lard if you would like!
2. Add slices of cucumber and pieces of smoked salmon.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste and squeeze lemon juice over the top.
4. Top with pickled red onion, a lemon slice, and dill. You can also add capers!

4. Rejer (Shrimp)

1. Begin with a slice of rye bread; spread butter on the bread, or lard/mayonnaise if you would like!
2. Add a layer of crunchy lettuce (we like to use butter lettuce).
3. Add sliced avocado.
4. Top with small shrimp piled high. Season with salt and pepper as needed, and squeeze fresh lemon juice on top. You can also add mayo!
5. Garnish with fresh dill and a slice of lemon.

5. Frikadelle (Meatball)

1. Begin with a slice of rye bread; spread butter on the bread, or lard if you would like!
2. Top with slices of Danish meatballs (frikadeller; you will likely need 2 per sandwich!)
3. Add pickles (or fresh cucumber if you don’t like pickles), or pickled beets. Season with salt and pepper as needed. If you like, you can top with remoulade instead!
4. Garnish with sliced radish, red onion or pickled red onion, and micro greens. You can sub out the red onion for fried onions!

6. Leverpostej (Liver Pate)

1. Begin with a slice of rye bread; spread butter on the bread, or lard if you would like!
2. Add a generous layer of leverpostej (liver pate).
3. Top with pickled beets and garnish with chives and/or fried onions. You can also top with with fresh cucumber instead of the pickled beets.

7. Roast Beef

1. Begin with a slice of rye bread; spread butter on the bread, or lard if you would like!
2. Add a layer of crunchy lettuce (we like to use butter lettuce).
3. Top with slices of roast beef.
4. Add remoulade, sliced radishes, and micro greens. You could also top with pickles. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

8. Æg (Egg)

1. Begin with a slice of rye bread; spread butter on the bread, or lard if you would like!
2. Add a layer of crunchy lettuce (we like to use butter lettuce).
3. Top with slices of tomato and cucumber. Then add sliced egg. Season with salt and pepper as needed.
4. Garnish with chives and/or micro greens.

9. Kartoffel (Potato)

1. Begin with a slice of rye bread; spread butter on the bread, or lard if you would like!
2. Add a layer of crunchy lettuce (we like to use butter lettuce).
3. Add sliced potato. Top with sour cream (you can use mayonnaise instead).
4. Garnish with chives and/or fried onions. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Preparing the Meal

The hardest part about serving smørrebrød is gathering all of the ingredients and preparing food ahead of time. We hope that our recipe below can serve as a grocery checklist for anyone interested in hosting a Danish lunch! Let us know if you try any of our open-faced sandwiches! We would also love to hear – what are your favorite toppings? Comment below!

Smørrebrød (Danish Open-faced Sandwiches)

5 from 6 votes

The Danish open-faced sandwich consists of a base of rugbrød (rye bread), a main component (usually meat or fish), and garnishes to create the perfect balanced bite! Our recipe includes a list of ingredients to create 9 different versions of smørrebrød.

Servings 4 people

Prep Time 2 hours hrs

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

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IMPORTANT NOTE:

We always bake using a digital scale and the metric system (grams and milliliters). We can’t promise that our cup measurements will be as accurate! Additionally, we bake and develop our recipes in a convection (fan) oven.

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Seafood

• 1 jar marinated herring (you can get this at IKEA or possibly at your local grocery store!)
• 1 pack frozen baby shrimp (you can get this at IKEA or possibly at your local grocery store – you are looking for small shrimp!)
• 1 pack smoked salmon (usually come in 4oz packs) (get your favorite kind!)
• 1-2 tins mackerel in tomato sauce (you can get these from Scandinavian stores, or in a pinch, you can find tinned mackerel in oil in most grocery stores!)

Meat & Eggs

• 1 leverpostej/liver pate (we have a recipe if you would like to make a homemade version, or you can find liver pate in most grocery stores!)
• Frikadeller/Danish meatballs (we have a recipe for homemade danish meatballs here; the recipe will yield leftover meatballs!)
• 1 pack roast beef (we just get pre-packaged deli meat, ~8oz!)
• 4 hardboiled eggs

Vegetables

• 8 small boiled potatoes
• 4 campari sized tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 avocado
• 1 head Butter lettuce (any crunchy, larger leaf lettuce will work!)
• 4-5 radishes (this is optional but we love the crunch the radishes add!)
• 1-2 pickles (optional)

Toppings, Condiments, and Garnishes

• 1 jar pickled beets (you can find pickled beets at Scandinavian stores, or see our recipe here!)
• Capers (optional)
• Mayonnaise (optional)
• Danish Remoulade (you can find remoulade at Scandinavian stores, or see our recipe here!)
• Butter (for spreading on the bread)
• Sour Cream (optional)
• Fried Onions (you can find these at IKEA, Trader Joe's, or other grocery stores!)
• Fresh dill
• Chives
• Micro greens (optional, but they add great texture and flavor!)
• Sliced red onion (even better if you have time to pickle the red onions; you can also rinse them to remove some of the sharp onion flavor!)
• 1 lemon

Bread

• 2 loaves of danish rye bread (we have a recipe here for rugbrød; this may seem like a lot, but you can always eat leftover bread! you can also often find pre-sliced seeded rye bread in grocery stores, or premade mixes at Scandinavian stores!)

Instructions

 

• Prepare for your meal by making ahead certain items, either the day before your meal, or the morning of. These items (if making them from scratch) include liver pate, danish meatballs, remoulade, pickled beets, and the rye bread.
• Slice and prepare all of the vegetables, wash the lettuce and herbs, and prepare the garnishes by either setting them on the table or placing in serving containers/bowls. Boil potatoes and eggs as well.
• Slice the rye bread a little over 1/4" thick. Now you can either arrange all the ingredients including the fish and the meats on serving platters and allow guests to build their own sandwiches, or you can prepare each version of the sandwich for everyone at a time. We like to put everything out and prepare our own sandwiches starting with fish, then meats, and then vegetables.
• Refer to our list above to see how we like to construct each sandwich! And if you're like us, buckle up for a lunch that probably lasts six hours!

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: Danish

Keyword: classic, condiments, fish, garnishes, meatball, rye bread, traditional, vegetables

Difficulty: Intermediate