Today I’m making Forloren Hare for dinner. I’m actually making two – one for tonight and one to put in the freezer for later. I never ate meatloaf until I came to Denmark in 1998 – it’s not something that we ever ate in our family in Scotland. But I can’t get enough of it now – especially the sauce I drown it in 😉
[If you’d like imperial measurements, my recipe is here.] You’ll need:
- 1 onion, 1 carrot and 1 clove of garlic (see below)
- 500g minced pork/veal/beef, any combination you like. The traditional Danish combo is ½ veal + ½ pork and it comes ready mixed in the supermarket.
- 1 dl breadcrumbs (also from a packet)
- salt & lots and lots of pepper!
- 1 egg
- about 1 dl cream or milk
And for cooking it:
- packet of bacon (long strips)
- 2.5 dl milk
- 2.5 dl hot water
- stock cube
And for the (heavenly) gravy, ‘brown sauce’ or brunsovs:
- ½ to 1 dl cream or milk
- 1-2 spoons of Maizena (sauce thickener)
- 1 tablespoon redcurrant jelly (you want a bit of sweetness)
- salt & pepper (duh!)
- gravy browning if you use it
Put a roughly chopped onion, carrot and the clove of garlic in your mixer and reduce to a pulp. I put in the onion and garlic for flavour. The carrot isn’t essential, it’s just for extra, hidden, veggies and because I always have a house full of them 🙂
Add the meat, breadcrumbs, seasoning, egg, milk or cream and run the mixer until the whole thing starts to come together and starts going round the blades like a motorbike in one of those Wall of Death things 😉
Put the mixture into a large ovendish and pat it down a bit, so it looks like a big, fat, long sausage. Cover the whole thing with strips of bacon, working from left to right or top to bottom. It’s your call!
Put into a hot oven, 225c or 425f for 15 minutes until the bacon starts sizzling. Then turn down the oven temperature to 200c or 400f and pour the milk/stock mixture around the meatloaf. Continue cooking for about 45 minutes. Check in the middle that it is hot and cooked all the way through – will depend how ‘fat’ your meatloaf is.
Pour the milk/stock mixture through a strainer (if you can be bothered…) and put into a saucepan with the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil. Adjust with more cream if necessary 😉
For a really traditional Danish meal, serve with boiled potatoes, peas or hot red cabbage, pickled cucumber slices, asier (a strange pickled ‘white’ cucumber) and loooooots of sauce.
And as they say here – velbekomme! 🙂
POSTSCRIPT:
This meatloaf freezes well. Freeze uncooked. Wrap in foil and put in plastic bag. Defrost in fridge the night before you want to use it. Cook as directed. Then enjoy!
Thanks for this recipe. I am going to try it tonight. Don from Montréal, Canada.
Wow. Everyone loved the Frolen Hare! The texture and the taste of the meatloaf and the sauce were delicious. The recipe was easy to follow. I ended up making a double recipe so I just mixed the onions, breadcumbs and meat by hand.
Thanks again.
Hi Don! So glad you enjoyed the meatloat – it's a Danish classic!
Many thanks for stopping by. And I hope you find some more food you like here on the blog 🙂
Hi Diane
I just found your recipe and I can't wait to try it. I was in Copenhagen for training last year and they served meat loaf one day – I fell in love instantly and having tried meatloaf recipes with no where near the delicious result, I reckon I need to go to the original source – Denmark! Will try this soon and let you know how I got on. One question – I'm from South Africa, so don't know what 'dl' stands for – is it litres, mililitres, etc?
Thank you and happy cooking, Jane
Hi Jane! Delighted you want to try the recipe…it IS good! LOL
Re measurements, 'dl' stands for decilitres. A tenth of a litre. One decilitre equals 100 millilitres. Let me know if you need me to convert things for you.
Can't wait to hear how you get on! 😀
Hi Diane
I finally got round to making this amazing dish. Had a lovely lazy Sunday so plenty of time…but it was rather easy after all.
Results were lovely thank you. My housemates loved every morsel and the sauce just set it off perfectly. Thank you – I've finally found that amazing taste I had in Denmark. Will certainly make it again.
Thank you and wishing you well,
All the best
Jane
Hi again Jane!
So glad you liked it and…you know what…I just added it to this week's menuplan! Thank you for your lovely comment and the reminder ;D
Kind regards
Diane
Diane, you've been trained well! You almost cook it like my (Danish) mother did. The carrot, though… hmm, a little bit odd… haha. My grandfather would not have approved. "I'm not a rabbit", he'd say if too many veggies made their way into his dinner. Anyway, I will now print recipe as my Filipino domestic helper is going to have a go at Forloren Hare too! Cheers.