Welcome to My Danish Christmas Advent Calendar!   Join me every day in opening a new door.  Just like last year, I’ve got a host of goodies to share with you – traditional Danish Christmas recipes, traditions, songs, games, decorations, crafts and landscapes…  So sit back, relax and enjoy!

19 DECEMBER

Today we’re back on the Danish Christmas food wagon…rullepølse!   Rolled pork.  One of the things that features heavily in a Danish Christmas lunch…

You can find it ready sliced in little packets at the supermarket.  Or you can buy large chunks, for slicing at home, from your butcher.  But the one you see above isn’t just any old rolled pork.  It’s my hjemmelavet rullepølse – the homemade kind!   A long flat piece of raw pork belly (best to order it in advance from the butcher), which you cover with spices and lots and lots and lots and lots of pepper, roll up, tie up, boil, then put in a press to cool.  And then slice and enjoy on a slice of rugbrød (ryebread).  Some people like to top it with italiensk salat (a mayo salad containing chunks of carrot of peas), others eat it with slices of raw onion and cubes of pork jelly.  But it’s always, always good with a nice cold Christmas beer 

Okay, so if I’m honest, I didn’t make my rullepølse completely from scratch last year.  I half-cheated and bought the pork from a Swedish butcher, raw, all rolled and ready for the boiling pot…

Here’s our rullepølse press – made by my husband’s brother in school woodwork class when he was just a nipper!    They’re quite hard to find these days.  In fact, we lent our press out last year to a friend – after she had seen my rullepølse on facebook, and was determined to have a go!  (And can you guess what her family decided to buy her for Christmas?!)

After boiling, you squash the pork into the press and put the screws on it.  Then pop it into the fridge to cool and harden for a few days…

Am I making you hungry?   Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow when we open the next door!

Diane