Dansk Smørrebrød

During the Middle Ages, thick slabs of coarse and usually stale bread, called "trenchers," were used as plates. After a meal, the food-soaked trencher was fed to a dog or a fortunate beggar, or eaten by the diner. Trenchers are the precursor of both the open-face sandwich, and of disposable dishware. Thus open-face sandwiches have a unique origin and history, differing from that of the true (multi-slice) sandwich.

Smørrebrød literally translated means "buttered bread;" but it is more than just buttered bread, it is buttered bread topped with a variety of delicacies, creating the open-faced sandwich elevated to an art-form. Let's hear it for the Danes!

Here's some more background from retro-housewife.com:

Beyond a doubt the Danish open sandwiches are the most famous feature of Danish cooking -- an idea that is, strangely enough, strictly Danish and not known even in neighboring countries. There are hundreds of variations and new ones are constantly coming up. They range all the way from the four pieces with quite simple "flat" spreading on top, which office workers bring with them to work, and which they eat during their lunch hour with a bottle of milk, to the gloriously colored pyramid compositions eaten at restaurants, so abundant that three pieces can easily make a meal. They drink internationally-known Danish beer with the latter; in fact, open sandwiches without beer in Denmark would be as ridicoulous as a hamburger sandwich without the hamburger in this country. Also, in addition to the beer with these sandwiches, they drink Danish "snaps", (Aeiborg Akvavit -- available at better liquour stores), which is a clear innocent looking drink which tastes divine, and has the most wonderful ability to make you happier, loosen your restraints and make social occasions a general success.

I got the bug to make smørrebrød thanks to TasunkaWitko sending me several volumes of the Foods Of The World series, including the one for Scandinavia. I used cocktail rye bread, butter, several different mustards and whatever other goodies I could find in the cupboards, inlcluding some gravlax that I had made to commemorate Superbowl Sunday. Altogether, I used kippers and butter; gravlax on hot Polish mustard; Polish dill slices on Koops yellow mustard; anchovies & butter; hard-boiled egg with Koops yellow mustard and Gravlax on coarse French mustard. I also served uborkasalata from Hungary:

http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/uborkasalta_topic71.html

This creamy cucumber salad was perfectly suited for a Danish-themed spread, and completed a lovely little smørrebrød for a perfect SuperBowl in-house tailgating party!

Thanks for the books Ron, the great recipes just keep on coming out!

Don't you know it Ron. I have found so many good recipes in this book; enough to stay busy for well over a month! So far, everything has tasted great and the idea behind each recipe has not disappointed. Really looking forward to making that Bergen soup!