Frikadellers – Danish meat balls

Frikadellers – Danish meat balls 

This is an easy recipe for Frikadellers – Danish Meat balls.

My Mum always made Frikadellers with this recipe when we were kids and we would all devour them whilst they were still hot. She often made them at Christmas and would also use them as an accompaniment to our Christmas lunch. 

But we would always get in trouble for eating too many before dinner! In Denmark these flavorful meatballs are often served with boiled potatoes and a side of gravy or lingonberry jam.

But you can make them as a snack or starter. They are great eaten hot or cold.

Frikadellen-Fricadille-Frikadellers-Fricadelle?

We used to call them fricadillas in our house. In Germany you may hear the word frikadellen – which means a sort of meat hamburger or meat patty.

It is not quite the same however as this Danish meatball recipe.

 

The origin of this pork meatball recipe is Danish. This is pretty understandable, as they love their pork in Denmark. It is the most commonly used meat in that country.

This is because they have a lot of pig farming and like to be self-sufficient.

These are effectively Danish meatballs, and not to be confused with Swedish Meatballs, like the ones in Ikea. I also have a nice copycat recipe for these. In fact, I think these would go quite well with the sauce in my Swedish meatballs recipe, if you are looking for a sauce to go with them.

 

 

 

I remember the last time we were in Denmark our hostess made us some delicious pork loin (wrapped in bacon!) for dinner – it was really fantastic.

 

Danish food

These meatballs are a traditional Danish food and I enjoyed some in Copenhagen in the Heering Restaurant in the Nyhavn in 2016 – very tasty, and a lovely little restaurant. But the drinks were VERY expensive there – a small beer was 8 Euros! Recently Copenhagen has become a hub for foodies, with several Michelin-starred restaurants and a thriving street food scene.

Other typical Danish food includes pickled herring and smoked salmon. 

If you make these frikadellers you will need to make a large batch as they will disappear in no time, I guarantee! They are great to make for a buffet or for snacks with drinks. They work very well as finger food at any occasion in fact.

You can keep them in the fridge in an airtight box – and in fact, I think they are probably better when eaten cold.

 

If you cannot find pork sausage meat, you can buy some nice pork sausages and squeeze the meat out by hand. I did this for the ones in the picture.

But normally approaching Christmas time we can find sausage meat more readily in the shops, which makes it a good time to try this recipe. They are great at Thanksgiving or Christmas time in fact. 

I hope you enjoy trying these and please let me know how you get on in the comments section below!

How to make this Frikadeller Recipe

Click here for some other types of Scandinavian meatballs: 

Or maybe you would like to try some spicy Hungarian meatballs?:

Or maybe you need some other types of finger food?

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