Danish Culture: Rullepølse at Torvehallerne

My introduction to Danish culture began 30 years ago with rullepølse, when Retta Johnson, Jean Sue's step-mom, served it to me at lunch. I was smitten.

Hygge may be comforting, but nothing matches the cured meaty goodness of this cold cut. Retta served it to me in her Racine, Wisconsin, home, a community which once claimed to be the home of more Danes than any city in the world save Copenhagen. I doubt the veracity of that boosterism, but certainly Danish heritage is strong in that Lake Michigan city.

Rullepølse is meat and tied tightly with seasonings, wet cured, simmered, then pressed into its traditional vaguely rectangular form. In Racine it is usually made from lamb breast, although one butcher in town uses pork which, it turns out, is much more traditional in the homeland where pigs reign.

The pork version is what I purchased during my visit to Torvehallerne, Copenhagen's food hall with about 60 merchants, mostly serving lunch but plenty to bring home in the way of either uncooked or prepared foods.

My rullepølse came from Slagter Lund, a fourth-generation butcher whose main store and production kitchen are located in another part of the city. When I asked if they used lamb, I was informed that meat is reserved is for Christmas and Easter rullepølse; for everyday eating it's pork. But even just with pork there were a few varieties: regular, parsley (the Danes love that herb), and extra heat. As it was, the "regular" had a little heat when I enjoyed it back in my flat for dinner with a salad. Tomorrow it will go on a roll.

Lunch

Lunch, however, was from Hav 2 Go, one of two or three seafooders at Torvehallerne. I selected Skagen shrimp in a herbed remoulade, with two salads, red cabbage (accented with red grapes, a nice touch) and chick pea.

Other than a raisin boller (roll) to take home I restrained myself. The market had plenty of fresh seafood in much more variety than you see in most U.S. markets and the meat, though more limited in variety than what I can find in the Reading Terminal Market, looked to be of exceptional quality. Bakeries, of course, cheese and wine shops, a couple fine chocolate vendors, kitchen goods. Produce looked excellent, but I had already picked up apples, blueberries and salad greens from a local mart.

Among the lunch stalls I found a duck confit vendor, selling sandwiches, just as I did at the Oslo food hall two summers ago. I'll have to suggest that be added to the RTM's roster of merchants. Plenty of variety from the lunch vendors, from tacos al pastor to sushi to bahn mi. But no cheese steaks, thank heavens, although across the street from me as I write this around the corner from my flat is a neighborhood establishment, O's American Breakfast and Barbeque. What a combination. And they were jammed for lunch yesterday, inside and al fresco.  I didn't check the menu to see if they had cheese steaks.

Torvehallerne itself dates back as a public market to 1889, but it closed in 1951 and did not reopen until 2011 at a new location in a new structure. The two glass-enclosed halls are separated by an outdoor court with additional vendors and seating. Just like the Reading Terminal Market it attractions area workers around the Norreport transit center, local food shoppers and, of course, tourists like me.

Lunch at Torvehallerne, Hall 1 at right, Hall 2 at left