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Ribbensteg

For lunch before erev Yom Kippur I sinned by eating this sandwich. As noted earlier the Danes love porcine products and here is the ribbensteg sandwich: thick slices of fresh pork belly roasted then pan fried, topped with a mayo dressing, some pickle slices and cabbage. In restaurants the meat would be served with boiled potatoes. This sandwich (crispy, fatty meaty deliciousness) came from the same shop that supplied my rullepølse.

Danish Culture: Rullepølse at Torvehallerne

My introduction to Danish culture began 30 years ago with r ullepølse , 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 ...