Danish Open-Faced Sandwiches – Smørrebrød Recipe (2024)

Published by: Adina January 24, 2021 · Last modified: November 4, 2022 16 Comments

These Danish open-faced sandwiches, or Smørrebrød, are probably the best sandwiches you will ever eat; easy to put together yet impressive in appearance, so versatile, and incredibly delicious.

What is smørrebrød?

Basically, bread with butter, smør meaning butter, and brød bread in Danish. But it doesn't stop there; just bread smeared with butter would be rather boring. I do love my buttered bread, but I do like it better with something on top. And the things you can top your open-faced Danish sandwiches with... it really is a never-ending story.

So, the smørrebrød is a piece of thin and dark rye bread, buttered and garnished with an amazing array of delicious ingredients.

Smørrebrød is probably the best-known food item when it comes to Danish food; for me, at least, they are the first thing I think of when speaking about Danish food. There are, of course, the Havarti, Danablu or Esrom cheese, the pickled herring, or the liver paté, but otherwise, I cannot spontaneously think of many other Danish foods.

And if you like open sandwiches, have a look at the Smoked Salmon Sandwich, the Eggs and Asparagus on Toast, the Pork Belly Sandwich, or the Poached Eggs and Tomatoes Sourdough Toast.

History of smørrebrød

It seems that the story of the smørrebrød begins in the Middle Ages. Field workers would pack their lunch for the next working day, already in the evening. The lunch consisted of leftovers from the previous meals, which would be piled on a so-called “trencher”, which was a piece of stale bread.

The peasants would eat the topping and discard the trencher, but in time they discovered that the juices soaking the bread also made it taste better, so they began eating the trencher as well.

Then, during the 19^th century, smørrebrød became a popular lunch among factory workers who were eating their lunch away from home. The idea was pretty much the same one, piling a bunch of leftovers on top of a slice of rye bread and thus creating a filling lunch that would keep them satisfied until the evening.

Rules of eating a smørrebrød

Funnily enough, there are rules regarding the proper way of eating smørrebrød. I mean, you would think it is just a sandwich. Do I need someone to tell me how to eat a sandwich? But the rules are not quite as unnecessary as they may seem.

• First of all: eat it using a fork and a knife. There are just too many ingredients piled on top of the bread, so if you hold it in your hand and bite at it, half of the ingredients would land on the floor instead of landing in your mouth.
• Order of eating smørrebrød. If you have several in front of you, you cannot possibly start eating them at random. Start with the pickled herring, and continue with other sorts of seafood, for instant, salmon or shrimp. Continue with meats and end with the cheese.
• Some other rules refer to the way of topping the bread, start with the butter and thin toppings and add the bulkier toppings on top.
• And also, avoid mixing several proteins on the same slice of bread, ham, and cheese; for instance, although a popular topping all over the world, is a no-go when it comes to smørrebrød.

How to make smørrebrød?

Choose the right bread

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• The bread used to make smørrebrød is the Danish rye bread – rugbrød. It is a sourdough whole grain rye bread, a very dense and dark bread, slightly sour and very filling.
• You will probably not find it easily outside Denmark, but there are very similar types of bread you can use instead.
• What you should NOT use is the soft sandwich bread, which is so common in the UK or US. It is too soft and too sweet and nothing like the Danish whole grain rye bread.
• If you live in the UK, I have definitely been able to buy rye bread - the dark and dense slices - in most supermarkets, one that definitely comes to mind now is Lidl. Aldi should also have it.
• Otherwise, you could replace this sort of bread with pumpernickel; as far as I know, pumpernickel is pretty well-known outside Germany as well, so it might be easier to find that.

Choose the topping

• Butter: butter the rye bread generously; some say that you should be able to see the marks of your teeth in the butter when you bite into the bread. The butter is important as it will help slightly neutralize the sourness of the sourdough bread, making it milder and even more enjoyable.
• It also prevents the bread from becoming soggy when you top it with slightly moister ingredients. It also helps the rest of the ingredients stick to the bread.

• Topping: stick to one protein per slice. Don't mix ham or salami with cheese or eggs, and so on.

• Match the sauces to fit the protein, for instance, horseradish sauce or mayonnaise for salmon or mustard with roast beef.

• Add some crunch: lettuce leaves, sliced or diced raw onions or radishes, gherkins, or other pickled vegetables. Add fresh herbs on top.

Some smørrebrød ideas

Traditional pickled herring smørrebrød:

• I used some Danish remoulade instead of butter, but you can definitely leave that out and use butter.
• Add two or three small pickled herrings on top, some red onion rings, diced gherkins, and some herbs. I used thyme, but I would have preferred to have some fresh dill. The dill I planted this year is non-existent, don't know where it went...

Smoked salmon and cucumber:

• A thin layer of mayonnaise topped with thinly sliced crunchy cucumber and a few slices of smoked salmon.
• A few spring onion rings as well, cayenne pepper, and a slice of lemon to sprinkle on top just before you serve. This variation was my husband's favorite.

Salami smørrebrød:

• Thickly buttered rye bread topped with thin and rolled salami slices and cherry tomato wedges, garnished generously with fresh parsley, red onion rings, and diced gherkins. My son's favorite combination.

Avocado and egg:

• My favorite combination: mashed avocado topped with waxy-boiled egg slices and garnished with fresh coriander or parsley leaves and some spring onion rings.
• A sprinkle of freshly ground smoked black pepper makes everything perfect.

Havarti cheese and tomato:

• The simplest version and the one my daughter liked best, the kind of smørrebrød I make every day without even thinking of it as being a smørrebrød.
• Bread with butter, topped with Havarti cheese and tomato slices.
• If you cannot find or don't like Havarti, you can use any sliced cheese you like instead: Gouda, Cheddar, Esrom, whatever, really.
• Some lettuce and some crunchy spring onion rings elevate this regular cheese sandwich, making it something more special.

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