page_title: Danish cuisine
section_title: Christmas lunch
hierarchical_section_title: Danish cuisine / Traditional feasts / Christmas / Christmas lunch
caption_attribution_description: English: Risalamande, the dessert after a traditional Danish Christmas dinner. Dansk: Risalamande, den traditionelle danske juledessert. Svenska: Ris a la Malta, ätes på juldagen av resterna av risgrynsgröten.
context_page_description: Danish cuisine originated from the peasant population's own local produce and was enhanced by cooking techniques developed in the late 19th century and the wider availability of goods during and after the Industrial Revolution. Open sandwiches, known as smørrebrød, which in their basic form are the usual fare for lunch, can be considered a national speciality when prepared and decorated with a variety of fine ingredients. Hot meals are typically prepared with meat or fish. Substantial meat and fish dishes includes flæskesteg and kogt torsk with mustard sauce and trimmings. Ground meats became widespread during the industrial revolution and traditional dishes that are still popular includes frikadeller, karbonader and medisterpølse. Denmark is known for its Carlsberg and Tuborg beers and for its akvavit and bitters, but amongst the Danes themselves imported wine has gained steadily in popularity since the 1960s.
  Cooking in Denmark has always been inspired by foreign and continental practises and the use of imported tropical spices like cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and black pepper can be traced to the Danish cuisine of the Middle Ages and some even to the Vikings.
context_section_description: Julefrokost, or Christmas lunch, is a variation on Det Kolde Bord buffet, celebrated on various occasions throughout the whole Christmas month of December. Most communities, workplaces, organisations and associations set aside time for an annual gathering and julefrokost on a non-specific Friday or Saturday. This includes coworkers, club members and all kinds of organizations and the festivities often include music and dancing, and usually continues into the early hours of the morning with plentiful drinking. In addition to these public gatherings, there is also tradition for a special family event julefrokost, but this is celebrated in the home on Christmas Day or shortly after.
  Apart from the standard food items for a Danish cold buffet, Christmas lunch julefrokost traditionally also includes some specialities, such as sylte (pork meat jelly), fried blodpølse, and Risalamande. Blodpølse is a sweetened and spiced blood sausage with raisins, but it has decreased a lot in popularity since the 19th century. Risalamande is a rice pudding served with hot or cold cherry sauce and it is very popular. The pudding consists mainly of sweetened and cooled rice porridge mixed with whipped cream, vanilla and chopped almonds. A popular and traditional game is to put a whole, peeled almond in the common bowl of pudding. The lucky person to find it in his or her serving wins a prize, which in popular traditions would be a pig shaped of marzipan.
  Juleøl Christmas beer brews and herb infused akvavit spirit is commonly paired with the julefrokost. All over Denmark, trains and buses run all night during the julefrokost season and the police are on a special lookout for drunk drivers to avoid alcohol related accidents.
  A special part of not only the julefrokost lunch but of many festive, celebratory meals is the selskabssang (party song). It is a tradition unique to Denmark, and includes event-specific sing-along songs to traditional tunes, but with lyrics specifically written for the occasion.
caption: "Risalamande", a vanilla flavored rice pudding for Christmas
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