National dish

What is the national dish of Denmark?

The national dish of Denmark is stegt flæsk med persillesovs: thin slices of pork belly fried or oven-baked until crisp, served with boiled potatoes and a white sauce full of chopped parsley. It won Denmark's first national dish vote in 2014, organised by the Ministry of Environment and Food, and VisitDenmark calls it the country's official national food.

Updated 2026-10-123 min read

How Denmark chose its national dish

Denmark settled the question by vote. In 2014 Danes voted on a national dish for the first time, in a competition run by the Ministry of Environment and Food. More than 60,000 people took part, and the result was announced on 20 November 2014: stegt flæsk med persillesovs, "fried pork with parsley sauce".

VisitDenmark, the country's official tourism site, describes the outcome as "no surprise" and calls the dish Denmark's official national food. Smørrebrød and the roast pork flæskesteg are often listed alongside it as national favourites, but the vote gave stegt flæsk the title.

What is stegt flæsk?

Stegt means fried and flæsk means strips of pork belly. The meat is pork belly, or breast, cut into slices about 6 mm (a quarter inch) thick. Danish flæsk is lightly salted but never smoked, which is the main difference from bacon; anything sold as bacon in Denmark is both smoked and salted.

The slices were traditionally fried in a pan, hence the name, but today they are more often cooked in the oven. VisitDenmark's recipe salts 16 slices a few hours ahead, blots them dry and bakes them on paper at 180 °C, turning them regularly until crisp, then drains them on absorbent paper while 1 kg of potatoes simmers in lightly salted water. A Lonely Planet guide to Denmark summed it up as "a dish of pork fat, and only pork fat, in parsley sauce."

Denmark's other pork classics

Pork is the most popular meat in Denmark, and stegt flæsk sits in a family of pork dishes that Danes eat often:

Flæskesteg: roast pork with crackling, served with red cabbage, gravy and boiled potatoes, and a candidate on many lists of Danish national dishes;
Flæskeæggekage: a large pan of scrambled eggs with stegt flæsk, chives and tomatoes, with rye bread on the side;
Stegt medister: a thick, spiced sausage of minced pork and fat with onion, fried in the pan;
Leverpostej: a pork liver pâté eaten hot or cold.

What goes into parsley sauce?

The sauce, persillesovs, is a white sauce with a large amount of parsley. VisitDenmark's version for four people uses:

25 g of butter melted with 2½ tablespoons of plain flour;
3 dl of semi-skimmed milk, whisked in half a decilitre at a time;
1 to 2 dl of the water the potatoes boiled in;
2 dl of finely chopped parsley, stirred in at the end.

When Danes eat stegt flæsk

Stegt flæsk is everyday, inexpensive food, and some Danish restaurants serve it as all-you-can-eat. Since the 2000s it has also become an election-night tradition: Danes eat it as a pun on valgflæsk, "election pork", the slang term for the lofty promises politicians make during campaigns. It can also be served with apple compote instead of parsley sauce. Its place in Danish culture goes beyond the table: the duo Jimi and René recorded a song called "Stegt flæsk med persillesovs", and the crisp maker KiMs once sold a stegt flæsk flavour, since discontinued.

Fried pork belly with potatoes is not unique to Denmark: reference works describe stegt flæsk as a dish from Scandinavia as a whole. To compare, see the national dish of Norway and the national dish of Sweden.

Other dishes to know from Denmark

Smørrebrød, the open sandwich, is the usual Danish lunch and is often called the national speciality. Its name comes from smør og brød, "butter and bread". Dense sourdough rye, rugbrød, is buttered thickly from crust to crust, then topped with one main ingredient, such as cold-smoked salmon with red onion, capers and dill. Several are eaten in order: herring, then other fish, then meat, then cheese.

Frikadeller are flat ovals of ground pork and veal, salted and kneaded for several minutes, rested at least 2 hours, then shaped with a wet tablespoon and fried in butter. They are served hot with boiled potatoes, brown gravy and red cabbage, or cold on rye bread.

At Christmas, Danes eat æbleskiver hot throughout December. Despite the name, "apple slices", they contain no apple: they are balls of buttermilk and cardamom batter, lightened with whipped egg whites, turned in a special pan and dusted with icing sugar and served with jam.

For the wider region, read our guide to Nordic food, and find all three recipes on our page about the food of Denmark.

The recipes

Questions people ask

Does Denmark have an official national dish?

Yes. Stegt flæsk med persillesovs won a public vote organised by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Food in 2014, the first time Danes voted on a national dish.

What is the difference between flæsk and bacon?

Danish flæsk is pork belly that is lightly salted but never smoked. Bacon in Denmark is always both smoked and salted.

What is served with stegt flæsk?

Boiled potatoes and persillesovs, a white sauce made with butter, flour, milk, potato water and plenty of chopped parsley. Apple compote is a traditional alternative.

Why do Danes eat stegt flæsk on election night?

It is a pun on valgflæsk, "election pork", the Danish term for politicians' lofty campaign promises. The tradition has grown since the 2000s.

Is smørrebrød the national dish of Denmark?

Smørrebrød is often called a national speciality, but the official national dish chosen in 2014 is stegt flæsk with parsley sauce.

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