Danish · appetizer

Dyrlægens Natmad (The Veterinarian's Midnight Snack)

Name: Dyrlægens Natmad (The Veterinarian's Midnight Snack)
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Danish
Ingredients: dense danish rye bread — 160 g; butter — 30 g; coarse pork liver pâté — 180 g; beef brisket — 120 g; meat aspic — 80 g; red onion — 60 g; garden cress — 10 g; black pepper — 3 g; salt — 3 g

Dyrlægens Natmad (The Veterinarian's Midnight Snack) reads richness 4.9, umami 4.9 and salinity 3.1 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Danish appetizer, about 30 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 5.3 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 0.8 / 10
Sour & Bright — 0.6 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 1.2 / 10
Rich & Fat — 4.9 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 2.4 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 4.9 · Umami 4.9 · Salinity 3.1 · Allium 2.2 · Warm Spice 1.5 · Earthy 1.1 · Heat 1.0 · Sweetness 0.8 · Bitterness 0.7 · Herbaceous 0.7 · Sourness 0.6

What's in it (9)

dense danish rye bread — 160 g
butter — 30 g
coarse pork liver pâté — 180 g
beef brisket — 120 g
meat aspic — 80 g
red onion — 60 g
garden cress — 10 g
black pepper — 3 g
salt — 3 g

Time & effort: about 30 min · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 67.6 kcal, 4 g protein, 5.2 g fat, 1.3 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains dairy — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

Warm the liver pâté in a 180°C oven for 20 minutes, until it is hot through and the surface has just begun to colour. Danish smørrebrød built on leverpostej uses it warm against cold beef, and the temperature difference is half the pleasure.
Butter the rye bread all the way to the edges and into the corners. On smørrebrød the fat layer goes down first, always, and it does two jobs: it glues the first layer on and it stops the bread going soggy under everything that follows.
Spread the warm pâté over the butter in an even layer about 1 cm deep, right to the crust.
Drape the salt beef over the pâté in loose folds rather than flat sheets, so the slice has some height. The order is fixed and it runs heaviest to lightest, bottom to top — pâté, then beef, then aspic, then onion, then cress. Reversing it makes the whole thing slide apart when it is cut.
Scatter the diced aspic over the beef. It will begin to melt against the warm pâté within a minute or two, which is exactly what should happen.
Lay the onion rings over the top, season with the black pepper and flaky salt, and finish with a small forest of cress.
Serve at once with a beer and a shot of akvavit. It is called the veterinarian's midnight snack because it was supposedly ordered by a Copenhagen vet who wanted something more substantial than the usual late plate; it is eaten at lunch by everyone else.
Substitutions: lard can stand in for the soft butter.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Cemita Poblana de Milanesa — Mexican · Puebla
Pierekaczewnik (Podlasie Tatar Layered Meat Pie) — Polish
Rouladen Rats — German
Swedish Meat Balls — Other
Beef Wellington — British

Keep reading: what richness, umami, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.