Danish Smørrebrød for Kevin Magnussen
Shoutout to K-Mag for picking a dish that actually originates in his home country!
Welcome to Grand Prix Gastronomy! In 2024, this series is dedicated to cooking the favorite dishes of every driver on the grid.
The Foods That Kevin Magnussen Loves
Kevin Magnussen has never hesitated to share his favorite foods with us. He loves pizza. He loves Indian food. He's even mentioned going vegan. But the answer I've decided to go with for the Danish legend is a Danish classic: smørrebrød.
Kevin jotted down smørrebrød as his favorite dish on the adorable “My First Day” whiteboard trend that F1 kicked off last year. If you aren't familiar, smørrebrød is basically an open-faced sandwich made with rye bread, butter, cold cuts, cheese, and more. If you've ever been to a Northern European or Nordic country and sampled their breakfast, you've probably seen the trappings for smørrebrød all laid out, though it's more often a lunch dish. I, for one, have become a massive fan of the open-faced cold-cut breakfast sandwich, but today, I'm trying to go fully authentic.
As for the timing of this dish, well… I struggled to place it in the 2024 F1 calendar. So, I decided we'd use it as an excuse to celebrate one of K-Mag's finest moments: his sprint race pole in Sao Paulo!
This Week's Recipes
There are two key elements to smørrebrød: the rye bread, and the toppings. I'd argue that the rye bread is easily the most critical element here; you want a Nordic rye that's dense, seedy, and just a little sweet thanks to the introduction of molasses and honey. It has to be dense to hold up all those tasty toppings!
Which brings me to my second key element: toppings! I've included some recipes here for both the bread and the toppings, but honestly — feel free to get experimental with your offerings. Tinned smoked fish is super traditional, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend the money on getting a whole-ass tin to try it and decide it was simply not my thing!
Core Recipes:
Cooking Smørrebrod
We're going to get started with our rúgbrauð, or our dense and delicious rye bread. The main thing to note here is that it doesn't feature yeast — just baking powder and baking soda — so you don't have to wait forever for it to rise… but you definitely do need to give it plenty of time in the oven.
First up, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, then set out two bowls. In one, you'll weigh out your rye flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, then whisk that all together. In the second, add buttermilk, honey, and molasses and whisk that together. Then, pour your wet ingredients into the dry and combine. If you're keen on it, you can add in some seeds or grains here; I opted for pumpkin seeds.
Pop that batter into a greased pan, then bake the bread for two hours, before turning off the oven and letting it sit in the hot space for an additional 15 minutes. Then, remove it from the oven and let it cool completely, slice thinly, and prepare to load ‘em up!
For the smørrebrod itself, you'll want to start off by creating a fatty layer to separate the bread from the toppings — usually a thick layer of butter, and/or a remoulade. For the remoulade, I mixed mayo, chopped cornichons, capers, parsley, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and a very little smidge of curry powder.
Next, prep the rest of the toppings. I thinly sliced cucumber, radishes, and boiled eggs, then assembled other goodies including pickled beets, turkey breast, and roast beef. Other toppings can include flaky salt, dill, parsley, cornichons, pickles — basically anything tasty!
Because these sandwiches are so hefty, this is a “fork and knife” kind of meal. Dig in!
So, What's The Verdict?
I am a sandwich fan. My husband is a sandwich fan. I loved smørrebrod. My husband did not love smørrebrod. It's a divisive food!
I've found this with a lot of Nordic cuisines. I won't claim to be the most well-traveled human in the world, but in my trips to Iceland and Greenland, I've found that there are some foods I loved (muskox!) and some that made me want to die (pickled whale). Smørrebrod is absolutely, positively far less inoffensive than either of those two aforementioned foods, but it's still a very Nordic dish in the sense that it's sweet and cold and pickled and savory — and that doesn't vibe with everyone!
But it absolutely, positively vibed with me. I love bread of all kinds — sweet, savory, soft, crunchy, etc — and I love pickled foods and I love cold lunch meats and I love butter and I love remoulade. I love flaky salt and I love dill and I love all of those things piled up on top of each other, and I am NEVER going to turn down a chance to munch on some smørrebrod in the future.
Ready… Set… COOK!
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Okay this is a great pitch for smørrebrød BUT: am I correctly reading that you are not sold on tinned fish yet? I am on my way back from Spain where tinned fish is a RELIGION and it seems like a matrimonio-style (sardines and anchovies) smørrebrød, or a smoked trout smørrebrød, or — venturing outside the tin here but hear me out — slices of smoked tuna on smørrebrød would be AMAZING???