Æbleflæsk

The story

Æbleflæsk, literally "apple pork," is salted or cured pork belly fried and served with apples cooked in the pork fat, usually with sugar and thyme and often with onion. Danish recipe sites call it gammeldags, old-fashioned, but the English-language Wikipedia entry says plainly that it is not clear where the dish began. It is most closely tied to Funen, where it is still called a fynsk egnsret, a regional dish of the island, and it is less common in other parts of the country.

There is no single recipe. At one end is a soft, sweet apple mash with small cubes of bacon; at the other, slices of lightly salted pork laid next to wedges of apple that keep their shape. Some cooks bake the pork in the oven and cook the apples separately, and Danish home cooks still disagree about whether onion belongs in the pan. The dish is eaten hot or cold with dark rye bread, and it often appears on the buffet at julefrokost, the Christmas lunch, along with beer and snaps.

For a weeknight supper, choose tart apples that hold their shape and bring the skillet to the table with buttered rye bread and a green salad.