Denmark: No Christmas without roast pork
When 3 out of 5 Danes sit down to the table to celebrate Christmas Eve, two types of meat are prepared. Not surprisingly, it is duck and roast pork that dominate the dinner on Christmas Eve, far ahead of Mediterranean sausage, turkey and goose, but when the Danes gather for Christmas lunch, there is greater variety.
From the survey that YouGov has carried out for Danish Crown, it appears that 77% of the Danes who celebrate Christmas, duck is on the menu on Christmas Eve. This is followed by roast pork with 60% and then it is far down to number three on the list, which is Mediterranean sausage with 14 %. Eight percent eat turkey, while five percent choose goose. As much as 15% answer that they eat three or more kinds of meat on Christmas Eve.
’’It may well be that "pig party" for most rhymes with charter holiday in the 60s or 70s, but Christmas is truly celebrated with pork on the menu. I am quite frankly surprised that a full 80% of Danes eat roast pork at Christmas and that six out of 10 Danes have roast pork on the table on Christmas Eve. It's actually a lot of roast pork,‘‘ notes Danish Crown's sales director for the Danish market, Peter Bendixen.
Incredibly, according to the survey that YouGov has done for Danish Crown, there are even more people who have roast pork on the table for Christmas lunch than there are on Christmas Eve. For the Christmas lunch, 63% can of the respondents put their teeth into roast pork. This is followed by meatballs (56%), tartlets with chicken meat (38%), Mediterranean sausage (35%) and duck (35%).
That the Danes love roast pork and medister sausage for Christmas is also seen in Danish Crown's own sales figures for the Christmas period, where half (50,1%) of all Danish households buy roast pork. But here there are some regional differences. It is in Region Zealand that this figure is the largest. 55% buy here of all households the typical Christmas products, while this only applies to 45% of the households with neighbors in the Capital Region.
The fact that meat is the focal point of Christmas is mainly due to our history and culture. It is historically determined that both duck and pork have been the Danes' favorite Christmas food.
‘‘Historically, pork has filled a lot at Christmas, as the pigs were a farm animal that could go outside for a long time and thus could be slaughtered at the end of the year in the run-up to Christmas. Because many had pigs themselves on the farm, it was a way to use as much of the pig as possible in different dishes and cuts, says Caroline Nyvang, who is a senior researcher, PhD. at the Royal Library specializing in food history and culture.
She also points out that the geographical differences are an expression of the fact that people in the big cities have received inspiration from abroad in their cooking, while people in the countryside have been influenced by food traditions through families. At the same time, it also comes into play that it is only within the last 100 years that cooking has come through cookbooks. In the past, it was in the household itself that the children learned to cook from parents and grandparents, which is why the dishes were more traditionally conditioned.
The survey, which YouGov has carried out for Danish Crown, also shows that Mediterranean is a food that belongs to certain regions. While Mediterranean sausage is only on the menu on Christmas Eve with 7% of those who celebrate Christmas in the Capital Region, almost one in four (23%) in the South Jutland Region has Mediterranean sausage on the table.
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