Rødgrød – Denmark’s Traditional Red Berry Pudding Dessert

Rødgrød can be in many ways regarded as Denmark’s most reputed dessert. A Danish traditional dish since the 19th century, ‘rødgrød’ literally translates as ‘red porridge’ or ‘red pudding’ (‘rød’ meaning ‘red’ in Danish, while ‘grød’ meaning ‘pudding’). It is easy to make and delicious to eat. The ingredients used for making the Danish rødgrød are the following ones:

• a combination of red berries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and rhubarb (you can also opt to use only a certain category of berries);
• water (up to three cups);
• potato starch/cornstarch;
• sugar (one cup);
• cream.

The average cooking time can take as much as 30 minutes, while waiting for the pudding to cool down would normally take about two hours. Below you can watch a video on Youtube on how to make the Rødgrød:

Rødgrød med fløde (i.e. red berry pudding with cream), a traditional dessert in Denmark and northern Germany. Image source: Wikimedia Commons via Flickr (under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence; author: Thomas Angermann from Copenhagen, Denmark)

The dish is also common to neighbouring northern Germany, specifically in the Schleswig-Holstein land which has many cultural aspects shared with Denmark. In Schleswig-Holstein (or Slesvig-Holsten as it is known in Danish) the dessert is often referred as ‘Rote Grütze’ (and it means ‘red grits’ or ‘red groats’), being served with either milk or custard. The German variety of rødgrød is also known in Low German as ‘Rode Grütt‘ (having the same meaning).

The name of the dish can be very difficult to pronounce for non-native Danish speakers, and as such it has been on more than one occasion subject to jokes. Below, you can watch a short video on Youtube on how hard can it be to pronounce ‘rødgrød med fløde’:

Documentation sources and external links:

• Rødgrød med Fløde – Danish Red Berry Pudding with Cream on www.scandinavianfood.about.com
• Rødgrød on www.denstoredanske.dk (in Danish)
• Rødgrød on www.wikipedia.org (in English)
• Berry Pudding with Cream (Rødgrød med Fløde) on www.eatingwell.com
• Rødgrød Med Fløde: Danish Raspberry Dessert on www.herbanlifestyle.wordpress.com
• Rødgrød med Fløde (Danish red berry pudding with cream) on www.saveur.com
• Rød Grød Med Fløde on www.mydanishkitchen.com
• Rodgrod med flode (Danish fruit soup) recipe on www.telegraph.co.uk