Syltemad

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large heavy stockpot, 6 litre
• •Fine sieve and a piece of muslin or clean tea towel
• •Loaf tin or small terrine, about 1 litre capacity
• •Cling film
• •Very sharp slicing knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the pot

   Place the pork shoulder and the ham hock in your largest pot. Add the halved onion, bay leaves, allspice berries, cloves, peppercorns, and the two teaspoons of salt. Pour over enough cold water to just cover the meat. Starting in cold water matters. It lets the stock draw slowly out of the bones and stay clear, instead of clouding the way it does when you drop meat into boiling water.

   The ham hock is your insurance. It brings the gelatin that sets the terrine and a quiet depth of smoke underneath the pork. If you can't find a hock, ask the butcher for trotters. They do the same work.
2. 2

   Simmer slowly

   Bring the pot to a bare simmer over medium heat, then turn it down until the surface barely trembles. Skim any grey foam that rises in the first ten minutes. Let it cook like this, uncovered, for two to two and a half hours, until the shoulder gives no resistance when you push a fork into it and the hock meat is falling from the bone. Never a rolling boil. Boiling breaks the meat fibers and turns the stock cloudy, and you want both the meat and the stock to stay clean.

3. 3

   Strain and separate

   Lift the meat out onto a board with a slotted spoon. Strain the stock through a fine sieve lined with a piece of muslin or a clean tea towel into a clean pot. Discard the onion and spent spices. Put the strained stock back on a low heat and let it reduce gently by about a quarter while you deal with the meat. Reduction concentrates the flavor and the gelatin, and both matter for what comes next.

4. 4

   Chop the meat

   While the meat is still warm enough to handle, pull it into rough pieces with your fingers. Pull the hock meat from its bone. Keep a little of the softer fat but discard any heavy rind you don't want to eat. Now chop the meat with a knife to a rough, even dice, about the size of a pea. Not a paste, not a shred. Sylte has texture. You should be able to see what the meat is when you slice a piece.

5. 5

   Test the stock

   Spoon a tablespoon of the reduced stock onto a cold saucer and put it in the freezer for five minutes. When you take it out, push it with your finger. If it wobbles and holds a clean edge, your stock has enough natural gelatin and you're finished reducing. If it runs like water, soak the gelatin sheets in cold water, squeeze them out, and stir them into the warm stock until dissolved. This is not cheating. It's the honest fix when your cut didn't give up enough gelatin.

   A good sylte stock should feel slightly sticky between your thumb and finger when it's warm. That's the collagen. That's what sets.
6. 6

   Season and assemble

   Tip the chopped meat into a large bowl. Season with the ground white pepper, the ground allspice, and more fine sea salt to taste. Taste it warm. Sylte eaten cold loses about a third of its salt impression, so season a little more assertively than you think you need. Line a loaf tin or small terrine with cling film, leaving plenty overhanging the sides. Pack the seasoned meat in firmly, pressing the corners so there are no air pockets.

7. 7

   Pour and press

   Ladle the warm stock slowly over the meat until it just covers the top. Tap the terrine gently on the counter so the stock works its way into every gap. Fold the cling film over the top, place a second tin or a piece of cardboard cut to size directly on the surface, and weigh it down with a couple of tins from the cupboard. The weight is what makes the slices hold together later. Without it, the sylte will crumble under the knife.

8. 8

   Chill overnight

   Move the weighted terrine to the fridge and let it set for at least twelve hours, ideally overnight or a full day. The joy of waiting. This is not a dish you can hurry. The stock needs time to set completely around the meat, and the flavors need time to settle into each other. A sylte made yesterday is better than a sylte made this morning.

9. 9

   Slice the sylte

   Unwrap the cling film from the top and invert the terrine onto a board. Lift away the tin and peel off the rest of the cling film. You should see a firm block of pale pork set in a thin glaze of clear amber aspic. With a very sharp knife, cut slices about five millimetres thick. Wipe the knife between slices. A clean knife gives a clean edge, and the clean edge is half the pleasure of looking at a plate of sylte.

10. 10

    Build the smorrebrod

    Lay a thick slice of rugbrod in front of you. Spread a firm line of mustard across the surface, not the whole slice, just a stripe down the middle. Place a slice of sylte on top, trimmed to fit the bread so the rye still shows at the edges. Lay a slice or two of pickled beetroot on the sylte, scatter a small heap of raw onion rings on top, and finish with a few thyme leaves. Serve at once with a cold snaps if the moment calls for it. Smorrebrod is eaten with a knife and fork, and syltemad in particular demands it. This is how we greet each other at the Christmas table. Tak for mad.

Chef Tips

• •Ask your butcher for a bone-in pork shoulder and a smoked ham hock together. The bone adds flavor, the hock adds gelatin, and the small cost of asking gives you a finished sylte that needs no added gelatin at all.
• •Sylte is a winter dish. The season decides. Make it between November and February, when the kitchen runs cool and the rest of the julefrokost table is coming together around it. It will feel right in a way it doesn't in July.
• •The drink is snaps, plain Aalborg Taffel if you want the classic, or a darker Christmas akvavit with dill and caraway. A cold dark lager is the everyday alternative. Wine is not the tradition here.
• •Sylte keeps for a good week in the fridge, wrapped tightly. It gets better after two days as the spice settles into the meat. Make it ahead without guilt.

Advance Preparation

• •Sylte must set in the fridge for at least twelve hours, so start it the day before you want to serve it. Twenty-four hours is better.
• •Finished sylte keeps for a week in the fridge, tightly wrapped. The flavor deepens over the first two days.
• •Pickled beetroot can be made weeks ahead, or bought from a good Danish or German shop. A jar of quality rodbeder is a fair shortcut and no one will think less of you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 180g)