Beer ’n bread porridge

In Danish 'Øllebrød'. Beer 'n bread. A traditional Danish porridge made from stale rye bread. Because in DK we do love our rye bread and back in the days you would make use of every last crumb. There is room for experimenting, too, so get on with it and invent your own favourite. You can use ale, malt beer or simply just water. For sweetness use honey, white sugar or brown sugar. Finally, give your Beer 'n bread porridge a twist with for instance a little orange, lemon, cinnamon, vanilla or raisins.

Beer 'n bread porridge is one of the oldest Danish dishes. Since the Vikings and perhaps even longer, the everyday diet largely consisted of rye bread and beer. Until the middle of the 1800s, the Danes had rye bread with every meal and a low-alcohol brew as the water was unfit for drinking. Leftover bread and beer was mixed and made to an unsweetened porridge.

Procedure

Break up the stale bread and put it in a cooking pot together with beer and honey. Let it simmer over a low heat for about 45 min. Stir every now and then until the bread has dissolved into a smooth porridge.

Serve the warm beer ’n bread porridge with whipped cream.

Ingredients

4 persons
  • 300 g stale rye bread
  • 400 ml ale or malt beer
  • 1 large tbsp honey
  • 200 ml full fat cream

Honey can be replaced with modern day sugar or brown sugar. And on that note, you can give your beer ’n bread porridge a twist by adding e.g. orange, lemon, cinnamon, chocolate, vanilla or raisins.