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Lammegryde med Dild
Created by Chef Freja
Spring lamb poached gently with new potatoes, carrots, and leeks, then finished in a pale dill sauce bright with vinegar and cream. Danish island cooking at its most honest.
Danish lamb belongs to May. That's when the first of the new season's animals come to market, lean and grass-fed, raised on salt marshes along the coasts of Jutland and the grazing fields of Bornholm and Samsø. The meat tastes of where it has been. You can cook it any way you like once the season starts, but this is the dish I reach for first, because it lets the lamb speak plainly.
Lammegryde med dild is not a browned, wine-darkened stew. It is the opposite. The lamb is poached gently in water until the broth is clear and pale, then lifted out while a butter-and-flour base is whisked smooth with the cooking liquor and finished with cream, vinegar, and a great deal of fresh dill. The result is ivory-colored and delicate, the meat silky, the vegetables holding their shape, the sauce bright with herbs. It is a dish that rewards restraint.
Two things matter most. Start the lamb in cold water and bring it up slowly, skimming the foam until the broth runs clean. That's what gives you a pale sauce later instead of a muddy one. And use real dill, a generous bunch of it, chopped fresh at the last minute. Dried dill tastes of nothing. The season decides, and in Danish spring cooking, dill is as much the point as the lamb. You'll know when the balance is right because the sauce will taste both rich and alive at once.
Lamb has been eaten in Denmark since the Iron Age, but the modern Danish affection for spring lamb owes much to the salt-marsh grazing traditions of the Wadden Sea coast in South Jutland and the island sheep-farming of Bornholm and Læsø, where the animals feed on sea thrift and wild herbs that flavor the meat directly. The technique of poaching meat in water and building a sauce from the cooking liquor, rather than browning first as in French or German cookery, is a hallmark of the old Danish kitchen and produces the pale ivory sauces, dildkød, citronfromage-colored, gently acidic, that defined Sunday dinners in farmhouses across the country well into the twentieth century. The pairing of lamb with dill specifically became popular through nineteenth-century Danish cookbooks that codified the dish as a spring counterpart to the winter's boiled beef with horseradish.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary AdvisorIngredients
boneless lamb shoulder
Quantity
1kg
cut into 5cm chunks
yellow onion
Quantity
1 large
peeled and studded with 4 whole cloves
bay leaves
Quantity
2
white peppercorns
Quantity
1 teaspoon
cold water or light chicken stock
Quantity
1.5 litres
small new potatoes
Quantity
500g
scrubbed but left whole
carrots
Quantity
4 medium
peeled and cut into thick coins
leeks
Quantity
2 medium
white and pale green parts, sliced into 3cm rounds
unsalted butter
Quantity
40g
plain flour
Quantity
40g
whipping cream
Quantity
150ml
white wine vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
fresh dill
Quantity
large bunch
finely chopped, plus extra fronds to finish
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
white pepper
Quantity
freshly ground, to taste
caster sugar
Quantity
a small pinch
to balance
dark rugbrod
Quantity
thick slices, to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| boneless lamb shouldercut into 5cm chunks | 1kg |
| yellow onionpeeled and studded with 4 whole cloves | 1 large |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| white peppercorns | 1 teaspoon |
| cold water or light chicken stock | 1.5 litres |
| small new potatoesscrubbed but left whole | 500g |
| carrotspeeled and cut into thick coins | 4 medium |
| leekswhite and pale green parts, sliced into 3cm rounds | 2 medium |
| unsalted butter | 40g |
| plain flour | 40g |
| whipping cream | 150ml |
| white wine vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| fresh dillfinely chopped, plus extra fronds to finish | large bunch |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| white pepper | freshly ground, to taste |
| caster sugarto balance | a small pinch |
| dark rugbrod | thick slices, to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy-bottomed pot, 5 litre
- •Fine mesh sieve
- •Whisk
- •Slotted spoon
- •Ladle
Instructions
- 1
Start the lamb in cold water
Place the lamb in a heavy pot and cover with the cold water or stock. Bring it slowly to a gentle simmer. This is the opposite of what you might do with a French stew. You are not browning the meat. You want a pale, clean broth that carries the flavor of the lamb without clouding it, and that only happens if you start cold and rise slowly. As the water heats, a grey foam will come to the surface. Skim it off with a spoon every few minutes until the foam turns white and almost disappears.
Don't rush the skimming. Every bit of grey foam you remove now is a cleaner broth later. The finished sauce should be pale ivory, not muddy. - 2
Add the aromatics
Once the broth is clear, drop in the clove-studded onion, the bay leaves, and the white peppercorns. Add a good pinch of salt. Cover the pot with the lid slightly ajar and let it simmer gently for about an hour, until the lamb is tender enough to give way under a fork but still holds its shape. Gentle is the word. A hard boil toughens the meat and breaks the broth. You want the surface barely trembling.
- 3
Add the vegetables
Lift out the onion and bay leaves and discard them. Add the potatoes, carrots, and leeks to the pot. Simmer for another fifteen to twenty minutes, until the potatoes are tender all the way through and the carrots have softened but still hold their shape. A knife should slide into a potato with no resistance. If there is any, give it a few minutes more.
- 4
Lift the meat and vegetables
Using a slotted spoon, carefully lift the lamb and vegetables out of the pot and into a warm bowl. Cover loosely to keep them warm. Now strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve into a jug. You should have a clear, pale, fragrant broth. This is the foundation of the sauce, and the reason the whole dish works.
- 5
Make the dill sauce
Melt the butter in a clean pan over medium heat. When it foams, add the flour and whisk it into a smooth paste. Cook this roux for a minute or two, stirring constantly. You are not browning it. You want it to smell biscuity and look pale gold, no darker. A dark roux would turn the sauce the wrong color and the wrong flavor. Now ladle in the warm lamb broth a little at a time, whisking between additions. Keep going until you have added about 700ml and the sauce is smooth and the consistency of thick cream.
Add the broth gradually, not all at once. A cold splash into hot roux gives you lumps. A slow stream gives you silk. - 6
Finish the sauce
Let the sauce simmer for five minutes to cook out any floury taste. Stir in the cream and bring it back to a gentle simmer. Add the white wine vinegar, then the chopped dill, keeping back a small handful for the top. Taste. The sauce should be rich but bright, with the dill forward and the vinegar lifting everything. Adjust with salt, a grind of white pepper, and a tiny pinch of sugar if it needs rounding. The balance between cream and acidity is what makes this dish, and only by tasting do you really understand it.
- 7
Bring it together
Return the lamb and vegetables to the sauce. Warm everything through over a very gentle heat for two or three minutes. Don't let it boil again, or the cream can split. Ladle into deep bowls, scatter with the reserved dill, and serve at once with thick slices of dark rugbrod alongside for soaking up what's left in the bowl. Tak for mad.
Chef Tips
- •Shoulder is the right cut for this stew. Leg is too lean and goes stringy. Neck works beautifully too if your butcher has it, and the bones add body to the broth.
- •Don't be shy with the dill. A whole generous bunch goes into the sauce, not a teaspoon. This is a dill dish, and the herb should be forward and unmistakable.
- •If you can find real salt-marsh lamb or lamb from one of the Danish islands, the dish is transformed. The flavor of the pasture travels all the way into the broth.
- •A glass of cold crisp white wine or a light beer is the right thing to drink alongside. Nothing heavy. The sauce is delicate and a big red wine would trample it.
Advance Preparation
- •The lamb can be poached a day ahead. Cool it in its broth, then refrigerate both together. The flavor deepens overnight and the broth sets to a gentle jelly, which is a good sign.
- •Make the sauce fresh on the day you serve. A dill sauce reheated loses its brightness, and the herb turns dark and tired. Chop the dill just before it goes in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 580g)
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