Rødgrød facts for kids
Rødgrød with vanilla sauce
|
|
| Place of origin | Denmark and Germany |
|---|---|
| Main ingredients | Potato starch, red summer berries, black cherries, sugar |
Rødgrød (pronounced "rohd-grohd") is a yummy, sweet fruit dessert. It's also known as rote Grütze in German. This name means "red groats" or "red porridge."
This tasty dish comes from Denmark and Northern Germany. The Danish name can be tricky to say for people who don't speak Danish. Because of this, the phrase "rødgrød med fløde" (meaning "red porridge with cream") was often used as a fun test to see if someone was Danish. This started way back in the early 1900s!
Contents
How to Make Rødgrød
Long ago, Rødgrød or rote Grütze was made with groats or grits. These are small pieces of grain, like oats or corn. That's why the name includes "groats" or "Grütze."
Today, most people use potato starch to make it thick and creamy. Sometimes, semolina (a type of wheat flour) or sago (starch from palm trees) are also used.
The main ingredients are red summer berries. These include redcurrants, blackcurrants, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, bilberries, and black cherries without their pits. You can get a great flavor just from redcurrants. Adding a few blackcurrants makes it even more interesting.
Sugar is always added to make the fruit flavors stronger and sweeter. The amount of starch you use depends on how thick you want the dessert to be. Usually, it's about 20 to 60 grams of starch for every kilogram or liter of fruit mixture. If you use sago or groats, you need to soak them in water first.
Cooking Steps
Making Rødgrød is a lot like making pudding. First, the fruits are cooked quickly with sugar. Then, the mixture needs to cool down a little. This is important so that the starch, which is mixed with fruit juice or water, can be stirred in smoothly without lumps.
After adding the starch, you cook it again for one or two minutes. This helps the starch thicken the mixture. Any white streaks from the starch should disappear, and the dessert will become clear and thick.
Rødgrød or rote Grütze can be eaten warm or cold. It's usually served as a dessert. People often add milk, vanilla sauce, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or custard. These creamy toppings help balance the tart, refreshing taste of the fruit.
Different Kinds of Rødgrød
You can find many types of rødgrød in stores, especially in Germany.
Colorful Variations
- Grüne Grütze (Green Grütze): This green version is made with fruits like apple, gooseberries, kiwifruit, and rhubarb. It's a unique mix, possibly inspired by an older Danish dish called stikkelsbærgrød (gooseberry jelly).
- Blaue Grütze (Blue Grütze): For the blue kind, people usually use dark fruits like blackberries, bilberries, plums, blackcurrants, and grapes.
- Gelbe Grütze (Yellow Grütze): This yellow dessert is made with fruits such as peaches, yellow gooseberries, bananas, gold kiwifruit, or other yellow fruits.
Similar Desserts Around the World
Other countries have desserts that are similar to rødgrød:
- In parts of Poland, Russia, the Baltic states, Finland, and Ukraine, there's a dessert called kissel. It's a fruit dish that's also thickened, much like rødgrød.
- In the US Virgin Islands, which used to be Danish, this dessert is known as red grout. It's made with tapioca, guava, and sugar, and served with a custard sauce.
- In Southern Brazil, a popular dessert called sagu is made. It uses tapioca pearls, sugar, and red wine. Families with Italian and German roots especially enjoy it.
See also
- Danish cuisine
- Fruit kissel
- List of fruit dishes
- List of porridges
- List of shibboleths
