James Lewisohn

Brexit could fire Denmark up to leave the EU – and reignite its smokehouses

Denmark has been basking in a glorious June heatwave this past week, hastening the annual migration cycle.  ‘Summer Danes’ are a delicate subgenus of the species.  We roam the planet’s warmer regions every year between September and May, absenting ourselves from Nordic noir winters.  But mercury rising brings us home; and last week was the warmest early June week in recorded history. So I made my annual pilgrimage to our idyllic local fishing village, Gilleleje, at the northernmost tip of Zealand, a few dozen miles north of Copenhagen.

Though still gorgeous, Gilleleje isn’t what it used to be.  Among its many glories, including its beautiful natural harbour, home to Denmark’s fourth-largest commercial fishing port, there was until three summers ago a truly wonderful old smokehouse.  This place was a treasure trove of culinary delights.  It produced herring, of course, done lots of ways. (A smoked herring is at its most perfect served in traditional Bornholm style – on good rye bread, with chives and radishes, crowned with a whole raw egg yolk).  Our smokehouse also produced mackerel, salmon, salmon roe, eel – even potatoes.  Have you ever eaten a smoked potato?  They are sublime.  Anyway, we loved the place – and our British houseguests told us it produced the best smoked fish they had tasted anywhere.

No one knows exactly when Danes started smoking fish in Gilleleje.  Thousands of years ago would be a decent stab at an answer; although it took until 1588 before anyone decided to tax the fishermen – initially, somewhere in the range of half a barrel to a barrel of cod per year.  Taxes have been on the rise ever since.

But we do know the age-old tradition of smoking fish in Gilleleje has come to an end. 

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