Frikadeller Meat Patties with Sauce. A Delicious popular recipe originating from Denmark with tender ground meat patties and a tasty creamy sauce. Easy, homemade comfort food dinner recipe
Frikadeller originates from Denmark, where they make these delicious meat patties, out of ground meats.
You would normally have them accompanied with a sauce, and in this recipe, we have frikadeller, sauce, and pasta!
Our friend, Donna has shared her recipe, and here's what she says about it;
"This recipe was given to me many years ago by an elderly Danish lady and I've modified it to our liking. Hope you like it."
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If you enjoy cooking with ground meat, why not try our Poor Man's Stew.
It's all made from scratch and absolutely full of flavor! Really easy recipe too!
Recipe from Donna Smith
⏲️ Prep time
15 minutes & 30 minutes chill time
⏲️ Cook time
10 - 15 minutes
Serving size
4 persons
Ingredients
For the frikadeller (meat patties)
½ lb or 225 g ground pork
½ lb or 225 g ground beef
½ cup or 70 g grated onion
3 Tablespoons flour
1 ½ cups or 350 ml half-and-half milk
1 egg, well beaten
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
⅓ cup or 75 g butter
For the Sauce:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups or 350 ml low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
½ cup or 120 ml heavy cream
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and ground black pepper
Instructions
For the Patties
1. Combine pork and beef in stand mixer bowl, add onion. Using paddle attachment, stir in flour and beat thoroughly.
Stir in milk 2 tablespoons at a time, keeping mixer at stir speed to aerate mixture.
You can do this by hand but it will take a little longer.
2. Combine egg, salt and pepper together and add to meat mixture. Speed 2 until fluffy.
Pour into smaller container and refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up.
3. Melt butter in large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Using a spoon, drop meat mixture directly into skillet.
Do not crowd. Fry patties for 3 minutes per side. Keep warm while making sauce.
For the Sauce:
1. Discard oil in pan and wipe clean with paper towel. Return pan to medium-high heat and add butter.
2. When foaming subsides, add flour and cook, whisking constantly, until flour is light brown, 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Slowly whisk in broth. Add brown sugar and bring to simmer.
4. Reduce heat to medium and cook until sauce is reduced to about 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Stir in cream and return to simmer.
Add patties to sauce and simmer, turning occasionally, until heated through, about 5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, and serve over egg noodles.
Delicious Recipes Using Ground Meat
Here's a lovely selection of our most popular ground meat recipes for you to enjoy
Poor Man's Stew. A really easy made from scratch recipe, budget friendly. Packed full of flavor and a great family dinner.
Simple Spaghetti Bolognese, an easy dinner using fresh ingredients and full of flavor, with a homemade tomato sauce
Garlic Meatballs and Pasta is a lovely homemade recipe using fresh ingredients with a delicious sauce
Pasta Bake. A quick and easy meal full of tasty treats!
Kebabs With Attitude! These are a spicy, moist kebab, full of flavor and perfect for grilling!
Meatballs With Attitude! Here I've used some great ingredients to keep these super moist and of course really packed with flavor. Great to serve as party food or have as a dinner with some mash and gravy!
Easy Hamburger Goulash. Very quick and simple recipe and flexible for you to add your favorite ingredients!
Oh So Good Jack Daniel's Burgers taste amazing! Easy to make and full of flavor to give you a delicious juicy burger. Perfect for BBQ's and parties. Freezer friendly too
Nanny Chan's Mild Curry Puffs with a delicous mild spiced filling of ground meat wrapped in a flaky pastry. Great as a snack, appetizer or party food!
Ground Beef and Broccoli Quiche, a great recipe suitable for lunches, picnics or dinner!
Ground Beef and Spinach Cheesy Pasta Bake. Easy to make and very tasty! Freezer Friendly too.
📋 Recipe
Frikadeller Meat Patties with Sauce

A delicious popular recipe originating from Denmark with tender ground meat patties and a tasty creamy sauce. Easy, homemade comfort food dinner recipe
Ingredients
For the frikadeller (meat patties)
- ½ lb or 225 g ground pork
- ½ lb or 225 g ground beef
- ½ cup or 70 g grated onion
- 3 Tablespoons flour
- 1 ½ cups or 350 ml half-and-half milk
- 1 egg, well beaten
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ⅓ cup or 75 g butter
For the Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups or 350 ml low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
- ½ cup or 120 ml heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- Salt and ground black pepper
Instructions
For the Patties
- Combine pork and beef in stand mixer bowl, add onion. Using paddle attachment, stir in flour and beat thoroughly. Stir in milk 2 tablespoons at a time, keeping mixer at stir speed to aerate mixture. You can do this by hand but it will take a little longer.
- Combine egg, salt and pepper together and add to meat mixture. Speed 2 until fluffy. Pour into smaller container and refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up.
- Melt butter in large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Using a spoon, drop meat mixture directly into skillet. Do not crowd. Fry patties for 3 minutes per side. Keep warm while making sauce.
For the Sauce:
- Discard oil in pan and wipe clean with paper towel. Return pan to medium-high heat and add butter.
- When foaming subsides, add flour and cook, whisking constantly, until flour is light brown, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Slowly whisk in broth. Add brown sugar and bring to simmer.
- Reduce heat to medium and cook until sauce is reduced to about 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Stir in cream and return to simmer.
- Add patties to sauce and simmer, turning occasionally, until heated through, about 5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, and serve over egg noodles.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
4Amount Per Serving: Calories: 774Total Fat: 62gSaturated Fat: 33gTrans Fat: 2gUnsaturated Fat: 24gCholesterol: 263mgSodium: 996mgCarbohydrates: 17gFiber: 1gSugar: 8gProtein: 38g
Deb
I've had this saved for awhile and finally made it. Wonderfully delicious!! My son's enjoyed as well. I love traditional recipes like this.
Kathy
My family & I enjoyed this dinner very much! I will be making it again! I would double the gravy next time though! Really delicious! Thanks!
Bryan
I'm using chrome as my browser and it displays a one page preview of the recipe just before the comments. Instead of your red star, it has a print button. Because I select "send to pdf", there's no ink or paper waste. Hope this helps.
Lois Ann
I'm hosting a party, if I cook them the day before, can I reheat them without losing any quality?
Lovefoodies
Hi Lois, they should be fine reheated. I suggest you reheat on a gentle heat until they’re hot in the centre so as they don’t dry out. Have fun with your party!
Christopher
It's probably going to be weird asking this from a thread that is obviously dead, but where I come from people generally use oil (canola/olive) instead of butter to prepare the pan. Will the recipe still work, or does the butter add to the flavour?
Lovefoodies
Hi Christopher, yes, the butter certainly adds to the flavour but using olive oil will be just as delicious. Please enjoy!
Cherie Swanson
I've made this twice and it's really marvelous. I used 1/2 pork 1/2 ground beef the first time and 1/2 turkey and 1/2 ground beef the second time and they were equally delicious. Thanks for this recipe!
Carina
Its funny to see a traditional danish dish with a twist. Usually we eat frikadeller with potatoes and a brown sauce, but this looks really good. Sometimes i make frikadeller with ground pork only, its the closest you can come to the real thing, if you only use one type of meat. 🙂
Kat Wernicke
I made this recipe last night and it was really tasty. My only regret is that I don't have a stand mixer. I ended up only using one cup of the half and half and I felt the need to add two extra tablespoons of flour because my meat was very soggy and wet otherwise. Despite that the patties fried up nicely and were very tender and tasty. I also changed the sauce recipe a bit, instead of using heavy cream and lemon juice I used very thick cultured buttermilk instead and I think it came out about the same as it would have had I used the cream and the lemon juice. 🙂 Over all I really enjoyed this dish and I will make it again.
Lovefoodies
Hi Kat, yes, a stand mixer certainly makes it a little easier for the mixing. The mixture is quite wet and 'loose', so after it has been chilled for a while, it does tend to firm up enough so you can spoon it in to the pan to form patties.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I've made this several times and it's always so delicious!!
Nats
This looks delicious!! Do you think it will work with only ground beef?
Lovefoodies
Hi Nats, thanks! Yes, it will work just with beef. I've done that and it is absolutely fine. 🙂
Gayle Miller
What does 1/2 and 1/2 milk mean ?
Lovefoodies
Hi Gayle, “Half and half” is a mixture of half heavy cream and half whole milk. If you can't get it where you live (it is usually only common in the US and Canada), you can substitute half and half by mixing half whole milk and half heavy cream. Hope that helps!!
DJ in Baltimore
Made this over the weekend. Doubled the meat recipe and froze half of the patties. Having them again tonight with a second bbatch of the sauce.
lovefoodies
Hi! I'm glad you enjoy the recipe. It is one of my favorites!! I haven't frozen them before, but that's a great idea for me next time I make them!
Thanks very much for your feedback!
Jenny.U
Looks like a true comfort food!
Michelle De La Cerda-Nash
I need to try this, it looks so gooooooodddddd
Dan from Platter Talk
I would love to try this one; it's refreshing to see something so unique for a change!
lovefoodies
Thanks Dan! I'm glad you like it!
Jules
I hit the red + and then print. It printed 6 pages, 5 of ads what a
waste of ink. Did not give me an option to preview, or I could have
deleted the other wasted pages.. Why not just put a print button & preview option, it's not hard.
lovefoodies
Hi Jules,
After hitting the red + button, there are several options for printing. If you are looking to print selected parts, you need to select the Print Friendly option and not just print. The PF option allows you to select areas to delete by hovering over those areas and then selecting delete. You should have a pop up screen for print preview no matter which programme you select, which is part of your printer software.
I hope this helps.
DDW
It looks like a nice recipe and I did manage to get it in spite of all of your efforts to prevent that...
lovefoodies
Thanks DDW, I'm not entirely sure what you are referring to, regarding not being able to 'get' the recipe, if you mean for printing, emailing or converting to a PDF, there are 3 different ways, first, by right clicking anywhere on the page then selecting 'print', second, far left of the page is a vertical column of icons which move down the page with you, select the Red Plus icon then select Print or Print friendly, and third, just above the ingredients, there is another share icon, which works the same as the red plus icon I just described. I think having 3 options, and in some cases 5 on some of the recipes is more than enough for people to print what they need to.
Should you experience any difficulties in getting any future recipes, please just drop me an email and I'll be more than happy to guide you!
Sorry you had problems trying to work out how to print.
Al-Tariq Nekhia Taylor
Currently preparing...
lovefoodies
oh boy, you will love this! I've made it so many times, it really is so good, I warn you it is very filling so don't put too much on your plate! Please enjoy 🙂
Jacinda Jones
going to make this asap!! looks amazing!
lovefoodies
That's good to hear Jacinda! I've also made Donna's recipe many times now and oh gosh! I like to add sliced mushrooms and white wine in the sauce too....yummo! Please enjoy 🙂
Britt
Making this for dinner tonight!! already had a quick taste of the patties and they are delicious!! can't wait till dinner!!! Thanks for sharing!!
lovefoodies
Enjoy! It really is delicious! I'm addicted to those patties, and they are really filling too! It doesn't seem much when you're making them, but actually you get a full belly really quick, oh they are yum!!! Enjoy!
Joanne T Ferguson
G'day and big YUM! A TRUE comfort food for me!
I can't wait to try this and it is on the list to do!
Cheers! Joanne
http://www.facebook.com/whatsonthelist
lovefoodies
You will love it Joanne! It is one of my favourites now!! Really tasty 🙂
Bernice Barnes
I made this last night a really lovely meal my boys loved it, will be doing this again Bernice from London UK
lovefoodies
Hi Bernice, So glad you enjoyed it! I also have made this many times now, and it really is a lovely recipe!
Helene Sall
Hey, I'm from Denmark, and have never heard of this kind of variation to the Frikadeller. But this one sounds just so wonderful, that even I have to try it 😉
lovefoodies
Hi Helene, I think the lady who's recipe it was originally lived in the States, so maybe it is an adaptation from when she was in Denmark! Often that happens, but I guess you never forget your roots! Enjoy the recipe 🙂
Brenda Shaw Nelson
This sounds so wonderful, a must try. I'm collecting and converting all of my recipes to electronic too, then they are never lost and easily shared.
lovefoodies
That's great to hear Brenda! Enjoy the recipe 🙂