Homemade Dutch Frikandellen Recipe (Dutch Sausage)

Dutch Frikandellen (Deep Fried Hot Dogs)

Frikandellen are the Dutch answer to the hot dog. It's got a sausage shape and it's available in all snack bars around the Netherlands. You can eat them on a sandwich, which is called a broodje frikandel (in Dutch) or as a frikandel speciaal. Or you can buy it, most of the time, deep-frozen in dutch stores.

The history of this snack: in 1954 a Dutch butcher called Gerrit de Vries made the first spicy meatball which can be compared to the now known Dutch frikandel. It had a different form (it was a ball) and because that was a registered product, he decided to make a sausage of it (just like sausage rolls).

The name Frikadelle is German and means a flat meatball. That word (Frikadelle) is known in different varieties in cooking books since the 17th century, but is very different from the Dutch Frikandel).

Five years after de Vries prepared the first Frikandel, Jan Bekkers, a snack manufacturer, adapted the recipe of de Vries to the modern version we know it these days. The frikandel is made of ground meat and after more than 50 years it's still a popular snack in the Netherlands, parts of Belgium, and Germany.

Why make your own?

In our Dutch culture, the frikandel is indispensable (in the snack bar culture at least). And a lot has changed since it was first created around 1954. Where it used to be a product that can be found at the butcher, it is now produced by snack manufacturers.

This also affected the quality of the meat. Instead of a mixture of chicken, beef, and pork mince, the current frikandel consists of some minced pork (25 %), chicken separated meat (40%), and sometimes horse meat (5%), and the remaining 30 to 35 % is breadcrumbs, water, and spices.

But do you now want a frikandel of tasty meat, with the same taste as a store-bought frikandel? Then you've come to the right place! These frikandellen have the same taste, with the difference that you are using real good meat. And that's really nice!

What do you need for the best frikandellen

For the preparation of Flemish Currywurst (aka the frikandel) you need the following ingredients (you can find the correct amounts at the bottom of the blog in the recipe card):

• Ground Pork / Ground beef - A mixture of half ground beef and half ground pork. The somewhat fattier pork gives the frikandel a deeper flavor, and the beef is a bit spicier and contains less fat. Be sure to buy unseasoned ground beef.
• Minced chicken - You can make this yourself from chicken breast fillet, but I make it easy for myself and buy ground chicken.
• Allspice - It is a spice that comes from Jamaica and it tastes a bit like a combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. Allspice is available at stores like Amazon. If you really can't get it, you can replace it with ⅓ teaspoon nutmeg, ⅓ teaspoon cinnamon, and ⅓ teaspoon cloves (but I advise you to go for the real spice).
• Nutmeg, Pepper, salt, and Onion powder - Season the frikandel meat, along with the allspice.
• Cream - Binds the ground meat and makes it nice and juicy and creamy.

Howto: Make your own frikandellen 

A recipe with extensive steps, the right amount of ingredients, and which you can also easily print can be found at the bottom of the blog.

1. Minced meat - Grind the minced meat even finer (then you get the structure of a frikandel as you know it as a snack). If you prefer a somewhat coarser texture, mix everything in a large bowl.
2. Seasoning - Add the spices and cream and mix well.
3. Forming - Make a sausage about 8 inches (20 cm) long with a diameter of 1 inch (2 cm). By cooking (next step), the sausage expands slightly.
4. Wrapping - Wrap the sausage in plastic wrap (regular cling film) and tie both ends closed. Cooking the sausage in plastic wrap will help it keep its shape.
5. Cooking - Boil the sausages in hot water for 10 minutes. Bring the water to a boil and then turn off the heat. By cooking you don't need to deep fry the frikandel for long, it is already cooked and you only have to fry it for a crispy outside.
6. Frying - Remove the plastic wrap. This is the time to freeze or bake. 3 minutes frying at 350 °F (180 °C) in a deep fryer is sufficient.

Serve with 

• Serve the frikandellen, together with other Dutch snacks like the kaassoufflé, kroketten and french fries, mayonnaise, curry, and ketchup as a delicious fast food dinner.
• Cut open the frikandel and put mayonnaise and curry ketchup in it and sprinkle finely chopped raw onion on top. A delicious Dutch frikandel speciaal.
• Frikandel bun - Since a few years a frikandel broodje (frikandel bun) is really popular in the Netherlands. It's a bread roll (or puff pastry roll), filled with a frikandel and curry ketchup sauce) and then baked in the oven. It's a snack that's much eaten by students during lunch time.

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