A frikandel is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 snack, a sort of minced-meat

Ground meat

Ground meat is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. It is called minced meat or more usually mince outside North America....

 hot dog

Hot dog

A hot dog is a sausage served in a sliced bun. It is very often garnished with mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, relish and/or sauerkraut.-History:...

,
developed either in 1954 or in 1958/1959 in the Netherlands, depending on the source.

Overview

It is long, skinless, dark-coloured meat sausage that is eaten hot. Unlike many other sausages, a frikandel is deep-fried

Deep frying

Deep frying is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot oil or fat. This is normally performed with a deep fryer or chip pan; industrially, a pressure fryer or vacuum fryer may be used....

. In Belgium and in the north of France it is called a "frikadel", "fricandelle" or "fricadelle". In the Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 region of Belgium, it can also be called "curryworst" (not to be confused with the German currywurst

Currywurst

Currywurst is a fast-food dish of German origin consisting of hot pork sausage cut into slices and seasoned with curry ketchup, regularly consisting of ketchup or tomato paste blended with generous amounts of curry powder, or a ready-made ketchup-based sauce seasoned with curry and other spices...

). Due to the absence of skin, one could argue that it technically is not a sausage. Until 2005, the official way of spelling the name of this sausage in the Dutch language

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 was without an "n" -as frikadel- but now both spelling variants are officially allowed with frikandel being the one most commonly used. Although both spelling variants are correct, there is a slight difference today between a frikandel and a frikadel. A frikadel is actually a sort of meatball (actually the precursor of the frikandel), commonly eaten in Belgium and Germany.

Who created the frikandel is contested. Some state that it was first made by Gerrit de Vries of Dordrecht

Dordrecht

Dordrecht , colloquially Dordt, historically in English named Dort, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,601 in 2009...

 in 1954, after he wasn't allowd anymore to sell his product as a meatball because of a foodlaw, and changed his product instead of his recipe. But others say it was first made by Jan Bekkers of Deurne in 1958, and named "frikandel" in 1959 after he founded the Beckers factory.
What can be agreed on, is that the present recipe with the very fine mince is derived from the 1958 version. Gerrit de Vries' 1954 sausage, named fricadelle, contained chunkier minced meat as it was essentially a minced meat patty in the shape of a sausage.

In the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 and Curaçao

Curaçao

Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

, the frikandel mainly consists of a mixture of mechanically separated meat

Mechanically separated meat

Mechanically separated meat , a product also known as mechanically recovered/reclaimed meat or mechanically deboned meat , is a paste-like meat product produced by forcing beef, pork, turkey or chicken, under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat...

 of the chicken (around 40% or more) and pork (about 25%). Some manufacturers also add in a few percent horse meat

Horse meat

Horse meat is the culinary name for meat cut from a horse. It is a major meat in only a few countries, notably in Central Asia, but it forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many others, from Europe to South America to Asia. The top eight countries consume about 4.7 million horses...

. Other ingredients are bread crumbs, thickener, herbs and spices, onion and flavour enhancer

Flavour enhancer

Flavour enhancers are food additives commonly added to food and designed to enhance the existing flavours of products. In western cultures, the 5th taste or umami went unrecognized for a long time. It was believed that flavour enhancers did not add any new taste of their own...

s. It is the most popular fast food snack in the Netherlands, followed by the kroket

Croquette

A croquette is a small fried food roll containing, usually as main ingredients, mashed potatoes, and/or ground meat , shellfish, fish, vegetables, and soaked white bread, egg, onion, spices and herbs, wine, milk, beer or any of the combination thereof, sometimes with a filling, often encased in...

. According to the AKSV (the General Association of Manufacturers of Cooking Supplies and Snacks in the Netherlands) 600 million sausages are produced each year in the Netherlands. Most of these are also sold in the Netherlands which results in more than 37 sausages being consumed per capita per year in this country.

Serving

In the Netherlands, it is most often served with curry ketchup

Curry ketchup

Curry ketchup, curry gewürz ketchup or simply curry is a spiced variant on ketchup and a common sauce in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands....

 and/or mayonnaise

Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...

, though some people eat it with tomato ketchup or mustard. Very popular is a frikandel served together with mayonnaise, curry ketchup and chopped raw onion: a frikandel speciaal. The frikandel speciaal usually has a deep cut lengthwise through the middle to provide room for the chopped onions and the sauces. Some people prefer the taste of a frikandel if the cut is made before frying, resulting in a larger crisp surface. Sometimes the sausage is served on a bun

Bun

A bun is a small, usually sweet, bread. Commonly they are hand-sized or smaller, domed in shape, with a flat bottom. A bun can also be a savory bread roll similar to a bap or barmcake....

 and is then called a brood

Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...

je frikandel.

In Belgium and in the north of France, it is served with any sauce of choosing, eaten in a long bun, a piece of baguette, cut into pieces and served as kebab or even on its own.

Miscellaneous

Frikandellen can also be included in party-packs together with other Dutch snacks such as bitterballen

Bitterballen

Bitterballen are a savoury Dutch meat-based snack, typically containing a mixture of beef , beef broth, flour and butter for thickening, parsley, salt and pepper. This is also called ragout. Some recipes also include nutmeg and/or curry powder. The ingredients are combined and cooked, then...

. They are also often available in holiday resorts abroad which are popular with the Dutch, such as Lloret de Mar

Lloret de Mar

Lloret de Mar is a Mediterranean coastal town in Catalonia and one of the most popular holiday resorts on the Costa Brava. It is 40 kilometres from Girona and 75 kilometres from Barcelona and therefore easily accessible...

.

In the Netherlands, frikandel eating contests are regularly held all over the country. The record for most frikandellen consumed in one hour was set in 2005 by Sjonnie Noordeinde of Delft

Delft

Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague....

, consuming 47 sausages of each 80 grams.

In many other countries, including South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 and Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, frikadel or Frikadelle (not to be confused with frikandel) is the local name of minced-meat meatballs or patties

Patty

A patty is a flattened cake, often of meat.Patty may also refer to:* Patty , a family name* Patricia, a female given name, in all forms of English* Patrick , a male given name, in Australian English and Hiberno-English...

 like those used in hamburger

Hamburger

A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...

s.