Look no further: this is how to make the tastiest frikandellen yourself

Mister Wateetons can be brief: deep-frying is the best cooking technique on earth. Are frikandellen your favorite deep-fried snack, and have you always wanted to try making them yourself? You can, with this recipe from Mister Wateetons’ new book Over Frituren.

Mister Wateetons: “While the croquette and bitterballen left the snack bar’s walls long ago and even chips with mayonnaise have become a Michelin-starred dish, the frikandel still languishes in the gutter of the greasy spoon. Slit down its belly, place a plastic tray underneath, and bury it under mayo, curry and a dollop of self-loathing. What sadness, what injustice. Why isn’t there a haute-frikandel yet?

The snack has an undeservedly bad reputation. It is said to contain cows’ eyes, udders and offal. More injustice, because that’s an urban myth (not in it either, by the way). A glance at the packaging reveals that every manufacturer’s frikandel consists primarily of the workhorse of the meat industry: mechanically separated chicken meat. The leftover meat pressed off chicken bones. Completely no waste, in other words—your frikandel speciaal with onions.

The unclear name may also contribute to its unpopularity. Is it frikadel or frikandel? The confusion is exhausting. The original name is frikadel, at any rate. That extra ‘n’ crept in somewhere, deliberately as a trademark or simply because language is alive. Who can say? Since 2005, both spellings have been permitted according to the Groene Boekje. When in doubt, you can also simply use the popular synonym ‘berenlul’. Be aware that when, as a Dutch person, you order a frikadel in Flanders, you get something completely different from what you expect: a kind of flattened meatball. For the sake of clarity, this recipe is about the Dutch frikandel.

So there is nothing for it but to make a luxurious frikandel yourself. A frikandel is, when you think about it, nothing more than a sausage without a casing or a rolled-out meatball. You decide what goes into it: pork or veal, mechanically separated chicken or beef, or you can make an exquisite game frikandel. The first version of this recipe was written in 2016 for Elle Eten. A few years later, at a food press lunch, we came across a startup that had started producing high-end frikandellen for the hospitality industry in response to our recipe and appeal. How cool is that.”

How to make the frikandellen

• Make sure the meat is ice-cold, for example by placing it in the freezer for a while beforehand.
• Cut the meat into small cubes.
• Put the ice cubes in a plastic bag and crush them by hitting them with, for example, a frying pan or rolling pin.
• Put all the ingredients, including the crushed ice, in the food processor and grind very finely. Do not grind any longer than necessary; heat is the enemy of every sausage. During grinding, the crushed ice keeps the temperature low and is eventually absorbed by the meat.
• Lay a sheet of plastic wrap measuring 35–40 centimetres on your work surface.
• Put some of the meat paste in a piping bag or sturdy plastic bag.
• Cut off a corner with a diameter of approximately 1½ centimetres.
• Pipe a sausage along the bottom edge of the plastic wrap, approximately 15–20 centimetres long. Does it look strangely thin and long? No problem. The final shape will become thicker and shorter in the next step.
• Now roll it up very tightly in the plastic wrap. Once it is rolled up, roll it over your work surface several more times while holding the plastic firmly at the sides of the frikandel; this will make it very tight.
• Prick away any air bubbles with a pin or sausage pricker, and roll it once or twice more so that all the air is pressed out.
• Fold the plastic ends under the roll and leave it in the refrigerator for at least an hour, but preferably overnight, to firm up.
• Make a stock and add a tablespoon of Buisman. This gives it a dark colour and a slightly sweet, caramel-like flavour.
• Cut off the pieces of plastic at the sides of the frikandel so that you can easily let it fall from the plastic into the hot stock. So you cook them without the plastic.
• Cook for 5 minutes in the stock, which should be just below boiling point.
• Leave to dry on kitchen paper.
• Deep-fry for 5 minutes at 175 degrees.

Tips and variations

• Of course, you can also add extra ingredients or flavourings. A little blue cheese, truffle, port or toasted nuts, why not. Master of your own Berenlul.
• Give them a cool name (Freak Del? Les Friquandelles? Frikandellic?), buy an old van and take it to a festival.
• Feeling friki? Combine the spring-roll technique with the frikandel to make a loempiadel or frikandoempia: roll a cooked and then cooled frikandel in a spring-roll wrapper and enjoy.
• During a workshop, someone once accidentally added the Buisman to the sausage meat instead of the water. It actually turned out to be quite tasty.

Title: Over Frituren
Author: Mister Wateetons
Price: €32
Publisher: Fontaine Uitgevers

Read also:

• Finally, here it is: the Frikandellington
• What do you know about the frikandel? Take the ultimate frikandel quiz
• 7 things about frikandellen you didn’t know yet