I inherited this aluminum Rullepølse Press from my grandmother who immigrated from Hjørring, Denmark to Tyler, Minnesota, a Danish American settlement in 1915.  Andrea Panum joined her fiancé Aage Jacobsen who had arrived several months before. She stayed connected to her cultural roots through food. I never heard anyone call her Andrea, she was always Mrs. Aage Jacobsen.  I have memories from my childhood of watching my mother and grandmother make rullepølse. It takes six to eight hours to dress the meat, spice it with salt and pepper, cloves, allspice and onions. Then it is rolled and wrapped with string to hold its shape. At this point it goes into brine for a week and after that it is poached and put into the press in a cold place overnight. When it comes out it is sliced and served on rye bread with meat jelly as an open face sandwich. We often had it around the Christmas holidays. I keep the tradition going making rullepølse with friends every year at the beginning of December.  We call ourselves the Rullepølse Society and have been meeting for about fifteen years. Rullepølse is sometimes made with veal, pork or beef but we make ours with lamb breast. It is quite a delicacy in the U.S. as few Nordic butchers make this particular sausage and when they do it is very expensive. The flavors remind me of the food I ate growing up and that is comforting. It also makes me feel connected to the Danish community who share a love for this particular sausage. 

– Susan Jacobsen

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant