Øllebrød is a traditional Danish dish. It is a porridge or thick soup made of sourdough rye bread and beer . These ingredients give it a slightly sour-sweet, caramelly, full taste. It is often eaten for breakfast, on par with oatmeal porridge. It is also regarded as easily digestible and nourishing and frequently served in hospitals and retirement homes.
Formerly, øllebrød would be served unsweetened and could be part of all meals of the day. Nowadays, it is mostly sweetened with sugar and eaten for breakfast with milk, cream, whipped cream or egg yolk beaten with sugar.
Variety recipes spice it with lemon peel, orange peel or vanilla, but many Danes disapprove of this since øllebrød is (by most) not regarded a dessert.
It is best made of traditional rye bread of fine-ground flour. Since the 1970s, whole-grain rye bread, or rye bread with whole sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or similar, have become increasingly popular, but the grains or seeds will make a lumpy øllebrød, unless it is puréed with a blender or passed through a sieve.