However you spell "aebleskiver," it's tasty

Steve Meldrum of Fayetteville, Ark., stopped in the proudly Danish town of Elk Horn this morning and  poked his head through a cut-out portrait of a Viking, complete with a beard and a horned helmet. His friend Jeff Havermann, a native of Carroll, grinned  right beside him, framed by a pair of Viking-lady braids.

“We’re going to live it up,” Meldrum said. “And those aebleskivers? I’m all over that.”

As it turned out, hundreds of people were all over those aebleskivers, the Danish pancake-y popovers locals were cooking up nearby in 11 cast-iron skillets. The spelling was a matter of debate (abelskivvers? aebelskivers?) but Annette Andersen of nearby Kimballton seemed to be the authority on the recipe: flour, sugar, baking soda and eggs, with the whites separated and beaten to give the batter its airy texture.

The proof is not, in fact, in

the pudding.

“If you don’t get them quite done, you have pudding inside,” said Toby Henningsen of Elk Horn. He was working one of the skillets and gave it a douse of oil. “The only thing better is if you use lard.”

The Danish hospitality was evident nearby, where first-time rider Heather Lahr of Santa Barbara, Calif., got friendly with one of the locals.

“It was nice to meet such a strong silent type,” she said. “I really like his horns.”

Michael Morain

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