Bagte Kartofler med Kryddersmor

The long light comes back in June, and with it the smell of charcoal from every garden and balcony in Denmark. This is grill season. These potatoes belong to it the way cold beer belongs to a warm evening.

Bagte kartofler med kryddersmor is the side dish that sits next to everything at a Danish summer table. At the bofhus, the steakhouse restaurants that have been part of Copenhagen's dining landscape for decades, you'll find them alongside a peppered entrecote. At home, they sit on a board next to whatever comes off the grill: flankesteg, polser, marinated chicken. The potatoes are baked until the skin is dry and crackling and the inside is so soft it falls apart when you press it. Then you split them open and drop in a generous knob of kryddersmor, herb butter made with garlic and parsley, and watch it melt into the flesh.

Two things matter here. First, the skin. You need it crisp and salty, because the butter inside is rich and the contrast is everything. Rub the potatoes with oil and coarse salt before they go in the oven, and bake them directly on the rack so the heat reaches every side. Second, the butter. Make it while the potatoes bake. Real butter, good garlic, flat-leaf parsley, a squeeze of lemon to lift it. You'll know when it's right because it smells like summer and you want to eat it with a spoon.