The Vikings customarily ate two meals each day. The first, dagmál or "day-meal" was eaten in the morning, approximately two hours after the day's work was started (7 AM to 8 AM or so), while the second, náttmál or "night meal" was consumed at the end of the day's labor (7 PM to 8 PM or so). These times would vary seasonally, depending on the hours of daylight.
Types of Food
The foods listed here were known to the Vikings, as evidenced by mention in the literary sources, or documented by archaeological finds (i.e., grave sites, etc.). Additional foods were probably consumed as well, including but not limited to wild herbs and fruits known to grow in Scandinavia, additional game animals not listed below, and any foodstuffs that may have been imported from other countries.
Protein
Domestic Sources: Beef, mutton, lamb, goat and pork were eaten throughout the Viking homelands and settlements. Horse meat was also consumed, and by the Christian Middle Ages the consumtion of horseflesh had become identified as a specifically heathen practice.
Cattle were the most important type of livestock. Evidence for this is found in investigations of osteological finds and settlement remains, and archaeological traces of stall partitions gives investigators indications of how many animals were kept. In Viking Age farms, byres with room for 80-100 animals have been found.
In Denmark, about one half of the cattle were slaughtered before the age of 3.5 years, allowing most cows to produce at least one calf and making both meat and milk production possible. Archaeological evidence also shows a number of cows that lived around ten years, evidence that they were in use as dairy cattle. In Western Jutland, oxen were were renowned for their high-quality meat and were produced for export as meat animals by individual farmers, then later sold to a larger estate. When they were 4-5 years old, the oxen were walked down the peninsula about two weeks' distance and sold, then re-fattened for three weeks on the marshes before they were slaughtered. This trade in oxen supported some of the nutritional needs of the towns.
Meat was a seasonal product, as slaughtering was mainly done at the end of the grazing season. Farmers had to make a careful assessment of their hay supplies, and decide how many animals could be overwintered, with the strongest and most productive animals being retained and others slaughtered for meat. Slaughtering time for cattle and sheep was in October, pigs in November-December. Meat was not as highly valued a food as it is today in places such as America - milk products were the most highly valued, and cattle were essential to producing dairy goods. There is also the consideration that the very word for "riches" or "money" in Old Norse, fé, has a root meaning of "cattle", so for each cow that the farmer could not successfully support over the winter, they sustained an economic loss, thus meat as a food was in some ways an admission of failure, not success, which probably contributed to the value of meat as a foodstuff in Viking Age society.
Pigs were kept for meat, and were usually sent off into the forest to feed on mast (fallen nuts, for instance those of beech), especially in the southern areas of Scandinavia where pigs could be forest-grazed year-round. Pigs were an efficient means of recycling food waste and turning it into consumable meat. Pigs were also valuable food animals for town-dwellers and those in dense settlements where they could be kept penned and fed household scraps, a practice which began in Scandinavia in the Viking Age, particularly at magnate farms and in early towns.
In Iceland animal husbandry was the major source of food and the principal occupation of the inhabitants. Cattle appear to have been the main farm animal until the 12th century, when deterioration in the climate made it difficult to maintain large herds of cattle and sheep farming took the forefront. This would directly affect diet as well. In general, in farming areas of the Viking world, pork and beef were being consumed in roughly equal amounts. In urban and monastic contexts, cattle represent up to 60% of the meat consumed, with pork and mutton providing each about 20% of the meat in the diet.
The Viking Age people also kept chicken, geese, and ducks both for eggs and meat. Hens, geese, and ducks were used to provide fresh meat throughout the year.
Preservation of meat was quite important, and various methods for preservation were in use during the Viking Age, including drying, smoking, salting, fermentation, pickling in whey, or in northern Scandinavia, freezing. Drying was perhaps the most common method, and since properly dried meat could keep for years.
Fermentation of meat for preservation is a fairly alien concept to a modern Westerner, but was used in the Viking Age and continues to be used even today in certain traditional Scandinavian foods, such as hakikarl (fermented shark) in Iceland, or surströmning (sour herring) in northern Sweden. In general, the unopened animal was covered, often in a pit, and left to ferment in the absence of air and sometimes utilizing salt.
The far northern parts of Norway were so cold and dry that drying and smoking were the preferred methods of meat preservation. Some salt preservation was done, mostly in the more southerly areas of Scandinavia such as Denmark.
Hunting/Gathering: While people in the Viking Age did hunt and eat game, the amount of wild meat consumed was very low in comparison to that from domestic sources, as determined by bone finds in kitchen and midden excavations in most of Scandinavia. However, in the farthest northern areas, such as Norrland in Sweden, Troms in Finnmark and Nordland in Norway, game meats were much more important and represented a much larger, or even the greatest part of the meat consumed.
Deer, elk, reindeer and hare were the most important animals hunted for meat. Red deer has been shown to have been eaten in Jorvík and the Danelaw, and there is evidence that venison was consumed at Jarlshöf in the Shetlands. Bear, boar, and squirrel were all hunted at times as well. Squirrel was the most important animal hunted for furs, and so may have been eaten fairly often.
In Jorvík and the Danelaw in England, wild poultry used for food included golden plover, grey plover, black grouse, wood pigeon, lapwing. Wild goose has been identified as a foodstuff in Dublin.
Nuts were also a source of protein. Hazelnuts were the only nut found wild in Scandinavia and were consumed throught Scandinavia and the Viking settlements. Walnuts were imported, even in the Viking Age, and medieval Scandinavian cooks imported almonds and chestnuts as well.
Food from the Sea, Rivers and Lakes: It is estimated by scholars that up to 25% of the calories in the diet of coastal Norwegians would have come from fish in normal years. The fish resources in the Atlantic off the western coasts of Scandinavia were (and continue to be) extremely rich, providing cod and coalfish, and freshwater would have been a source of salmon. Even Norwegians who lived in the interior had access to high proportions of fish in their diets, since coastal people would have traded fish for timber and other goods. Shrimp were also eaten.
In Eastern Scandinavia as well fish was an important part of the diet, with herring being caught in Bohuslän, off Denmark, and in the Baltic, and salmon in the rivers and lakes. Other saltwater fish known to have been eaten include haddock, flat-fish, ling, horse mackerel, smelt, and saithe.
There is also evidence that a variety of freshwater and estuarine fish and shellfish were eaten. Most of the evidence for freshwater fish consumption comes from Jorvík (modern York) and the Danelaw. Freshwater fish included roach, rudd, and bream, with perch and pike being the most commonly found freshwater fish at archaeological sites. We have evidence for estuarine fish from both England and the Viking holdings in Dublin, including oysters, cockles, mussels, winkles, smelt, eels, salmon, and scallops.
In northern Scandinavia, the dry, cold conditions allowed fish to be preserved almost indefinitely by drying. The fish (mostly cod) was strung up and hung it from a rod or "stock" and allowed to dry. This produced "stockfish", called skrei› ("sharp-fish") in Old Norse. During the Viking Age, the rock-hard skrei› was prepared for eating by being beaten and pounded to break up the fibers, and served with butter. Skrei› or stockfish became important in another legendary Scandinavian food, which is, however, not documentable until 1553, long after the close of the Viking Age: this is the (in)famous lutefisk, or "lye fish."
The earliest recipe for lutefisk comes from a German cookbook, Das Kochbuch von Sabina Welserin:
To prepare dried cod, from the gracious Lord of Lindau, who was Bishop in Constance. First take river water and ashes and add caustic lime [lye], which should be rather strong, and soak the dried cod therein. Allow it to soak for a day and a night, afterwards drain it off and pour on it again the previously described caustic lime solution. Let it soak again for a day and a night, put it afterwards in a pot and wash it off two or three times in water, so that the fish no longer tastes like lye. Put it then in a pot and put water therein and let it slowly simmer so that it does not boil over. Allow it to only simmer slowly, otherwise it becomes hard. Let it cook approximately one hour, after which, dress and salt it and pour salted butter over it and serve it. Also put good mustard on the outside in about three places. One must also beat dried cod well before it is soaked (Armstrong, 33).
Like the Viking preparation for skrei›, lutefisk was a technique for allowing the board-like stockfish to be consumed by humans, with the lye acting to partially dissolve and thus soften the fish. Accordingly, lutefisk is not a Viking Age food, but became important in the Middle Ages as Christian fasting requirements led to greater needs for preserved fish which could easily be stored and shipped.
Whales were also an important food resource during the Viking Age. The sagas frequently mention complex conflicts that arose because of disputes over the legal rights of a landowner to the meat, blubber, and bone from beached whales. It was probably extremely rare that ships went out and harpooned whales, and probably only Iceland and the Faroe Islands used this method of whaling. Whales were also trapped in inlets and bays with narrow openings, where they were frightened and driven aground from boats, or shot with poisoned arrows. The Old English Orosius tells how the chieftain Óttar (Ohthere, in Old English) of northern Norway hunted whales:
Ac on his agnum lande is se betsta hwćlhunta›: fia beo› eahta and feowertiges elna lange, & fia mćstan fiftiges elna lange. flara he sćde fićt he syxa sum ofsloge syxtig on twam dagum.
(The Old English Orosius, 39-41)
(And in his own land is the best whale-hunting: they are 48 ells long (180 feet), and the largest are 50 ells long. There he said that he and five others slew sixty in two days.)
If the number of whales killed here is correct, then Óttar and his five men must have driven a pod of small whales such as pilot whales onto shore, and there killed them using knives and spears.
Porpoises and seals were also hunted. The most important seal product was blubber, which was eaten in place of butter or used for frying. Apparently seal meat was not a particularly prized food, but was eaten by peasants because other meat was scarce.
In addition, various sea birds and their eggs would have been consumed.
Fruits
Sloes, plums, apples and blackberries were consumed throughout Scandinavia and the Viking settlements. Bilberries were another common fruit, and unfortunately since the Icelandic word for bilberry is bláber (literally, "blue berry") many sources list these as "blueberries."
Other fruits eaten included raspberries, elderberries, hawthorn berries, cherries, sour cherries, bullaces, cloudberries, strawberries, crabapple, rose hips, and rowan berries.
Fruits were preserved by drying during the Viking Age, and by the Middle Ages in Scandinavia fruit was also preserved in honey or in sugar. Some fruit was imported in the medieval period, and there are archaeological finds in medieval contexts of fig seeds and grape pips.
Vegetables
The Viking peoples consumed a variety of vegetables, both grown in gardens and gathered in the wild. Vegetables known from Jorvík or Dublin include carrots, parsnips, turnips, celery, spinach, wild celery, cabbage, radishes, fava beans, and peas. Endive has been found at Svenborg on the Isle of Funden. Other vegetables would have included beets, angelica, mushrooms, leeks, onions, and edible seaweeds. Sandwort and acorns were used sometimes as starvation foods, but were only eaten in extremity as they were fairly unpalatable.
Vegetables were generally preserved by drying.
A variety of seeds were used to produce oils used in cooking as well in both Jorvík and Dublin. These included linseed oil, hempseed oil, and rapeseed oil.
Dairy
Dairy farming was very important in northern Sweden, Finland, and Norway, with cows being the primary dairy animal, although goat's milk was also used. During the Middle Ages, bread and other cereal food types only slowly replaced milk products as the staple food of the general population, and in some parts of Scandinavia milk products have remained the most important foodstuff up through the nineteenth century.
In Iceland, the diet included very little in the way of cereals but instead relied primarily on protein sources, including milk and butter: "In Iceland, dairy food nevertheless enjoyed higher prestige than meat..." (Jochens, p. 128).
Milk was not usually consumed, but rather used to create other dairy foods which could be stored for winter consumption, such as butter, buttermilk, whey, skyr, curds, and cheese (which was usually heavily salted to help preserve it). Fresh milk was seen primarily as a raw material that had to be treated, coagulated into skyr, which could be stored for months, or fresh cheese, and the whey produced as a by-product was used as a preservative for meat or butter. Salted butter could actually be kept for years:
... large stores were accumulated, like gold, by wealthy landowners. By the time of the reformation the bishropic in Hólar possessed a mountain of butter [from tithes] calculated to weigh twenty-five tons (Jochens, p. 128).
Whey was retained and used either as a beverage or as a preservative to pickle meats and fish. The lactic acid in whey acted to slow or halt bacterial growth, allowing foods to be stored longer just as pickling in vinegar (acetic acid) does.
Bread and Cereals
Occasionally archaeologists find the remains of cereal grains or bread survive from Viking Age sites, such as the bread from Birka shown here. Mostly cereals which have been burnt and carbonized survive in the archaeological record, to be discovered a millennium later.
Barley was the most commonly grown grain in Sweden in Denmark. Rye began being grown in Finland, eastern Sweden and parts of Denmark around 1000-1200, although rye production did not become widely established until the late Middle Ages. In Norway oats and barley were extensively cultivated. Iceland had some cultivation or barley and oats until around 1150, made possible by the favorable climate during the first part of the Middle Ages. Wheat has also been found at Jorvík, Birka, Oseberg, and Dublin. Some rice was imported from Italy in the Middle Ages, and millet and buckwheat were eaten occasionally as well.
At the beginning of the Viking Age, evidence of autumn-sown rye indicates that crop rotation systems were introduced in southern Scandinavia. A three-field system would be used, with the field planting order requiring rye being planted the first year, barley planted the second year, and the third year the field being left fallow, with the fields being worked and manured before the next crop of rye was sown. This cycle allowed optimal use of the manure resources, since each field was manured only one year out of three, and rye does well with fresh dung, while barley favors decomposed manure.
Hulled barley was used for thin, flat bread, baked on an open fire. Oats seem to have been preferred for bread and porridge in parts of western Sweden. In Denmark, barley was primarily used for porridge and beer, while oats were fodder for the animals. It is thought that rye became the main bread cereal in southern Scandinavia during the Viking Age, but it took another 500 years or so for rye bread to reach Central Sweden, and it never replaced barley bread in the north.
Most of the barley grown would have been used to make ale. The remainder was used for bread and other dishes. Porridge or gruel made from whole or cracked grains was an important everyday food for the Viking farm family and it is believed that it was the staple food of the Viking Age. During the week the grain for the porridge would be simply cooked in water and then eaten. At celebrations porridge would be cooked with milk and eaten with butter.
In Iceland particularly it was very difficult to grow grain, becoming more difficult due to climactic changes with the beginning of the Middle Ages:
Scarcity of grain meant that in Iceland, unlike in continental Europe, bread never became a staple. It was in fact so rare that people dreamt about it, and one man received his nickname "Butter-Ring" (smjör-hringr) from his favorite food of bread and butter. Scarcity of grain and ovens made flat bread the preferred form in most of the north, but even in this form it never became important in the Icelandic diet. Grain was instead diluted in gruel and in porridge, probably the most important food on ocean travel and a preferred dish for elderly (toothless) people (Jochens, p. 127).
Bread has been found at several Viking Age sites, most in Sweden (particularly Birka and Helgö in Central Sweden) but also some in Denmark. These breads are small, thin and biscuit-like; some have holes in the center, allowing them to be hung on wires or rods of iron or bronze. They are generally made from at least two different cereals, one of them almost always barley. The proportion of cereals used for the breads corresponds roughly to the proportion in which they were cultivated. The Birka loaves are believed to have been baked on a baking slab or an iron pan. Apparently ovens for bread-baking were not widespread, and some investigators believe that leavened, oven- baked bread was developed as an effect of the increasing cultivation of rye in southern Scandinavia.
Finds at Birka suggest that the most common types of bread there were made with a mixture of barley and some type of wheat, although bread might also contain other grains, such as spelt, oats, linseed, or even sprouted peas. Rye was used mostly for baking bread as well. Written sources would indicate that oats were considered animal fodder, but a find from Hamar, Norway, shows that oats were also used on occasion for oatmeal bread, and oats were probably used in porridge as well.
Grain had to be ground before being made into either bread or porridge. The hand-mill used in Viking Age Scandinavia consisted of a flat, stationary stone with another on top, the top stone being turned by a handle fixed at the edge and pierced through in the middle where the raw material to be ground was introduced. Turning such a mill was heavy, laborious work, and almost always reserved for thralls or slaves. The grinding of grain, however, is never mentioned in the sagas or historical documents of the Viking Age, though there are legends involving grinding being relegated to lower-class women, such as in the Eddaic poem Grottasöngr (Jochens, p. 127):
Nv erv komnar til konvngs hvsa
framvisar tvćr Fenia oc Menia;
fićr ’ro at Frofia Frifileifs sonar
máttkar meyiar at mani haffiar.
flćr at lv›ri leiddar vorv
oc griotz gria gangs of beiddv;
het hann hvarigri hvild ne yndi,
a›r hann heyrfii hliom ambatta.
[Now then are come to the king's high hall
the foreknowing twain, Fenja and Menja;
in bondage by Frodi, Fridleif's son,
these sisters mighty as slaves are held.
To moil at the mill the maids were bid,
to turn the grey stone as their task was set;
lag in their toil he would let them never,
the slaves' song he unceasing would hear.
Herbs and Spices
Dill, coriander and hops are known from Jorvík and the Danelaw. There is evidence from Dublin for poppyseed, black mustard, and fennel. The Oseberg burial included watercress, cumin, mustard, and horseradish. Other spices included lovage, parsley, mint, thyme, marjoram, wild caraway, juniper berries, and garlic.
By the Middle Ages, Scandinavia had access to exotic spices obtained by trading. These included cumin, pepper, saffron, ginger, cardamom, grains of paradise, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, anise-seed, and bay leaves.
Vinegar was used as a flavoring in foods, as was honey.
Beverages
Alcoholic drinks were heartily consumed, this being one way to preserve carbohydrate calories for winter consumption, and consisted usually of ale. Hops and bog myrtle were used to flavor ale.
Mead was also consumed: honey was cultivated in southern Scandinavia, and imported by those in regions where bees cannot thrive. A drink which was both very alcoholic and which is described as being sweet was bjórr. Fruit wines were occasionally made, being used for sacramental purposes late in the period, and grape wine imported from the Rhine region by the wealthy.
Other beverages included milk, buttermilk, whey, and plain water.
Food Preparation Methods
Cooking was the province of women. As Hallger›r states in Brennu-Njáls saga, chapter 48:
... enda er fia› ekki karla a› annast um matrei›u.
[...it is not for men to get mixed up in the preparation of food.]
Cooking Equipment: Utensils for cooking were surprisingly like cooking tools in the Middle Ages and even those of today:
Cooking followed techniques and employed utensils that changed little over time. A comparison between the kitchen equipment buried with the woman entombed in the Oseberg burial in Norway in August or September 834 and the household recommendations of 1585 by the Swedish Count Per Brahe for his wife shows remarkable little change over a span of seven centuries (Jochens, p. 129).
The Hearth: The Vikings used a special fireplace or hearth for cooking. The fire itself was called the máleldr or "meal-fire". The máleldr was smaller than the long fires which heated the house, and a fire was built there near suppertime, and sometimes was located in a different room than the long fires (Jochens, p. 130).
Some liquids such as milk were heated by being placed in a suspended animal hide, clay pot, or soapstone pot and then dropping heated stones into the liquid. Cooking stones for this type of use are mentioned in Eyrbyggja saga chapters 52 and 54, in the haunting scenes where the ghosts drive the inhabitants of the farm at Frö›á away from the fire (Jochens, p. 130):
A› Fró›á var eldaskáli mikill og lokrekkja innar af eldaskálanum sem fiá var si›ur. Utar af eldaskálanum voru klefar tveir, sinn á hönd hvorri. Var hla›i› skrei› í annan en mjölvi í annan. flar voru gervir máleldar hvert kveld í eldaskála sem si›ur var til. Sátu menn löngum vi› eldana á›ur menn gengu til matar. ... Heimamenn stukku úr eldhúsinu sem von var a› og höf›u hvorki á fiví kveldi ljós né steina og enga fiá hluti a› fieir hef›u neina veru af eldinum.
[At Frodis-water was there a great fire-hall, and lock-beds in therefrom, as the wont then was. Out from the hall there were two butteries, one on either hand, with stockfish stored in one, and meal in the other. There were meal-fires made every evening in the fire-hall, as the wont was, and men mostly sat thereby or ever they went to meat. ... [And when the ghosts came in...] Then the home-men fled away from the fire-hall, as might be looked for, and had neither light nor warm stones nor any matter wherewith they had any avail of the fire.]
Preparation of Meats: Viking Age men were responsible for the slaughtering and hunting of animals for meat, however women were responsible for preparation and preservation or cooking of the meat so obtained. The sagas mention that sometimes women had to stay up all night to finish cutting up meat after slaughtering (Jochens, p. 129).
Especially during slaughtering time, a special cooking house or so›hús was used, where the meat was cooked in a pot called a so›ketill (Jochens, p. 130).
Meat was usually boiled, often being cooked in clay or soapstone pots. Although there are scenes of spit-roasting birds in the Bayeaux Tapestry, among the Norse boiling seems to have been the preferred method of cooking meat. This was so much so that in Sturlunga saga, when brigands roasted a cow on a spit over a fire, the saga author felt it necessary to explain that this was because there was no kettle available (Jochens, p. 131).
Boiling meat required large cauldrons, and meat forks or skewers to spear and lift the boiled meat from the vat.
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/food.htm
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January 12, 2005
An informed guess at a Norse Dish
Posted at 00:00 EST
Norse Cream Soup
Since there are no surviving recipes before the thirteenth century, I can’t possibly have an authentic one, but here is a recipe that I have tried out and enjoyed. It is completely period as to the ingredients and methods. We know that the Norse ate a large amount of dairy when they could get it-the high fat content was suitable for their high calorie needs. Milk was generally not consumed, but made into other dairy products that kept longer like skyr, butter and cheese. A typical meal would have been a kind of stew or heavy soup made of available protein, vegetables and grain that was also eaten in the morning when it was even thicker. (I’m making the exception-there are always excess milk production days on the farm!)
So- start out with two lbs. of meat. Lamb, mutton, poultry, beef, horse and pork were all eaten by the Norse, depending on where you lived in the range from Britain to Iceland. Wild game is of course, also allowed. Fish is also fine if you want a chowdery soup. Salted meat is particularly period but I think it makes a soup a little too salty for my taste. Whatever. Get some meat. Chop it up into little pieces. How little? I dunno, how little do you want them?
Chop up two big onions and some garlic, Throw in a few pieces of chopped-up bacon-okay, maybe 4-because your cut of meat probably isn’t very fatty. (And good for you, but this is a period recipe, okay? Live a little.) Turn up the heat and shwizzle the onion around until it starts to get nice and transparent.
Throw in the meat and swizzle it around too.
When all the meat looks cooked, at least on the outside, throw in some veggies: mushrooms, leeks, onions, edible seaweeds, peas, beans, turnips are all period. Toss in enough water to cover it all and cook until veggies are cooked through.
Add whole milk (yes, whole! If it’s 2% add some cream!) until it is a little runnier than you normally like your soup and give it a handful of dried barley. How much is a handful, you say? How much do you like barley? Well, 1/4 c. will be fine-add more if you want thicker soup. Blop in a 1/2 c. yoghurt. I would tell you to use skyr but getting that outside of Norwegian countries can be tricky.
Cook it down until it’s the right consistency for you.
Add some herbs-Dill is particularly nice with this soup and a common Scandanavian herb, the Icelandic use moss as a flavouring, the period herb angelica tastes like celery(actually if you use Angelica, use it as a vegetable not an herb, like the Norse did). Pepper is period if you’re a seriously rich Norseman. Anything growing wild in Northern Europe that added a nice flavour would be added- again, it would vary within the area of Norse occupation.
Use unleavened rye bread to eat it with, like Wasa (or make it yourself! Try looking up rye flatbread: Norway, Iceland and Finland all have recipes.)
Now eat it....(:-D
Nummy!
January 11, 2005
Thorrablot dishes
Posted at 21:00 EST
Thorrablot: Iceland’s food challenge
Submitted by Einar Thordarson
According to the old calendar, Thorri is the fourth winter month, beginning of Friday in 12th week of winter (January 19 - 25).
An age-old custom greets the first day of Thorri with proper respect. Jón Árnason´s Icelandic Folk and Fairy Tales described it as ''the duty of the farmer to welcome 'Thorri' or 'usher it in' by rising earlier than anyone else on the farm the first morning. He was to get up and go out clad only in shirt, barefoot and partly barelegged, for he was to wear only one leg of his underpants, while the other was to be dragged behind. Thus attired, he was to "...hop on one foot all around the farmhouse, still dragging his underpants on the other, and bid Thorri welcome to his home." In some places in northern Iceland, the first day of Thorri is still called ''husband's day''. On that day, the lady of the house is supposed to treat her husband exceptionally well; such festivities are still called Thorrablot (that is, sacrifice to Thorri).
Actually, Thorramatur is just traditional Icelandic dishes, prepared the way people were forced to do it in earlier times, when necessity and primitive methods of preservation demanded total use of their livestock. Thus, what once was a manifestation of dire need has now become a phenomenon of fashion.
The principal kind of Thorramatur are smoked lamb or mutton; whale, that is the fibrous, fatty tissue from the underside of the animal, pickled in sour whey; shark, ripened by burila for a certain length of time to make it decompose the correct way and rid it of ammonia; svi›, which are singed sheep heads (and legs) sawed in two, cooked and eaten fresh or soured; jellied svi›; hrútspungar, that is soured rams testicles; lundabaggar, which are sausages made from the neck tissue (previously the sirloin of the sheep), wrapped in the colon and some suet, and finally sewn up in the diaphragm. In addition, there are soured briskets, seal flippers, hard fish (that is, dried and beaten), flat bread (unleavened), and butter. With all this, though most particularly with the shark, the tradition is to drink a special brand of Icelandic liquor that popularly goes by the name of Black Death.
Americans who visit the restaurants in Reykjavík and order fish or lamb dishes may think they are ordering traditional Icelandic food. This is not necessarily true. The traditional way of preparing food in Iceland is boiling in water. What the Americans are ordering is Icelandic food, but prepared in a way that pleases foreigners and Icelanders who are going out to eat what they would ordinarily not serve at the dinner table at home.
Salted meat: The traditional way of preserving meat in Iceland is to put it in a salt solution in a barrel. When the meat is to be consumed, it is taken out and boiled in water along with split peas and turnips. The water turns into an excellent soup, and the salted meat is then usually served in the bowl of soup and eaten with boiled potatoes.
Fresh meat: This is traditionally boiled in water with carrots, rice, and cabbage. The water turns into an excellent soup, and again the boiled meat is often served in a bowl of the soup with boiled potatoes put either in the soup or on a separate plate.
Kidneys and hearts: The sheep hearts and kidneys are fried in a pan and served in dark gravy with mashed potatoes.
Fresh fish: This is generally served boiled with boiled potatoes. Melted butter is usually poured over the fish after it has been scaled and the bones taken out. Icelandic children like to mash the fish and the potatoes with a fork and pour melted butter and ketchup over the whole thing.
Salted fish: The traditional way of preserving fish in Iceland is to put it in rock salt. The salted fish is served boiled with boiled potatoes and melted animal fat.
Burned sheep heads: The sheep heads are first burned with a flame torch to burn the wool off. They are then sawed in half, washed and boiled in water. The sheep heads are served with mashed potatoes and mashed turnips. The meat from the sheep heads is often used to make headcheese.
Blood and liver sausages: The liver is ground two or three times in an ordinary meat grinder. Then it is mixed with animal fat and rye meal. The mixture is stuffed into sheep stomachs and then boiled. The blood and the liver sausages are both served with mashed potatoes and sometimes mashed turnips as well. The blood sausages can also be boiled, cooled, and then sliced and fried in a pan with sugar on top.
Dried fish: One way of preserving fish is to hang it up and let it dry out. Sometimes it is taken off the racks when it is half dried and then boiled in water, but usually it is dried until it is crisp and then eaten raw with butter on top.
These traditional foods are rarely found menus in Icelandic restaurants. But thanks to Thorrablot, members of the Keflavík community need never hunger for a taste of old Iceland.
Yeech
Posted at 20:00 EST
Intrepid Dishes: Mouldy Shark Meat
Where: Traditional of Arctic Circle countries, popular as a trendy dish in Iceland
Serving Suggestion: Decompose for 6 months, then swallow raw with a strong swig of spirits
Taste: Cheesy, strong flavoured and a little 'off'
Other dishes: Pickled lambs heads and ram testicle cakes
Dish of the day: decomposed shark
Iceland is rapidly becoming a popular destination for travellers, and with this growing tourist trade comes an inevitable slate of pricey new restaurants serving international cuisine. So rest assured you're not about to be stranded in Iceland with only a putrefying shark for company, but let's face it, no-one goes to an exotic destination without even trying the local speciality..do they?
Steel yourself. Remember that this close to the Arctic Circle food options were limited for centuries, and some quite unusual dishes have evolved out of necessity. Mouldy shark is definitely one of the most challenging meals an intrepid traveller will ever have to face.
Origins and History
Until the latter half of the 20th century, Icelanders had no means of preserving food except salting, smoking it, soaking it in mysa (whey) or just going with nature and allowing it to rot for so long that the decomposition process comes to an end. Not surprisingly, traditional Icelandic food is rather strong-tasting!
Thorrablot is the Icelandic midwinter festival which takes place towards the end of January, the harshest of the winter months. It's a Thorrablot traditional to prepare foods which would have been eaten a hundred years ago, using only the original methods of preservation from the days when people had to do without refrigerators. It certainly makes for an interesting feast, if only so you can regale your friends with tales of how you survived a close encounter with a shark and came off better than the other guy.
Serving Suggestion
Shark meat is buried for between two and six months, until it has reached just the right stage of decomposition. It's known as hakarl, and is a real treat for steely stomached Icelanders.
If you're new to hakarl, hold your nose: this will really sort the men from the boys. Some say it tastes cheesy, some say they just swallowed it in one gulp...but most have lived to tell the tale. Just make sure you have a shot of brennivin to hand, a strong Icelandic spirit made from potatoes, to wash it down. And don't eat it before an important date, harkal and halitosis go hand in hand.
The shark is not the only animal to be subjected to Iceland's strange ideas about delicacies. Here are some other dishes you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else on earth:
Svió - lambs head charred in the fire to singe off hair, then boiled and served either fresh or pickled. Can also be mashed up and soured in mysa to make a kind of pate.
Hrútspungur - ram's testicles pickled in mysa and moulded into little cakes
Slátur - black pudding stitched inside a lamb's stomach, rather like Scottish haggis.
When we visit other countries, one aspect of our trip is familiarizing ourselves with the land and the people, including the cuisine. We ask ourselves, "What kinds of food are characteristic for the country?" Today, national dishes are trendy, undoubtedly a reaction to globalization and fast foods. If you are planning a trip to Iceland, then don’t miss the opportunity to taste one of the most notable of Icelandic dishes – skyr.
Skyr is a non fat milk product made that has been part of the Icelandic diet since the 11th century. It was the food of Vikings, and has since been one of the most popular foods in Iceland. It is rich in protein and vitamins, while at the same time low in calories, and is served in a variety of ways. It is fed to infants, is a popular breakfast and school lunch and is great as fast food during the day. Skyr is also taken along when traveling as it can be made into a wonderful dessert.
How to make Skyr (if you already have some)
Skyr is produced from skimmed milk or skim milk powder, spray dried. The skimmed milk is heated to 194°-203°F and kept at that temperature for 30-40 minutes, before it is cooled to 109°-104°F (85-95°C). Now take some fresh skyr and mix it with a fivefold amount of cool skimmed milk or clean, cold water. When the mixture is smooth add cheese rennet and then pour the mixture into the 104°F-hot skimmed milk and stir thoroughly.
The skimmed milk must be kept at a temperature of 109°-104°F (38-45°C) for four or five hours; the curd then becomes smooth on the surface – fine and firm – with a bit of yellow whey. The curd must then be cooled quickly to prevent it from becoming to acid. The curds must remain overnight. The following morning the curds are put on a filter for 24 hours to strain the whey from the curds. The skyr solids that remain should be approximately 18-20% of the total. The grade of acidity should be pH 3.8-4.
For 22 pounds of skimmed milk use 3.5 ounces of fresh, strained skyr and two drops of rennet. This should make about 4.4 pounds of skyr. Another method of separating the whey from the curd is to use separators built for quark production.
if you live far from where you can get skyr, this is how you make it:
Icelandic Skyr
by Jen Olomon
After a trip to Iceland in 2003, my husband learned to love the taste of skyr, and after we got home from vacation I came up with a close approximation of it. If you've never had it, it's similar to yogurt, maybe a little thicker, and can be flavored to your liking (my husband likes to mix in a little cherry pie filling, but I prefer to add fresh sliced peaches and a light sprinkling of Splenda). This recipe is for the base only, feel free to alter as needed. The authentic skyr is hard to duplicate in a home setting as I understand it, due to the need for specialized bacteria. I think the "real deal" can be found online in places that sell cheesemaking supplies. But, I'm cheap, and this is close and the ingredients are in easy supply. Enjoy — Aug 25, 2004
1. Pour the powdered milk into a large clean bowl.
2. Allow the boiled water to cool until just warm.
3. It must not be too hot or it will kill the living culture in the buttermilk!
4. Pour the water over the milk powder, allowing room for the buttermilk.
5. Stir thoroughly so that it is completely dissolved.
6. Add the buttermilk, stir well and cover.
7. Place in the oven, undisturbed.
8. Do not turn on the oven, simply turn on the oven light.
9. This will be enough heat to allow the culture to work.
10. Allow this to work overnight.
11. In the morning check your skyr for firmness and flavor.
12. If it is not set and separated or sour enough, leave it to work longer.
13. Every oven is different.
14. Once you are happy with the degree of sourness, the skyr has to be drained.
15. Gently cut the curd into squares of sections.
16. Do not break it up too much.
17. Line a colander with cheesecloth or a clean new J-cloth (I personally just use a bit of leftover muslin from my sewing stash).
18. Set this in the sink or a larger container to catch the whey.
19. Scoop the curds and whey gently into the lined colander.
20. It will drain better if it is not stirred or broken up too much.
21. It will take about one day to drain to the proper consistency.
22. Then it can be beaten with a mixer until smooth.
23. Store covered in the refrigerator.
24. Stir in sugar and cream, or your favorite flavorings, as desired when ready to serve.
