A Feast for a Viking

The image of Vikings in contemporary culture bears little resemblance to the actual Nordic people who, from the 8^th to 11^th centuries, exploded onto the global scene.  While it’s easy to imagine a horned warrior subsisting on roasted meat and beer, the reality of both the Vikings and their food is a good deal more complex. 

Despite the harsh climate of Northern Europe, the Viking diet was fairly robust.  It was characterized by a cycle of extreme abundance in the warm months and extreme scarcity in the cold.  The Viking imperative, therefore, was to accumulate and preserve as much food as possible in preparation for winter.  Smoking, drying, fermenting, were but a few of the ways perishable food was preserved.  The Icelandic dish, hákarl, prepared by allowing a shark to ferment underground for weeks is a relic of this style of eating.  

Even meat was seasonal as farmers determined how much of their flock could reasonably be kept alive over the winter.  Prior to the arrival of Christianity, horse was consumed with some regularity, but was banned by the church because of associations with paganism.  Cows were kept in huge numbers, but valued more as a source of dairy than of meat. 

The Vikings ate two major meals a day, dagmál and natmál which coincided with the beginning and end of the working day.  Food was typically eaten out of a shallow, wooden bowl using a knife and spoon.  Feasts were a regular occurrence among the wealthier classes, and served to reaffirm bonds of loyalty between a jarl and his thanes.

Un-hopped ale was consumed daily in place of water.  Mead, a drink of fermented honey, and imported foreign wines were typically reserved for celebrations.  Viking alcohol consumption is legendary, and feasts would have been no exception.  Because feasts were often held as part of diplomatic negotiations, Viking sagas often caution against drinking to excess.  It was not uncommon for entire treaties to be renegotiated after the involved parties sobered up.

 

The raw materials are as follows: Buttermilk, walnut oil, salted herring, pork, lamb, rye flour, oats, turnips, parsnips, carrots, walnuts, dill, cumin, eggs, lingonberries, dried plumbs, skyr, leeks, and cabbage.

We will begin by preparing bread.  Fluffy, white bread was only eaten by the wealthiest members of Viking society.  The daily bread of the average Viking was a dense cake made of a mixture of available grains.  In this case we are mixing barley flour, oats, cumin, and a dash of salt.

To this mixture we add buttermilk to encourage fermentation.  Viking societies, particularly in Iceland, relied heavily on dairy products as a daily source of nutrition.  Souring milk in buttermilk greatly improved its shelf life, which was critical for surviving long winters.  In addition to buttermilk, Vikings also preserved milk in the form of cheese, whey, butter, and skyr.  Skyr is a yogurt product which is referenced several times in the Viking sagas as a staple.  In The Saga of Grettir the Strong, a bag of skyr is thrown at Grettir by a rival as an insult.

We knead the dough until it is smooth and set aside for an hour or so.  The bacterial cultures in the buttermilk will cause the dough to rise.  Note that this will still be a very dense cake, rather then an airy loaf of bread.

Once ready we dust a flat surface with some flour.  Here, we are again using barley flour.  For most of human history, the cold, rocky soil of Northern Europe was extremely difficult to cultivate.  The introduction of iron tools allowed farmers to plough through the roots and weeds which covered the soil.  The mouldboard plough allowed Vikings to, for the first time, effectively plant grains on a large scale in Scandinavia.  The short growing season and cold temperatures of the north favored crops such as barley, rye, and oats in place of the wheat grown to the south.  This innovation caused a population explosion which is thought to have been a major factor in the Viking push outward to ease overcrowding.  

Next, we slowly form the dough into a round or oval shaped cake.

And dust the entire cake with flour.

Using a knife to score the top of the cake will allow it to be easily broken apart by hand once it is baked.  It isn't necessary to cut deep.

Along with lard, a number of vegetable oils we available to the Vikings.  Walnut oil was one of the more widely consumed cooking fats.  Our skillet has been greased with walnut oil to prevent our barley cake from sticking.

We place the cake in the center of the skillet an allow it to cook through.  Ovens were still a rarity during this time period in a typical household.  Rather, bread would be prepared on a griddle above, or next to a fire.

Once cooked though, the bread will easily break apart along the lines we cut earlier.  This is useful because the majority of dining was done by hand.

Next we will begin to prepare our lamb stew.  Stews were the mainstay of Viking cuisine, eaten daily across all levels of society.  The cooking kettle in which the stew, or skause, would simmer constantly was at the heart of every household.  Rather than preparing stews for specific meals, the skause was always kept at a low simmer and added to daily as ingredients became available.  The result was the concentration of flavors over time as long forgotten vegetables slowly liquefied over the course of days.  At night, fat would rise to the surface and form a protective crust which would melt away as heat was applied in the morning.  The variety of ingredients included in this stew is an attempt to recreate the ad hoc nature of the Viking cooking style.

Specifically, we are dicing carrots, parsnips, turnips, cabbage, and leeks.  We are using some heirloom purple carrots rather than the more familiar orange ones.  The orange carrot was specifically bred by the Dutch in the 17th century to celebrate the orange of their new flag.  The trend stuck and now most modern carrots are orange.

All of these vegetables are fairly easy to store, making them ideal for the short Viking growing season.  

We toss some bacon into a pot to draw out the cooking fat.  

Then roughly chop the lamb which will be the centerpiece of the skause.  Because of the difficulty of growing crops, especially in northern Scandanavia and Iceland, Vikings consumed more meat than was typical for most cultures of the time.  Their comparatively high protein diet may have contributed to their size, which was noted by contemporary chroniclers.

Add all of your ingredients and add water.  Allow the skause to slowly simmer, covered over a low flame for several hours.  Ideally the vegetables will begin to lose their texture as the flavors mingle together.

Shortly before serving, add some dill.  Because dill will lose its potency with prolonged cooking, allow it only enough time to soften before removing from heat.  

Next we will prepare an egg dish.  Eggs were a mainstay of the Viking diet, gathered both from domesticated chickens and wild fowl.  The nests of sea birds were regularly raided to supply eggs for the Viking table.  We will begin by hard boiling several eggs.

Here, we gently melt butter in a pan to prepare our sauce.

Mustard was widely available and consumed in Scandinavia.  Here we slowly fold in mustard powder and cumin, stirring constantly.

The mustard sauce is ready when completely smooth.

Once our eggs are boiled, they are ready to be peeled and chopped up.

Blend together the eggs, sauce, and a handfull of dill.

Pork was a mainstay of the Viking diet. Unlike cattle, which required a supply of feed over the winter, pigs can live off of the food scraps produced by a family and available forage, thus negating the need for the production and storage of feed.  While roasting was less common than stewing, roasted meat was a popular way to feed large groups at feasts.  

Here the pork is ready to be sliced into bite-sized pieces and covered in sauce.  Because of the available utensils, dishes had to be served in such as way as to be readily eaten by hand.

Our sauce will consist simply of lingonberries and butter.  The environment of Scandinavia provided the Vikings with an abundance of wildly available fruit to supplement their cultivated orchards.   

Once the butter has melted, we cover with water and allow the sauce to reduce over a very gentle heat.

Our final dish will be a simple preparation of fried herring.  It is estimated that up to 20% of a Viking's daily caloric intake came in the form of seafood.  While fresh fish was available on the coasts, inland settlements purchased salted, pickled, and dried fish in great quantities.  Fish allowed to hang in the cold, dry air was called stockfish, and was a staple for most households.  Here we have rinsed our salted herring, dipped it in egg, then dusted it with barley flour.

Drop your herring into extremely hot walnut oil.  The trade in stockfish was a critical aspect of the Icelandic economy, where stockfish was traded for grain from mainland Scandinavia.  

Once the fish turns golden, remove it from the oil and allow it to drain.

Our final menu:

Lamb Skause, barley bread, walnuts, dried plumbs, roasted pork with lingonberry sauce, fried herring, eggs in mustad, and skyr.  Wash it all down with a generous amount of ale or mead.