Icelandic cuisine
Encyclopedia
Important parts of Icelandic cuisine are lamb, dairy
, and fish, due to Iceland's proximity to the ocean. Popular foods in Iceland
include skyr
, hangikjöt
(smoked lamb), kleinur
, laufabrauð
and bollur. Þorramatur
is a traditional buffet
served at midwinter festivals called Þorrablót
and containing a selection of traditionally cured meat and fish products served with rúgbrauð
(dense dark and sweet rye bread
) and brennivín
(an Icelandic akvavit
). Much of the taste of this traditional country food is determined by the preservation
methods used; pickling
in fermented whey
or brine
, drying
and smoking
.
Modern Icelandic chef
s usually place an emphasis on the quality of the available ingredients rather than age-old cooking traditions and methods. Hence, there is a number of restaurant
s in Iceland that specialise in seafood
and at the annual Food and Fun chef's competition (since 2004) competitors create innovative dishes with fresh ingredients produced in Iceland. Points of pride are the quality of the lamb meat, seafood and (more recently) skyr. Other local ingredients that form part of the Icelandic chef's store include seabird
s and waterfowl
(including their eggs), salmon
and trout
, crowberry
, blueberry
, rhubarb
, Iceland moss
, wild mushroom
s, wild thyme
, lovage
, angelica
and dried seaweed
as well as a wide array of dairy
products.
Animal
products dominate Icelandic cuisine. Popular taste has developed, however, to become closer to the European norm, and consumption of vegetables has greatly increased in recent decades while consumption of fish has diminished. Fresh lamb meat remains very popular while traditional meat products, such as various types of sausage
s, have lost a lot of their appeal with younger generations.
n cuisine, as Icelandic culture
, from its settlement in the 9th century onwards, is a distinctly Nordic
culture with its traditional economy based on subsistence farming. Several events in the history of Iceland
were of special significance for its cuisine. With Christianisation in 1000 came the tradition of fasting
and a ban on horse meat
consumption, but the event which probably had the greatest impact on farming, and hence, food, was the onset of the Little Ice Age
in the 14th century. This severely limited the options of the farmers who were not able to grow barley
anymore and had to rely on imports for any kind of cereal
. The cooling of the climate also led to important changes in housing
and heating where the longhouse of the early settlers, with its spacious hall, was replaced by the Icelandic turf houses
with many smaller rooms, including a proper kitchen
, which persisted well into the 20th century.
Usually the Reformation
in 1550 marks the transition between the medieval period
and the early modern period
in Icelandic history. Until the agricultural reforms, brought on by the influence of the Enlightenment
, farming in Iceland remained very much the same from the 14th century to the late 18th century. A trade monopoly
instituted by the Danish king in 1602 had a certain impact on culinary traditions although the influence of the cuisine of Denmark
was most felt in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. In the early 20th century an economic boom based on fishing
caused a slow transition from traditional dairy and meat-based foods to fish and root vegetables, which was at the same time a transition from the dominance of preserved foods towards greater emphasis on fresh ingredients.
When Iceland was settled
by immigrants from Scandinavia
and Viking
colonies in the British isles
they brought with them the farming methods and food traditions of the Norse
world. Research indicates that the climate
was much milder in Iceland during the Middle Ages than it is now and sources tell of cultivation of barley
and oats
. Most of this would have been consumed as porridge
or gruel
or used for making beer
. Cattle
was the dominant farm animal, but farms also raised poultry
, pig
s, goat
s, horse
s and sheep
. The poultry, horse, sheep and goat stocks first brought to Iceland have since developed in isolation, unaffected by modern selective breeding
. Therefore they are sometimes called the "settlement breed" or "viking breed".
Fish was stored in salt
and before the Black death
Iceland exported stockfish
to the fish market in Bergen
. However, salt seems to have been less abundant in Iceland than in Norway
and saltmaking, which was mostly done by boiling sea water or burning seaweed
, gradually disappeared when overgrazing caused a shortage of firewood
in most parts of the country in the 14th century. Instead of curing with salt the practice of preserving meat
in fermented whey
became dominant in Iceland. This method was also known from Norway but acquired little significance there. Archeological digs in medieval farms have revealed large round holes in storage rooms where the barrel containing the acid was kept. Two medieval stories tell of men who save their lives in a burning house by staying submerged inside the acid barrel. Like the Norwegians, medieval Icelanders knew the use of fermentation
for preserving both fish and meat, a method that greatly alters the taste of the food, making it similar to very strong cheese. Fermentation is still used to cure shark
(see hákarl
), skate
and herring
. Fermented egg
s are a regional delicacy, rarely found nowadays. The practice of smoking
and drying
meat and fish was also practiced, although the drying of meat was seen as somewhat of a last resort, the preferred method being pickling in acid.
was made from goat and sheep milk as well as cow milk. Skyr
, a soft yoghurt
-like cheese eaten with spoons, was originally a tradition brought to Iceland from Norway but has only survived in Iceland. The whey
left over when making skyr was made to go sour and used for storing meat. It is likely that the predominance of skyr in Icelandic cuisine caused the disappearance of other cheesemaking traditions in the modern era, until industrial cheesemaking started in the first half of the 20th century. Cheesemaking made necessary the practice of seter-farming (seljabúskapur), living in mountain huts in the highlands in late spring where the kids/lambs were separated from their mothers while they were milked. Cheesemaking would sometimes take place directly in these huts.
s were also used, but mostly the cooking was done on the floor. The longhouses were gradually replaced by Icelandic turf houses
in the 14th century. These would have a kitchen
with a raised stone hearth for cooking called hlóðir. At the same time the cooling of the climate during the Little Ice Age
made it impossible to grow barley and sheep replaced the more expensive cattle as dominant livestock. Iceland became dependent on imports for all cereal
s. The shortage of firewood meant that peat
, dung and dried heather
became standard heating materials.
In medieval Iceland there were two meals during the day, the lunch or dagverður at noon and supper
or náttverður at the end of the day. Food was eaten from bowls. Wooden staved tankard
s with a hinged lid were used for drinking, but these would later develop into the bulging casks, called askar used for serving food. Elaborately carved drinking horn
s were used on special occasions by the upper class. Spoons were the most common eating utensil, made of horn
or bone
, and often decorated with carvings. Except for feasts, where tables would be laid, people ate their food from their lap, sitting on their beds which lined the outer wall of the longhouse. An important role of the farmer's wife was to correctly portion the food. In richer households this role was entrusted to a special butler
called bryti.
well into the 20th century, was the short production period (summer) compared to the long cold period. Apart from occasional game
, the food produced in the three months of summer had to suffice for nine months of winter. It has been estimated that using these methods of subsistence Iceland could support a population of around 60,000. During all these centuries farming methods changed very little and fishing remained confined to hook and line from rowboats constructed from driftwood
. As the boats were owned by the farmers, fishing was also limited to periods when the farmhands weren't needed for farm work. Fish was not just a food, but could also be readily exchanged for products brought by foreign merchant ships, especially cereals, such as rye
and oats
, transported to Iceland by Danish
merchants. Surplus fish
, tallow
and butter
would be used to pay the landowner his dues. Until the 19th century, the vast majority of Icelandic farmers were tenant farmer
s on land owned by the Icelandic landowner elite, the church or (especially after the confiscation of church lands during the Reformation
) the king of Denmark.
A lot of regional variation existed in subsistence farming according to whether people lived close to the ocean
or inland. Also, in the north of the country the main fishing period unfortunately coincided with the haymaking period in the autumn. This led to the underdevelopment of fishing compared to the south where the main fishing period was from February to July. Some authors have described Icelandic society as a highly conservative farming society where the demand for farmhands in the short summers led to fierce opposition among tenant farmers and landowners, to the formation of fishing villages. As fishing was considered risky compared to farming, the Alþingi would pass many resolutions restricting or forbidding the habitation of landless tenants on the coast.
between farms. Interior trade seems to have been frowned upon as a type of usury
even from the age of settlement
as testified in some of the Icelandic sagas. Trade with foreign merchant ships was lively, however, and vital for the economy, especially for cereals and honey
, alcohol
and (later) tobacco
. Fishing ships from the coastal areas of Europe
would stop for provisions in Icelandic harbors and trade what they had with the locals. This would include stale beer
, salted pork
, biscuit
s and chewing tobacco
sold for knitted wool mittens, blanket
s etc. Merchant ships would also arrive occasionally from Holland, Germany
, England
, Scotland
, Ireland
, France
and Spain
, to sell their products, mainly for stockfish
, prominently displayed in the royal seal of Iceland. In 1602 the Danish king, who was worried about the activities of English and German ships in what he saw as his own waters, instituted a trade monopoly
in Iceland, restricting commerce to Danish merchants who were, in turn, required to regularly send merchant ships to Iceland carrying trade goods the country needed. While illegal trade flourished in the 17th century, stricter measures were taken to enforce the monopoly in 1685. The monopoly remained in vigor until 1787. One of its results was the predominance of rye
grown in Denmark, and the introduction of brennivín
, an akvavit
produced from rye, at the cost of other cereals and beer.
Different types of bread
were considered a luxury among common people, although they were not uncommon. The corn bought from the merchant would be ground using a quern-stone
(called kvarnarsteinn in Icelandic) and supplemented with dried dulse
(seaweed) and lichen
s. Sometimes it was boiled in milk
and served as a thin porridge
. The porridge could be mixed with skyr to form skyrhræringur. The most common type of bread was a pot bread called rúgbrauð
, a dark and dense rye bread
, reminiscent of the German pumpernickel
and the Danish rugbrød
, only moister. This could also be baked by burying the dough in special wooden casks in the ground close to a hot spring
and picking it up the next day. Bread baked in this manner has a slightly sulphuric taste. Dried fish with butter was served with all meals of the day, serving the same purpose as the "daily bread" in Europe.
s were rare, as these required lots of firewood for heating, so baking, roasting and boiling were all done in cast iron
pot
s, usually imported. The two meals of the medieval period were replaced by three meals in the early modern period; the breakfast
(morgunskattur) at around ten o'clock, lunch (nónmatur) at around three or four in the afternoon, and supper
(kvöldskattur) at the end of the day. In the Icelandic turf houses
people would eat sitting on their beds, with the food served in askar, low and bulging wooden staved cask
s with a hinged lid
and two handles, often decorated, with the spoon food served in the cask and dry food placed on the open lid. Each household member would have his personal askur to eat from and was responsible for keeping it clean.
Móðuharðindin
, arguably the greatest natural disaster
to have hit Iceland after its settlement, took place in 1783. Ten years earlier, a ban on Danish merchants residing in Iceland had been lifted and five years later the trade monopoly was ended. This meant that some of the Danish merchants became residents and some Icelanders became merchants themselves. The Napoleonic Wars
(1803–1815) led to a shortage of provisions as merchant ships stopped arriving and Icelanders had to rely on themselves leading to the increased popularity of locally produced garden vegetables. 19th century nationalism and schools for women were influential in shaping modern Icelandic cuisine and formalising traditional methods.
s to be published in Icelandic
were collections of Danish
recipes published in the 18th century and their purpose was to introduce the cuisine of the wealthier classes in Denmark-Norway to their peers in Iceland. The recipes would sometimes have a "commoner version" with less expensive ingredients for the farmhands and maids. The influence of the cuisine of Denmark
was, however, felt long before that due to the influence of the Danish merchants. When some of these became residents in Iceland after a ban on their settling was lifted in 1770, they often ran a large household characterised by a mixture of Danish and Icelandic customs. The growth of Reykjavík, which had become a village by the end of the 18th century, also created a melting pot
of Icelandic and Danish culinary traditions. Fishing villages formed in the 19th century, many of them situated by the trading harbours which previously had been nothing more than a natural harbour with perhaps a locked warehouse
nearby. The Danish influence was most pronounced in pastry
-making where there were few native traditions to begin with. Baker
s of Danish origin operated around the turn of the 20th century in both Reykjavík and Akureyri
and some Danish pastry-making traditions have survived longer in Iceland than in Denmark.
gardens were constructed as agricultural experiments in the late 17th century but growing vegetables did not become common until the Napoleonic Wars
when merchant ships stopped arriving. Usually the first to start growing vegetables were resident Danes who brought this tradition from Denmark. Popular garden vegetables at first included hardy varieties of cabbage
, turnip
, rutabaga
and potato
. These entered Icelandic cuisine as boiled accompaniments to meats and fish, sometimes mashed with butter.
schools, intended as secondary education
for women, were instituted around Iceland. Within these schools, during a time of nationalistic
fervor, many Icelandic culinary traditions were formalised and written down by the pupils, and published in large recipe compendia which started appearing in print a few years later. Later emphasis on food hygiene and the use of fresh ingredients was a novelty in a country where culinary traditions had until then revolved around preserving the food for a long time, but where a modern economy was now booming, based on the export of seafood
. Many rejected thus outright the traditional food and embraced the new bywords of "freshness" and "purity" associated with ingredients from the sea, especially when marketed abroad. A revival of old traditions came with regional associations of Icelanders who had moved to Reykjavík during the urbanisation boom of the late 1940s. These associations organised popular midwinter festivals where they started serving "Icelandic food", traditional country foods served in a buffet
that was later called Þorramatur
.
in 1930 the government of Iceland instituted state monopolies on various imports, including vegetables, and gave the regional farmers' cooperative
s, most of them founded around the turn of the century, a monopoly on dairy and meat production for the consumer market. This meant that smaller private producers were out of business. The large cooperatives were seen as a way to implement economies of scale in agricultural production and were able to invest in production facilities meeting modern standards of food hygiene. These cooperatives still dominate, almost unchallenged, agricultural production in Iceland. One of the things pioneered by them was the creation of a new cheesemaking tradition based on popular European varieties of gouda
, blue cheese
, camembert
etc. Cheesemaking (apart from skyr) had by then been practically extinct in Iceland since the 18th century. They have also driven product development, especially in dairy products, with e.g. whey-based sweet drinks and variations of traditional products such as "Skyr.is", a creamier, sweeter skyr, which has boosted the popularity of this age-old staple.
. This meant that fresh fish became a cheap commodity in Iceland and a staple in the cuisine of fishing villages around the country. Until around 1990 studies showed that Icelanders were consuming much more fish per capita than any other European nation. This has changed in recent years though, in part because of steeply rising fish prices.
, plaice
, halibut
, herring
and shrimp
.
) is putrescent shark
meat. It is part of the þorramatur
, the traditional seasonal Icelandic foods. It is known for its pungent taste and smell of ammonia
. As such, eating hákarl is associated with hardiness and strength. It is often accompanied by brennivín
, a local schnapps
.
Traditionally the main source of meat was the domestic sheep, the most common farm animal in Iceland. However, sheep were also used for their milk
and wool
and thus were worth more alive than dead. This meant that once a sheep was slaughtered (usually the young rams and infertile ewes) most or all of the carcass was used for making food, which was carefully preserved and cherished. Traditionally lambs are slaughtered in the autumn, when they are more than three months old and have reached a weight of almost 20 kg. Horse
s were not eaten after Christianisation except as a last resort, but this attitude started changing after the middle of the 18th century and horse meat, usually salted and served boiled or in bjúgu, a form of smoked sausage, has been common in Iceland from the 19th century onwards.
Icelandic beef
is usually of top quality with good marbling due to the cold climate. Icelandic cattle are grass-fed and raised without growth hormone
s and drug
s. However, the lack of tradition for eating beef (mutton being the dominant meat) means that lower quality meat is sometimes sold without distinction requiring careful choice from the buyer.
Small game in Iceland consists mostly of seabird
s (Puffin
, Cormorant
and Great Black-backed Gull
) and waterfowl
(Mallard
, Greylag goose
and Pink-footed Goose
). The meat of some seabirds contains fish oil
and is therefore placed in a bowl of milk overnight to extract the oil before cooking. One species of wildfowl, Ptarmigan, is also found in Iceland although dramatically declining stocks in later years have led to a ban on their hunting. Ptarmigan, served with a creamy sauce and jam, is a traditional Christmas main course in many Icelandic households.
Seal
hunting, especially the more common Harbor Seal
, was common everywhere farmers had access to seal breeding grounds, which were considered an important commodity. Whereas mutton was almost never eaten fresh, seal meat was usually eaten immediately, washed in seawater, or conserved for a short time in brine. Seal meat is not commonly eaten anymore and is rarely found in stores.
A potential source of meat, systematic whaling
was not possible in Iceland until the late 19th century due to the lack of ocean-going ships. Small whales were hunted close to the shore with the small rowboats used for fishing. Beached whales were also eaten and the Icelandic word for beached whale, hvalreki, is still used to mean a stroke of good luck. When Iceland started commercial whaling (mostly Minke Whale
s) in the early 20th century whale meat
became popular as low-priced red meat which can be prepared in much the same manner as the more expensive beef
. When Iceland withdrew from the International Whaling Commission
in 1992, commercial whaling stopped but some whale meat could still be found in specialised stores coming from small whales accidentally caught in nets or beached. In 2002 Iceland rejoined the IWC and commercial whaling recommenced in 2006. Whale meat is thus commonly available again, although the price has gone up due to the cost of whaling itself.
Reindeer
were introduced in Iceland in the late 18th century and live wild on the moorland
s in the eastern farthing. A small number is killed by hunters each autumn and their meat, with its characteristic taste, can be found in stores and restaurants most of the year. Reindeer meat is considered a special delicacy and is usually very expensive.
Importing raw meat to Iceland is strictly regulated and dependent on specific licenses issued to importers. This is due to the dangers of contamination as most of the stocks of domestic animals raised in Iceland have no resistance to some diseases that are common in neighboring countries because of their centuries-long isolation. The ban even applies to tourists bringing e.g. cured ham or sausage with them through customs. All items of this sort found by customs officers are confiscated and burned.
products are very important to Icelanders. In fact, the average Icelander eats about 100 gallons of dairy products in one year.
s. Vegetables such as rutabaga
, cabbage and turnip
s are usually started in greenhouses in the early spring and tomato
es and cucumber
s are entirely produced indoors. Iceland relies on imports for almost any type of sweet fruit
except sweet berries
. Damage to the climate due to human activity since the early 20th century has made it possible to grow barley
for human consumption in a few places, for the first time since the Middle Ages.
s and pastry
. The first professional bakers in Iceland were Danish and this is still reflected in the professional traditions of Icelandic bakers. Long-time local favorites include snúður, a type of cinnamon roll
, usually topped with glaze
or melted chocolate
, and skúffukaka, a single-layer chocolate cake
baked in a roasting pan, covered with chocolate glaze and sprinkled with ground coconut
.
A variety of layer cake
called randalín, randabrauð or simply lagkaka has been popular in Iceland since the 19th century. These come in many varieties that all have in common five layers of 1/2 in cake alternated with layers of fruit
preserve, jam or icing
. One version called vínarterta, popular in the late 19th century, with layers of prune
s, became a part of the culinary tradition of Icelandic immigrants in the U.S. and Canada.
Traditional breads, still popular in Iceland, include rúgbrauð
, a dense, dark and moist rye
bread, traditionally baked in pots or special boxes used for baking in holes dug near hot spring
s, and flatkaka
, a soft brown rye flatbread
. A common way of serving hangikjöt
is in thin slices on flatkaka. Other breads include skonsur which are soft breads, and Westfjord Wheatcakes (Vestfirskar hveitikökur).
Traditional pastries include kleina
, a small fried dough
bun where the dough is flattened and cut into small trapezoids with a special cutting wheel (kleinujárn), a slit cut in the middle and then one end pulled through the slit to form a "knot". This is then deep-fried in oil. Laufabrauð
(lit. "leafbread"), a very thin wafer, with patterns cut into it with a sharp knife and ridged cutting wheels and fried crisp in oil, is a traditional Christmas
food, sometimes served with hangikjöt.
In Iceland the Christmas dinner
is traditionally served on Christmas Eve
. Traditional main courses are hangikjöt
(smoked lamb), hamborgarhryggur (salted pork
rib
) and various types of game
, especially Ptarmigan stew, Puffin
(sometimes lightly smoked) and roast Greylag Goose
where these are available. These are usually accompanied by a béchamel or mushroom
sauce
, boiled potatoes and pea
s, pickled beetroot
or red cabbage
and jam. A traditional dessert
is rice pudding
with raisin
s, topped with ground cinnamon
and sugar
called jólagrautur ("Yule pudding").
On December 23 (mass of Saint Thorlak
) there is a tradition (originally from the Westfjords
) to serve fermented skate
with melted tallow
and boiled potatoes. Boiling the Christmas hangikjöt the day after serving the skate is said to dispel the strong smell which otherwise tends to linger around the house for days.
In the weeks before Christmas many households bake a variety of cookie
s to keep in store for friends and family throughout the holidays. These include piparkökur, a type of ginger biscuits
often decorated with colored glaze
. Laufabrauð
is also fried some days before Christmas and decorating it is for many an occasion for holding a family gathering.
popular since the late 19th century. The idea became very popular and for older generations the taste of the food will have brought back fond memories of growing up or spending summers in the countryside before World War II
and the urbanisation boom. In recent years, however, þorramatur has come to represent the supposed strangeness and peculiarity of traditional Icelandic food, and its very mention will send shivers down the spine of many modern Icelanders, overlooking the fact that many commonplace foods are also traditional though not generally thought of as part of the þorramatur category.
to a lunch or "afternoon tea" called kaffi in Icelandic, as filter coffee
is usually served rather than tea
. Traditional dishes include the kransakaka of Danish
origin and various types of brauðterta, similar to the Swedish
smörgåstårta
with filling of e.g. shrimp
, smoked salmon
or hangikjöt
and liberal amounts of mayonnaise
between layers of white bread
. Also popular for large family gatherings are various types of sponge cake
, topped with fresh or canned fruit
, whipped cream
, marzipan
and meringue
. This tradition is satirised in an often-quoted passage from Halldór Laxness
's novel, Under the Glacier, where the character Hnallþóra insists on serving multiple sorts of sumptuous cake for the bishop's emissary at all meals. Her name has become a byword for this type of cake.
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...
, and fish, due to Iceland's proximity to the ocean. Popular foods in Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
include skyr
Skyr
Skyr is an Icelandic cultured dairy product, similar to strained yogurt. Technically it is a very soft cheese. It is very popular in Icelandic cuisine. Skyr was originally discovered by accident. A group of farmers in Iceland in the early settlement days poured skim milk over barrels of meat to...
, hangikjöt
Hangikjöt
Hangikjöt is Icelandic smoked lamb or mutton, usually boiled and served either hot or cold in slices, traditionally with potatoes in béchamel sauce and green peas, or in thin slices on bread such as flatkaka or rúgbrauð....
(smoked lamb), kleinur
Kleina
Kleina is an Icelandic fried pastry that has been popular domestically for at least two centuries. It is made from flattened dough cut into small trapezoids with a special cutting wheel . American families may use a pizza cutter to form Kleina. A slit is cut in the middle and then one end pulled...
, laufabrauð
Laufabrauð
Laufabrauð is a traditional kind of Icelandic bread that is most often eaten in the Christmas season. Originating from northern Iceland but now eaten throughout the entire country, it consists of round, very thin flat cakes with a diameter of about 15 to 20 cm , decorated with leaf-like, geometric...
and bollur. Þorramatur
Þorramatur
Þorramatur is a selection of traditional Icelandic food, consisting mainly of meat and fish products cured in a traditional manner, cut into slices or bits and served with rúgbrauð , butter and brennivín...
is a traditional buffet
Buffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
served at midwinter festivals called Þorrablót
Þorrablót
Þorrablót , or Thurseblot, is an Icelandic midwinter festival that takes place in the month of Þorri, according to the Old Icelandic Calendar, which starts in late January and ends in late February. These festivals were started by Icelandic student associations in the latter half of the 19th century...
and containing a selection of traditionally cured meat and fish products served with rúgbrauð
Rúgbrauð
Rúgbrauð is an Icelandic straight rye bread, dark and dense, usually rather sweet, traditionally baked in a pot or steamed in special wooden casks by burying it in the ground near a hot spring. Modern rúgbrauð is usually made in a square baking pan. The bread is crustless, dark and very dense and...
(dense dark and sweet rye bread
Rye bread
Rye bread is a type of bread made with various percentages of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat flour...
) and brennivín
Brennivín
Brennivín is a brand of schnapps that is considered to be Iceland's signature liquor. It is made from fermented potato mash and is flavoured with caraway seeds. It is sometimes called svarti dauði ....
(an Icelandic akvavit
Akvavit
Akvavit or aquavit is a traditional flavoured spirit that is principally produced in Scandinavia, where it has been produced since the 15th century....
). Much of the taste of this traditional country food is determined by the preservation
Food preservation
Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or slow down spoilage and thus allow for longer storage....
methods used; pickling
Pickling
Pickling, also known as brining or corning is the process of preserving food by anaerobic fermentation in brine to produce lactic acid, or marinating and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar . The resulting food is called a pickle. This procedure gives the food a salty or sour taste...
in fermented whey
Whey
Whey or Milk Serum is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a by-product of the manufacture of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is manufactured during the making of rennet types of hard cheese like cheddar or Swiss cheese...
or brine
Brine
Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...
, drying
Drying
Drying is a mass transfer process consisting of the removal of water or another solvent by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid. This process is often used as a final production step before selling or packaging products. To be considered "dried", the final product must be solid, in the...
and smoking
Smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them...
.
Modern Icelandic chef
Chef
A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.-Etymology:The word "chef" is borrowed ...
s usually place an emphasis on the quality of the available ingredients rather than age-old cooking traditions and methods. Hence, there is a number of restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s in Iceland that specialise in seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
and at the annual Food and Fun chef's competition (since 2004) competitors create innovative dishes with fresh ingredients produced in Iceland. Points of pride are the quality of the lamb meat, seafood and (more recently) skyr. Other local ingredients that form part of the Icelandic chef's store include seabird
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...
s and waterfowl
Waterfowl
Waterfowl are certain wildfowl of the order Anseriformes, especially members of the family Anatidae, which includes ducks, geese, and swans....
(including their eggs), salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
and trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
, crowberry
Crowberry
Crowberry is a small genus of dwarf evergreen shrubs that bear edible fruit. They are commonly found in the northern hemisphere, from temperate to subarctic climates, and also in the Southern Andes of South America and on the South Atlantic islands of South Georgia, the Falklands and Tristan da...
, blueberry
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...
, rhubarb
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a group of plants that belong to the genus Rheum in the family Polygonaceae. They are herbaceous perennial plants growing from short, thick rhizomes. They have large leaves that are somewhat triangular-shaped with long fleshy petioles...
, Iceland moss
Iceland moss
Iceland moss is a lichen whose erect or ascending foliaceous habit gives it something of the appearance of a moss, whence probably the name...
, wild mushroom
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
s, wild thyme
Wild thyme
Thymus serpyllum, known by the common names of Breckland Thyme, Wild Thyme or Creeping Thyme is a species of thyme native to most of Europe and North Africa. It is a low, usually prostrate subshrub growing to 2 cm tall with creeping stems up to 10 cm long, with oval evergreen leaves...
, lovage
Lovage
Lovage is a tall perennial plant, the sole species in the genus Levisticum, in the family Apiaceae, subfamily Apioideae, tribe Apieae.-Distribution:...
, angelica
Garden Angelica
Angelica archangelica, commonly known as Garden Angelica, Holy Ghost, Wild Celery, and Norwegian angelica, is a biennial plant from the Apiaceae family Apiaceae family, formerly known as Umbelleferae...
and dried seaweed
Seaweed
Seaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...
as well as a wide array of dairy
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...
products.
Animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
products dominate Icelandic cuisine. Popular taste has developed, however, to become closer to the European norm, and consumption of vegetables has greatly increased in recent decades while consumption of fish has diminished. Fresh lamb meat remains very popular while traditional meat products, such as various types of sausage
Sausage
A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...
s, have lost a lot of their appeal with younger generations.
History
The roots of Icelandic cuisine are to be found in the traditions of ScandinaviaScandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n cuisine, as Icelandic culture
Culture of Iceland
The culture of Iceland is rich and varied as well as being known for its literary heritage which stems from authors from the 12th to 14th centuries. Other Icelandic traditional arts include weaving, silversmithing, and wood carving. The Reykjavík area has several professional theatres, a symphony...
, from its settlement in the 9th century onwards, is a distinctly Nordic
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
culture with its traditional economy based on subsistence farming. Several events in the history of Iceland
History of Iceland
-Early history:In geological terms, Iceland is a young island. It started to form about 20 million years ago from a series of volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge...
were of special significance for its cuisine. With Christianisation in 1000 came the tradition of fasting
Fasting
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...
and a ban on horse meat
Horse meat
Horse meat is the culinary name for meat cut from a horse. It is a major meat in only a few countries, notably in Central Asia, but it forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many others, from Europe to South America to Asia. The top eight countries consume about 4.7 million horses...
consumption, but the event which probably had the greatest impact on farming, and hence, food, was the onset of the Little Ice Age
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . While not a true ice age, the term was introduced into the scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939...
in the 14th century. This severely limited the options of the farmers who were not able to grow barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
anymore and had to rely on imports for any kind of cereal
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
. The cooling of the climate also led to important changes in housing
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
and heating where the longhouse of the early settlers, with its spacious hall, was replaced by the Icelandic turf houses
Icelandic turf houses
The Icelandic turf house was the product of a difficult climate, offering superior insulation compared to buildings solely made of wood or stone, and the relative difficulty in obtaining other construction materials in sufficient quantities....
with many smaller rooms, including a proper kitchen
Kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
, which persisted well into the 20th century.
Usually the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
in 1550 marks the transition between the medieval period
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and the early modern period
Early modern period
In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...
in Icelandic history. Until the agricultural reforms, brought on by the influence of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, farming in Iceland remained very much the same from the 14th century to the late 18th century. A trade monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
instituted by the Danish king in 1602 had a certain impact on culinary traditions although the influence of the cuisine of Denmark
Cuisine of Denmark
Danish cuisine is shaped by the practice of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for raising crops and the raising of domesticated animals, and the history of Denmark. Danish cuisine is known for its open sandwiches , meat balls and sweet pastry...
was most felt in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. In the early 20th century an economic boom based on fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
caused a slow transition from traditional dairy and meat-based foods to fish and root vegetables, which was at the same time a transition from the dominance of preserved foods towards greater emphasis on fresh ingredients.
Medieval Iceland
Settlement of Iceland
The settlement of Iceland is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the 9th century, when Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration may be traced to a shortage of arable land in Scandinavia, and civil strife brought about by the ambitions of...
by immigrants from Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
and Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
colonies in the British isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
they brought with them the farming methods and food traditions of the Norse
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
world. Research indicates that the climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
was much milder in Iceland during the Middle Ages than it is now and sources tell of cultivation of barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
and oats
OATS
OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
. Most of this would have been consumed as porridge
Porridge
Porridge is a dish made by boiling oats or other cereal meals in water, milk, or both. It is usually served hot in a bowl or dish...
or gruel
Gruel
Gruel is a food preparation consisting of some type of cereal—oat, wheat or rye flour, or rice—boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk than eaten and need not even be cooked...
or used for making beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
. Cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
was the dominant farm animal, but farms also raised poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
, pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
s, goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
s, horse
Icelandic horse
The Icelandic horse is a breed of horse developed in Iceland. Although the horses are small, at times pony-sized, most registries for the Icelandic refer to it as a horse. Icelandic horses are long-lived and hardy. In their native country they have few diseases; Icelandic law prevents horses from...
s and sheep
Icelandic sheep
The Icelandic sheep is a breed of domestic sheep. The Icelandic breed is one of the Northern European short-tailed sheep, which exhibit a fluke-shaped, naturally short tail. The Icelandic is a mid-sized breed, generally short legged and stocky, with face and legs free of wool...
. The poultry, horse, sheep and goat stocks first brought to Iceland have since developed in isolation, unaffected by modern selective breeding
Selective breeding
Selective breeding is the process of breeding plants and animals for particular genetic traits. Typically, strains that are selectively bred are domesticated, and the breeding is sometimes done by a professional breeder. Bred animals are known as breeds, while bred plants are known as varieties,...
. Therefore they are sometimes called the "settlement breed" or "viking breed".
Preservation methods
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
and before the Black death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
Iceland exported stockfish
Stockfish
Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks on the foreshore, called "hjell". The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years...
to the fish market in Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
. However, salt seems to have been less abundant in Iceland than in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and saltmaking, which was mostly done by boiling sea water or burning seaweed
Seaweed
Seaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...
, gradually disappeared when overgrazing caused a shortage of firewood
Firewood
Firewood is any wood-like material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form....
in most parts of the country in the 14th century. Instead of curing with salt the practice of preserving meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
in fermented whey
Whey
Whey or Milk Serum is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a by-product of the manufacture of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is manufactured during the making of rennet types of hard cheese like cheddar or Swiss cheese...
became dominant in Iceland. This method was also known from Norway but acquired little significance there. Archeological digs in medieval farms have revealed large round holes in storage rooms where the barrel containing the acid was kept. Two medieval stories tell of men who save their lives in a burning house by staying submerged inside the acid barrel. Like the Norwegians, medieval Icelanders knew the use of fermentation
Fermentation (food)
Fermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation in simple terms is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol...
for preserving both fish and meat, a method that greatly alters the taste of the food, making it similar to very strong cheese. Fermentation is still used to cure shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
(see hákarl
Hákarl
Hákarl or kæstur hákarl is a food from Iceland. It is a Greenland or basking shark which has been cured with a particular fermentation process and hung to dry for four to five months...
), skate
Skate
Skates are cartilaginous fish belonging to the family Rajidae in the superorder Batoidea of rays. There are more than 200 described species in 27 genera. There are two subfamilies, Rajinae and Arhynchobatinae ....
and herring
Herring
Herring is an oily fish of the genus Clupea, found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Three species of Clupea are recognized. The main taxa, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring may each be divided into subspecies...
. Fermented egg
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
s are a regional delicacy, rarely found nowadays. The practice of smoking
Smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them...
and drying
Drying
Drying is a mass transfer process consisting of the removal of water or another solvent by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid. This process is often used as a final production step before selling or packaging products. To be considered "dried", the final product must be solid, in the...
meat and fish was also practiced, although the drying of meat was seen as somewhat of a last resort, the preferred method being pickling in acid.
Cheese
CheeseCheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
was made from goat and sheep milk as well as cow milk. Skyr
Skyr
Skyr is an Icelandic cultured dairy product, similar to strained yogurt. Technically it is a very soft cheese. It is very popular in Icelandic cuisine. Skyr was originally discovered by accident. A group of farmers in Iceland in the early settlement days poured skim milk over barrels of meat to...
, a soft yoghurt
Yoghurt
Yoghurt, yogurt or yogourt is a dairy product produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yoghurt are known as "yoghurt cultures"...
-like cheese eaten with spoons, was originally a tradition brought to Iceland from Norway but has only survived in Iceland. The whey
Whey
Whey or Milk Serum is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a by-product of the manufacture of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is manufactured during the making of rennet types of hard cheese like cheddar or Swiss cheese...
left over when making skyr was made to go sour and used for storing meat. It is likely that the predominance of skyr in Icelandic cuisine caused the disappearance of other cheesemaking traditions in the modern era, until industrial cheesemaking started in the first half of the 20th century. Cheesemaking made necessary the practice of seter-farming (seljabúskapur), living in mountain huts in the highlands in late spring where the kids/lambs were separated from their mothers while they were milked. Cheesemaking would sometimes take place directly in these huts.
Cooking and meals
In the longhouses of the first settlers there was usually a long fire in the center to warm the house. Around it there were holes dug in the floor that were used as earth ovens for baking bread and cooking meat by placing it in the hole, with hot embers from the fire, and covering tightly for the time needed. Boiling was done in wooden staved churns by putting hot stones from the fire directly into the liquid (a practice that continued to the modern age). Low stone hearthHearth
In common historic and modern usage, a hearth is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven often used for cooking and/or heating. For centuries, the hearth was considered an integral part of a home, often its central or most important feature...
s were also used, but mostly the cooking was done on the floor. The longhouses were gradually replaced by Icelandic turf houses
Icelandic turf houses
The Icelandic turf house was the product of a difficult climate, offering superior insulation compared to buildings solely made of wood or stone, and the relative difficulty in obtaining other construction materials in sufficient quantities....
in the 14th century. These would have a kitchen
Kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
with a raised stone hearth for cooking called hlóðir. At the same time the cooling of the climate during the Little Ice Age
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . While not a true ice age, the term was introduced into the scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939...
made it impossible to grow barley and sheep replaced the more expensive cattle as dominant livestock. Iceland became dependent on imports for all cereal
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
s. The shortage of firewood meant that peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
, dung and dried heather
Calluna
Calluna vulgaris is the sole species in the genus Calluna in the family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing perennial shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade...
became standard heating materials.
In medieval Iceland there were two meals during the day, the lunch or dagverður at noon and supper
Supper
Supper is the name for the evening meal in some dialects of English - ordinarily the last meal of the day. Originally, in the Middle Ages, it referred to the lighter meal following dinner, where until the 18th century dinner was invariably eaten as the midday meal.The term is derived from the...
or náttverður at the end of the day. Food was eaten from bowls. Wooden staved tankard
Tankard
A tankard is a form of drinkware consisting of a large, roughly cylindrical, drinking cup with a single handle. Tankards are usually made of silver, pewter, or glass, but can be made of other materials, for example wood, ceramic or leather. A tankard may have a hinged lid, and tankards featuring...
s with a hinged lid were used for drinking, but these would later develop into the bulging casks, called askar used for serving food. Elaborately carved drinking horn
Drinking horn
A drinking horn is the horn of a bovid used as a drinking vessel. Drinking horns are known from Classical Antiquity especially in Thrace and the Balkans, and remained in use for ceremonial purposes throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period in some parts of Europe, notably in Germanic...
s were used on special occasions by the upper class. Spoons were the most common eating utensil, made of horn
Horn (anatomy)
A horn is a pointed projection of the skin on the head of various animals, consisting of a covering of horn surrounding a core of living bone. True horns are found mainly among the ruminant artiodactyls, in the families Antilocapridae and Bovidae...
or bone
Bone
Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...
, and often decorated with carvings. Except for feasts, where tables would be laid, people ate their food from their lap, sitting on their beds which lined the outer wall of the longhouse. An important role of the farmer's wife was to correctly portion the food. In richer households this role was entrusted to a special butler
Butler
A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...
called bryti.
Early modern period
The thing that defined Icelandic subsistence farming from the middle agesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
well into the 20th century, was the short production period (summer) compared to the long cold period. Apart from occasional game
Game (food)
Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...
, the food produced in the three months of summer had to suffice for nine months of winter. It has been estimated that using these methods of subsistence Iceland could support a population of around 60,000. During all these centuries farming methods changed very little and fishing remained confined to hook and line from rowboats constructed from driftwood
Driftwood
Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea or river by the action of winds, tides, waves or man. It is a form of marine debris or tidewrack....
. As the boats were owned by the farmers, fishing was also limited to periods when the farmhands weren't needed for farm work. Fish was not just a food, but could also be readily exchanged for products brought by foreign merchant ships, especially cereals, such as rye
Rye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
and oats
OATS
OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
, transported to Iceland by Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
merchants. Surplus fish
Fish (food)
Fish is a food consumed by many species, including humans. The word "fish" refers to both the animal and to the food prepared from it. Fish has been an important source of protein for humans throughout recorded history.-Terminology:...
, tallow
Tallow
Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. It is solid at room temperature. Unlike suet, tallow can be stored for extended periods without the need for refrigeration to prevent decomposition, provided it is kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation.In industry,...
and butter
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...
would be used to pay the landowner his dues. Until the 19th century, the vast majority of Icelandic farmers were tenant farmer
Tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying...
s on land owned by the Icelandic landowner elite, the church or (especially after the confiscation of church lands during the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
) the king of Denmark.
A lot of regional variation existed in subsistence farming according to whether people lived close to the ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
or inland. Also, in the north of the country the main fishing period unfortunately coincided with the haymaking period in the autumn. This led to the underdevelopment of fishing compared to the south where the main fishing period was from February to July. Some authors have described Icelandic society as a highly conservative farming society where the demand for farmhands in the short summers led to fierce opposition among tenant farmers and landowners, to the formation of fishing villages. As fishing was considered risky compared to farming, the Alþingi would pass many resolutions restricting or forbidding the habitation of landless tenants on the coast.
Foreign trade
Another result of the dominance of subsistence farming in Iceland was the lack of specialisation and commerceCommerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
between farms. Interior trade seems to have been frowned upon as a type of usury
Usury
Usury Originally, when the charging of interest was still banned by Christian churches, usury simply meant the charging of interest at any rate . In countries where the charging of interest became acceptable, the term came to be used for interest above the rate allowed by law...
even from the age of settlement
Settlement of Iceland
The settlement of Iceland is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the 9th century, when Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration may be traced to a shortage of arable land in Scandinavia, and civil strife brought about by the ambitions of...
as testified in some of the Icelandic sagas. Trade with foreign merchant ships was lively, however, and vital for the economy, especially for cereals and honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
, alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
and (later) tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
. Fishing ships from the coastal areas of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
would stop for provisions in Icelandic harbors and trade what they had with the locals. This would include stale beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
, salted pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
, biscuit
Biscuit
A biscuit is a baked, edible, and commonly flour-based product. The term is used to apply to two distinctly different products in North America and the Commonwealth Nations....
s and chewing tobacco
Chewing tobacco
Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco (also known colloquially as hoobastank, backy, tobac, doogooos,Hogleg, chewpoos, chits, chewsky, chawsky, dip, flab, chowers, guy, or a wad, as well as referred to as dipsky, snuff, a pinch, a yopper, a Packing a bomb, a tobbackey or packing a...
sold for knitted wool mittens, blanket
Blanket
A blanket is a type of bedding, generally speaking, a large piece of cloth, intended to keep the user warm, especially while sleeping. Blankets are distinguished from sheets by their thickness and purpose; the thickest sheet is still thinner than the lightest blanket. Blankets are generally used...
s etc. Merchant ships would also arrive occasionally from Holland, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, to sell their products, mainly for stockfish
Stockfish
Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks on the foreshore, called "hjell". The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years...
, prominently displayed in the royal seal of Iceland. In 1602 the Danish king, who was worried about the activities of English and German ships in what he saw as his own waters, instituted a trade monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
in Iceland, restricting commerce to Danish merchants who were, in turn, required to regularly send merchant ships to Iceland carrying trade goods the country needed. While illegal trade flourished in the 17th century, stricter measures were taken to enforce the monopoly in 1685. The monopoly remained in vigor until 1787. One of its results was the predominance of rye
Rye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
grown in Denmark, and the introduction of brennivín
Brennivín
Brennivín is a brand of schnapps that is considered to be Iceland's signature liquor. It is made from fermented potato mash and is flavoured with caraway seeds. It is sometimes called svarti dauði ....
, an akvavit
Akvavit
Akvavit or aquavit is a traditional flavoured spirit that is principally produced in Scandinavia, where it has been produced since the 15th century....
produced from rye, at the cost of other cereals and beer.
Cereals
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
were considered a luxury among common people, although they were not uncommon. The corn bought from the merchant would be ground using a quern-stone
Quern-stone
Quern-stones are stone tools for hand grinding a wide variety of materials. They were used in pairs. The lower, stationary, stone is called a quern, whilst the upper, mobile, stone is called a handstone...
(called kvarnarsteinn in Icelandic) and supplemented with dried dulse
Dulse
Palmaria palmata Kuntze, also called dulse, dillisk, dilsk, red dulse, sea lettuce flakes or creathnach, is a red alga previously referred to as Rhodymenia palmata Greville. It grows on the northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a well-known snack food...
(seaweed) and lichen
Lichen
Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...
s. Sometimes it was boiled in milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
and served as a thin porridge
Porridge
Porridge is a dish made by boiling oats or other cereal meals in water, milk, or both. It is usually served hot in a bowl or dish...
. The porridge could be mixed with skyr to form skyrhræringur. The most common type of bread was a pot bread called rúgbrauð
Rúgbrauð
Rúgbrauð is an Icelandic straight rye bread, dark and dense, usually rather sweet, traditionally baked in a pot or steamed in special wooden casks by burying it in the ground near a hot spring. Modern rúgbrauð is usually made in a square baking pan. The bread is crustless, dark and very dense and...
, a dark and dense rye bread
Rye bread
Rye bread is a type of bread made with various percentages of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat flour...
, reminiscent of the German pumpernickel
Pumpernickel
Pumpernickel is a type of very heavy, slightly sweet rye bread traditionally made with coarsely ground rye. It is often made with a combination of rye flour and whole rye berries. It has been long associated with the Westphalia region of Germany. The first written mention of the black bread of...
and the Danish rugbrød
Rugbrød
Rugbrød is a very commonly used bread in Denmark. The common rugbrød usually resembles a long brown rectangle, no more than 12 cm high, and 30–35 cm wide, although shapes and sizes may vary, as well as the ingredients...
, only moister. This could also be baked by burying the dough in special wooden casks in the ground close to a hot spring
Hot spring
A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth.-Definitions:...
and picking it up the next day. Bread baked in this manner has a slightly sulphuric taste. Dried fish with butter was served with all meals of the day, serving the same purpose as the "daily bread" in Europe.
Cooking and meals
The preparation of food took place in the kitchen where cooking was done on raised stone hlóðir with hooks suspended from above for holding the pots at the desired height above the fire. OvenOven
An oven is a thermally insulated chamber used for the heating, baking or drying of a substance. It is most commonly used for cooking. Kilns, and furnaces are special-purpose ovens...
s were rare, as these required lots of firewood for heating, so baking, roasting and boiling were all done in cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
pot
Pot
Pot commonly refers to pottery, the ceramic ware made by pottersPot may also refer to:- Containers :* Plant pot or flower pot, a container in which plants are cultivated* Cooking pot, a stove-top cooking utensil* Chamber pot, a bedside urinal...
s, usually imported. The two meals of the medieval period were replaced by three meals in the early modern period; the breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal taken after rising from a night's sleep, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day's work...
(morgunskattur) at around ten o'clock, lunch (nónmatur) at around three or four in the afternoon, and supper
Supper
Supper is the name for the evening meal in some dialects of English - ordinarily the last meal of the day. Originally, in the Middle Ages, it referred to the lighter meal following dinner, where until the 18th century dinner was invariably eaten as the midday meal.The term is derived from the...
(kvöldskattur) at the end of the day. In the Icelandic turf houses
Icelandic turf houses
The Icelandic turf house was the product of a difficult climate, offering superior insulation compared to buildings solely made of wood or stone, and the relative difficulty in obtaining other construction materials in sufficient quantities....
people would eat sitting on their beds, with the food served in askar, low and bulging wooden staved cask
CASK
Peripheral plasma membrane protein CASK is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CASK gene. This gene is also known by several other names: CMG 2 , calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine protein kinase 3 and membrane-associated guanylate kinase 2.-Genomics:This gene is located on the short arm of...
s with a hinged lid
Lid (container)
A lid, also known as a cap, is part of a container, and serves as the cover or seal, usually one that completely closes the object.-History:...
and two handles, often decorated, with the spoon food served in the cask and dry food placed on the open lid. Each household member would have his personal askur to eat from and was responsible for keeping it clean.
Modernity
Móðuharðindin
Móðuharðindin was a natural disaster which took place in Iceland in the years 1783–1785, following the volcanic eruption of Mount Laki....
, arguably the greatest natural disaster
Natural disaster
A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard . It leads to financial, environmental or human losses...
to have hit Iceland after its settlement, took place in 1783. Ten years earlier, a ban on Danish merchants residing in Iceland had been lifted and five years later the trade monopoly was ended. This meant that some of the Danish merchants became residents and some Icelanders became merchants themselves. The Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
(1803–1815) led to a shortage of provisions as merchant ships stopped arriving and Icelanders had to rely on themselves leading to the increased popularity of locally produced garden vegetables. 19th century nationalism and schools for women were influential in shaping modern Icelandic cuisine and formalising traditional methods.
Danish influence
The first written cookbookCookbook
A cookbook is a kitchen reference that typically contains a collection of recipes. Modern versions may also include colorful illustrations and advice on purchasing quality ingredients or making substitutions...
s to be published in Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
were collections of Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
recipes published in the 18th century and their purpose was to introduce the cuisine of the wealthier classes in Denmark-Norway to their peers in Iceland. The recipes would sometimes have a "commoner version" with less expensive ingredients for the farmhands and maids. The influence of the cuisine of Denmark
Cuisine of Denmark
Danish cuisine is shaped by the practice of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for raising crops and the raising of domesticated animals, and the history of Denmark. Danish cuisine is known for its open sandwiches , meat balls and sweet pastry...
was, however, felt long before that due to the influence of the Danish merchants. When some of these became residents in Iceland after a ban on their settling was lifted in 1770, they often ran a large household characterised by a mixture of Danish and Icelandic customs. The growth of Reykjavík, which had become a village by the end of the 18th century, also created a melting pot
Melting pot
The melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" into a harmonious whole with a common culture...
of Icelandic and Danish culinary traditions. Fishing villages formed in the 19th century, many of them situated by the trading harbours which previously had been nothing more than a natural harbour with perhaps a locked warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
nearby. The Danish influence was most pronounced in pastry
Pastry
Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder and/or eggs. Small cakes, tarts and other sweet baked products are called "pastries."...
-making where there were few native traditions to begin with. Baker
Baker
A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades...
s of Danish origin operated around the turn of the 20th century in both Reykjavík and Akureyri
Akureyri
Akureyri is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's second largest urban area and fourth largest municipality ....
and some Danish pastry-making traditions have survived longer in Iceland than in Denmark.
Vegetables
The first vegetableVegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
gardens were constructed as agricultural experiments in the late 17th century but growing vegetables did not become common until the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
when merchant ships stopped arriving. Usually the first to start growing vegetables were resident Danes who brought this tradition from Denmark. Popular garden vegetables at first included hardy varieties of cabbage
Cabbage
Cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne of the Family Brassicaceae and is a leafy green vegetable...
, turnip
Turnip
The turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as feed for livestock...
, rutabaga
Rutabaga
The rutabaga, swede , turnip or yellow turnip is a root vegetable that originated as a cross between the cabbage and the turnip; see Triangle of U...
and potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
. These entered Icelandic cuisine as boiled accompaniments to meats and fish, sometimes mashed with butter.
Women's schools
In the first half of the 20th century many home economicsHome Economics
Home economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community...
schools, intended as secondary education
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
for women, were instituted around Iceland. Within these schools, during a time of nationalistic
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
fervor, many Icelandic culinary traditions were formalised and written down by the pupils, and published in large recipe compendia which started appearing in print a few years later. Later emphasis on food hygiene and the use of fresh ingredients was a novelty in a country where culinary traditions had until then revolved around preserving the food for a long time, but where a modern economy was now booming, based on the export of seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
. Many rejected thus outright the traditional food and embraced the new bywords of "freshness" and "purity" associated with ingredients from the sea, especially when marketed abroad. A revival of old traditions came with regional associations of Icelanders who had moved to Reykjavík during the urbanisation boom of the late 1940s. These associations organised popular midwinter festivals where they started serving "Icelandic food", traditional country foods served in a buffet
Buffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
that was later called Þorramatur
Þorramatur
Þorramatur is a selection of traditional Icelandic food, consisting mainly of meat and fish products cured in a traditional manner, cut into slices or bits and served with rúgbrauð , butter and brennivín...
.
The cooperatives
In the beginning of the 20th century farmers living near the towns would sell their products to shops and directly to households, often under a subscription contract. In dealing with the effects of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
in 1930 the government of Iceland instituted state monopolies on various imports, including vegetables, and gave the regional farmers' cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
s, most of them founded around the turn of the century, a monopoly on dairy and meat production for the consumer market. This meant that smaller private producers were out of business. The large cooperatives were seen as a way to implement economies of scale in agricultural production and were able to invest in production facilities meeting modern standards of food hygiene. These cooperatives still dominate, almost unchallenged, agricultural production in Iceland. One of the things pioneered by them was the creation of a new cheesemaking tradition based on popular European varieties of gouda
Gouda
Gouda is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Gouda, which was granted city rights in 1272, is famous for its Gouda cheese, smoking pipes, and 15th-century city hall....
, blue cheese
Blue cheese
Blue cheese is a general classification of cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk cheeses that have had cultures of the mold Penicillium added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue, blue-gray or blue-green mold, and carries a distinct smell, either from that or...
, camembert
Camembert
Camembert is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France.It is most famous as the place where camembert cheese originated.Camembert has been called "The largest small village in France." This is because the area of the commune itself is out of proportion to the center of the village...
etc. Cheesemaking (apart from skyr) had by then been practically extinct in Iceland since the 18th century. They have also driven product development, especially in dairy products, with e.g. whey-based sweet drinks and variations of traditional products such as "Skyr.is", a creamier, sweeter skyr, which has boosted the popularity of this age-old staple.
Fishing
Fishing on an industrial scale with trawlers started before World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. This meant that fresh fish became a cheap commodity in Iceland and a staple in the cuisine of fishing villages around the country. Until around 1990 studies showed that Icelanders were consuming much more fish per capita than any other European nation. This has changed in recent years though, in part because of steeply rising fish prices.
Fish
Fish dishes in Iceland are Icelandic fish which is caught in the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Fresh fish can be had all the year round. Icelanders eat mostly haddockHaddock
The haddock , also known as the offshore hake, is a marine fish distributed on both sides of the North Atlantic. Haddock is a popular food fish and is widely fished commercially....
, plaice
European plaice
The European plaice, Pleuronectes platessa, is a commercially important flatfish.- Distribution and habitat :The geographical range of the European plaice is off all coasts from the Barents Sea to the Mediterranean, also in the Northeast Atlantic and along Greenland...
, halibut
Halibut
Halibut is a flatfish, genus Hippoglossus, from the family of the right-eye flounders . Other flatfish are also called halibut. The name is derived from haly and butt , for its popularity on Catholic holy days...
, herring
Herring
Herring is an oily fish of the genus Clupea, found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Three species of Clupea are recognized. The main taxa, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring may each be divided into subspecies...
and shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
.
Hákarl
Hákarl (meaning ‘shark’ in IcelandicIcelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
) is putrescent shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
meat. It is part of the þorramatur
Þorramatur
Þorramatur is a selection of traditional Icelandic food, consisting mainly of meat and fish products cured in a traditional manner, cut into slices or bits and served with rúgbrauð , butter and brennivín...
, the traditional seasonal Icelandic foods. It is known for its pungent taste and smell of ammonia
Ammonia
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...
. As such, eating hákarl is associated with hardiness and strength. It is often accompanied by brennivín
Brennivín
Brennivín is a brand of schnapps that is considered to be Iceland's signature liquor. It is made from fermented potato mash and is flavoured with caraway seeds. It is sometimes called svarti dauði ....
, a local schnapps
Schnapps
Schnapps is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage. The English word schnapps is derived from the German Schnaps , which can refer to any strong alcoholic drink but particularly those containing at least 32% ABV...
.
Meat
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
and wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
and thus were worth more alive than dead. This meant that once a sheep was slaughtered (usually the young rams and infertile ewes) most or all of the carcass was used for making food, which was carefully preserved and cherished. Traditionally lambs are slaughtered in the autumn, when they are more than three months old and have reached a weight of almost 20 kg. Horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s were not eaten after Christianisation except as a last resort, but this attitude started changing after the middle of the 18th century and horse meat, usually salted and served boiled or in bjúgu, a form of smoked sausage, has been common in Iceland from the 19th century onwards.
Icelandic beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
is usually of top quality with good marbling due to the cold climate. Icelandic cattle are grass-fed and raised without growth hormone
Growth hormone
Growth hormone is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction and regeneration in humans and other animals. Growth hormone is a 191-amino acid, single-chain polypeptide that is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells within the lateral wings of the anterior...
s and drug
Drug
A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
s. However, the lack of tradition for eating beef (mutton being the dominant meat) means that lower quality meat is sometimes sold without distinction requiring careful choice from the buyer.
Game
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...
s (Puffin
Puffin
Puffins are any of three small species of auk in the bird genus Fratercula with a brightly coloured beak during the breeding season. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among...
, Cormorant
Cormorant
The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...
and Great Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
The Great Black-backed Gull is the largest gull in the world, which breeds on the European and North American coasts and islands of the North Atlantic...
) and waterfowl
Waterfowl
Waterfowl are certain wildfowl of the order Anseriformes, especially members of the family Anatidae, which includes ducks, geese, and swans....
(Mallard
Mallard
The Mallard , or Wild Duck , is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia....
, Greylag goose
Greylag Goose
The Greylag Goose , Anser anser, is a bird with a wide range in the Old World. It is the type species of the genus Anser....
and Pink-footed Goose
Pink-footed Goose
The Pink-footed Goose is a goose which breeds in eastern Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard. It is migratory, wintering in northwest Europe, especially Great Britain, the Netherlands, and western Denmark...
). The meat of some seabirds contains fish oil
Fish oil
Fish oil is oil derived from the tissues of oily fish. Fish oils contain the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid , and docosahexaenoic acid , precursors of certain eicosanoids that are known to reduce inflammation throughout the body, and are thought to have many health benefits.Fish do not...
and is therefore placed in a bowl of milk overnight to extract the oil before cooking. One species of wildfowl, Ptarmigan, is also found in Iceland although dramatically declining stocks in later years have led to a ban on their hunting. Ptarmigan, served with a creamy sauce and jam, is a traditional Christmas main course in many Icelandic households.
Seal
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
hunting, especially the more common Harbor Seal
Harbor Seal
The harbor seal , also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere...
, was common everywhere farmers had access to seal breeding grounds, which were considered an important commodity. Whereas mutton was almost never eaten fresh, seal meat was usually eaten immediately, washed in seawater, or conserved for a short time in brine. Seal meat is not commonly eaten anymore and is rarely found in stores.
A potential source of meat, systematic whaling
Whaling in Iceland
Whaling in Iceland began with spear-drift whaling which was practiced from as early as the 12th century and continued in a relic form until the late 19th century...
was not possible in Iceland until the late 19th century due to the lack of ocean-going ships. Small whales were hunted close to the shore with the small rowboats used for fishing. Beached whales were also eaten and the Icelandic word for beached whale, hvalreki, is still used to mean a stroke of good luck. When Iceland started commercial whaling (mostly Minke Whale
Minke Whale
Minke whale , or lesser rorqual, is a name given to two species of marine mammal belonging to a clade within the suborder of baleen whales. The minke whale was given its official designation by Lacepède in 1804, who described a dwarf form of Balænoptera acuto-rostrata...
s) in the early 20th century whale meat
Whale meat
Whale meat is the flesh of whales used for consumption by humans or other animals. It is prepared in various ways, and is historically part of the diet and cuisine of various communities that live near an ocean, including those of Japan, Norway, Iceland, and the Arctic...
became popular as low-priced red meat which can be prepared in much the same manner as the more expensive beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
. When Iceland withdrew from the International Whaling Commission
International Whaling Commission
The International Whaling Commission is an international body set up by the terms of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling , which was signed in Washington, D.C...
in 1992, commercial whaling stopped but some whale meat could still be found in specialised stores coming from small whales accidentally caught in nets or beached. In 2002 Iceland rejoined the IWC and commercial whaling recommenced in 2006. Whale meat is thus commonly available again, although the price has gone up due to the cost of whaling itself.
Reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
were introduced in Iceland in the late 18th century and live wild on the moorland
Moorland
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...
s in the eastern farthing. A small number is killed by hunters each autumn and their meat, with its characteristic taste, can be found in stores and restaurants most of the year. Reindeer meat is considered a special delicacy and is usually very expensive.
Limits on meat imports
Dairy products
DairyDairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...
products are very important to Icelanders. In fact, the average Icelander eats about 100 gallons of dairy products in one year.
Fruits and vegetables
Vegetable production and consumption is steadily growing with production going from around 8,000 tonnes in 1977 to almost 30,000 tonnes in 2007. One of the benefits of the cold climate is less need for pesticidePesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s. Vegetables such as rutabaga
Rutabaga
The rutabaga, swede , turnip or yellow turnip is a root vegetable that originated as a cross between the cabbage and the turnip; see Triangle of U...
, cabbage and turnip
Turnip
The turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as feed for livestock...
s are usually started in greenhouses in the early spring and tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
es and cucumber
Cucumber
The cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash, and in the same genus as the muskmelon. The plant is a creeping vine which bears cylindrical edible fruit when ripe. There are three main varieties of cucumber: "slicing", "pickling", and...
s are entirely produced indoors. Iceland relies on imports for almost any type of sweet fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
except sweet berries
Berry
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....
. Damage to the climate due to human activity since the early 20th century has made it possible to grow barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
for human consumption in a few places, for the first time since the Middle Ages.
Bread and pastry
Modern Icelandic bakeries offer a wide variety of breadBread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
s and pastry
Pastry
Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder and/or eggs. Small cakes, tarts and other sweet baked products are called "pastries."...
. The first professional bakers in Iceland were Danish and this is still reflected in the professional traditions of Icelandic bakers. Long-time local favorites include snúður, a type of cinnamon roll
Cinnamon roll
A cinnamon roll is a sweet pastry served commonly in Northern Europe and North America. It consists of a rolled sheet of yeast dough onto which a cinnamon and sugar mixture is sprinkled over a thin coat of butter...
, usually topped with glaze
Glazing agent
Glazing agents, or polishing agents, are food additives providing shiny appearance or protective coating to foods. Mostly they are based on waxes.Examples are:* Stearic acid * Beeswax * Candelilla wax...
or melted chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
, and skúffukaka, a single-layer chocolate cake
Chocolate cake
Chocolate cake is a cake flavored with melted chocolate or cocoa powder.-History:Chocolate cake is made with chocolate; it can be made with other ingredients, as well. These ingredients include fudge, vanilla creme, and other sweeteners. The history of chocolate cake goes back to 1764, when Dr...
baked in a roasting pan, covered with chocolate glaze and sprinkled with ground coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
.
A variety of layer cake
Layer cake
A layer cake is a cake consisting of multiple layers, usually held together by frosting or another type of filling, such as jam or other preserves. Most cake recipes can be made into layer cakes; butter cakes and sponge cakes are common choices...
called randalín, randabrauð or simply lagkaka has been popular in Iceland since the 19th century. These come in many varieties that all have in common five layers of 1/2 in cake alternated with layers of fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
preserve, jam or icing
Icing (food)
Icing, also called frosting in the United States, is a sweet often creamy glaze made of sugar with a liquid such as water or milk, that is often enriched with ingredients such as butter, egg whites, cream cheese, or flavorings and is used to cover or decorate baked goods, such as cakes or cookies...
. One version called vínarterta, popular in the late 19th century, with layers of prune
Prune
A prune is any of various plum cultivars, mostly Prunus domestica or European Plum, sold as fresh or dried fruit. The dried fruit is also referred to as a dried plum...
s, became a part of the culinary tradition of Icelandic immigrants in the U.S. and Canada.
Traditional breads, still popular in Iceland, include rúgbrauð
Rúgbrauð
Rúgbrauð is an Icelandic straight rye bread, dark and dense, usually rather sweet, traditionally baked in a pot or steamed in special wooden casks by burying it in the ground near a hot spring. Modern rúgbrauð is usually made in a square baking pan. The bread is crustless, dark and very dense and...
, a dense, dark and moist rye
Rye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
bread, traditionally baked in pots or special boxes used for baking in holes dug near hot spring
Hot spring
A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth.-Definitions:...
s, and flatkaka
Flatkaka
Flatkaka or flatbrauð is an Icelandic unleavened rye flatbread. Flatkaka is soft, round, thin and dark with a characteristic pattern from the pan...
, a soft brown rye flatbread
Flatbread
A flatbread is a simple bread made with flour, water, and salt and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened: made without yeast or sourdough culture: although some flatbread is made with yeast, such as pita bread....
. A common way of serving hangikjöt
Hangikjöt
Hangikjöt is Icelandic smoked lamb or mutton, usually boiled and served either hot or cold in slices, traditionally with potatoes in béchamel sauce and green peas, or in thin slices on bread such as flatkaka or rúgbrauð....
is in thin slices on flatkaka. Other breads include skonsur which are soft breads, and Westfjord Wheatcakes (Vestfirskar hveitikökur).
Traditional pastries include kleina
Kleina
Kleina is an Icelandic fried pastry that has been popular domestically for at least two centuries. It is made from flattened dough cut into small trapezoids with a special cutting wheel . American families may use a pizza cutter to form Kleina. A slit is cut in the middle and then one end pulled...
, a small fried dough
Fried dough foods
Many cultures have dishes made by deep frying dough of one form or another. Doughnuts are a type of fried dough food that is covered separately in article "List of doughnut varieties".- Asia :*Central Asia**Boortsog...
bun where the dough is flattened and cut into small trapezoids with a special cutting wheel (kleinujárn), a slit cut in the middle and then one end pulled through the slit to form a "knot". This is then deep-fried in oil. Laufabrauð
Laufabrauð
Laufabrauð is a traditional kind of Icelandic bread that is most often eaten in the Christmas season. Originating from northern Iceland but now eaten throughout the entire country, it consists of round, very thin flat cakes with a diameter of about 15 to 20 cm , decorated with leaf-like, geometric...
(lit. "leafbread"), a very thin wafer, with patterns cut into it with a sharp knife and ridged cutting wheels and fried crisp in oil, is a traditional Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
food, sometimes served with hangikjöt.
Christmas dishes
Christmas dinner
Christmas dinner is the primary meal traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. In many ways the meal is similar to a standard Sunday dinner. Christmas feasts have traditionally been luxurious and abundant...
is traditionally served on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
. Traditional main courses are hangikjöt
Hangikjöt
Hangikjöt is Icelandic smoked lamb or mutton, usually boiled and served either hot or cold in slices, traditionally with potatoes in béchamel sauce and green peas, or in thin slices on bread such as flatkaka or rúgbrauð....
(smoked lamb), hamborgarhryggur (salted pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
rib
Rib
In vertebrate anatomy, ribs are the long curved bones which form the rib cage. In most vertebrates, ribs surround the chest, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the chest cavity. They serve to protect the lungs, heart, and other internal organs of the thorax...
) and various types of game
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
, especially Ptarmigan stew, Puffin
Puffin
Puffins are any of three small species of auk in the bird genus Fratercula with a brightly coloured beak during the breeding season. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among...
(sometimes lightly smoked) and roast Greylag Goose
Greylag Goose
The Greylag Goose , Anser anser, is a bird with a wide range in the Old World. It is the type species of the genus Anser....
where these are available. These are usually accompanied by a béchamel or mushroom
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
sauce
Sauce
In cooking, a sauce is liquid, creaming or semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish. Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsus, meaning salted...
, boiled potatoes and pea
Pea
A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...
s, pickled beetroot
Beetroot
The beetroot, also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet or informally simply as beet, is one of the many cultivated varieties of beets and arguably the most commonly encountered variety in North America, Central America and Britain.-Consumption:The usually deep-red roots of beetroot are...
or red cabbage
Red Cabbage
The red cabbage is a sort of cabbage, also known as Red Kraut or Blue Kraut after preparation....
and jam. A traditional dessert
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...
is rice pudding
Rice pudding
Rice pudding is a dish made from rice mixed with water or milk and sometimes other ingredients such as cinnamon and raisins. Different variants are used for either desserts or dinners. When used as a dessert, it is commonly combined with a sweetener such as sugar.-Rice pudding around the world:Rice...
with raisin
Raisin
Raisins are dried grapes. They are produced in many regions of the world. Raisins may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking and brewing...
s, topped with ground cinnamon
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...
and sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
called jólagrautur ("Yule pudding").
On December 23 (mass of Saint Thorlak
Saint Thorlak
Saint Thorlac Thorhalli is the patron saint of Iceland. Born in Skálholt in sourthern Iceland, he was bishop of Skalholt from 1178 until his death...
) there is a tradition (originally from the Westfjords
Westfjords
The Westfjords or West Fjords is the name for the large peninsula in northwestern Iceland. It is connected to the rest of Iceland by a 7 km wide isthmus between Gilsfjörður and Bitrufjörður. The Westfjords are very mountainous; the coastline is heavily indented by dozens of fjords surrounded by...
) to serve fermented skate
Skate
Skates are cartilaginous fish belonging to the family Rajidae in the superorder Batoidea of rays. There are more than 200 described species in 27 genera. There are two subfamilies, Rajinae and Arhynchobatinae ....
with melted tallow
Tallow
Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. It is solid at room temperature. Unlike suet, tallow can be stored for extended periods without the need for refrigeration to prevent decomposition, provided it is kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation.In industry,...
and boiled potatoes. Boiling the Christmas hangikjöt the day after serving the skate is said to dispel the strong smell which otherwise tends to linger around the house for days.
In the weeks before Christmas many households bake a variety of cookie
Cookie
In the United States and Canada, a cookie is a small, flat, baked treat, usually containing fat, flour, eggs and sugar. In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for this is biscuit; in many regions both terms are used, while in others the two words have...
s to keep in store for friends and family throughout the holidays. These include piparkökur, a type of ginger biscuits
Ginger biscuits
A ginger biscuit, ginger nut or ginger snap is a globally popular biscuit based snack food, flavoured with ginger.These hard twice-baked biscuits are flavoured with powdered ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and other spices...
often decorated with colored glaze
Glazing agent
Glazing agents, or polishing agents, are food additives providing shiny appearance or protective coating to foods. Mostly they are based on waxes.Examples are:* Stearic acid * Beeswax * Candelilla wax...
. Laufabrauð
Laufabrauð
Laufabrauð is a traditional kind of Icelandic bread that is most often eaten in the Christmas season. Originating from northern Iceland but now eaten throughout the entire country, it consists of round, very thin flat cakes with a diameter of about 15 to 20 cm , decorated with leaf-like, geometric...
is also fried some days before Christmas and decorating it is for many an occasion for holding a family gathering.
Þorramatur
The concept of Þorramatur was invented by a restaurant in Reykjavík in 1958 when they started advertising a platter with a selection of traditional country food linking it to the tradition of ÞorrablótÞorrablót
Þorrablót , or Thurseblot, is an Icelandic midwinter festival that takes place in the month of Þorri, according to the Old Icelandic Calendar, which starts in late January and ends in late February. These festivals were started by Icelandic student associations in the latter half of the 19th century...
popular since the late 19th century. The idea became very popular and for older generations the taste of the food will have brought back fond memories of growing up or spending summers in the countryside before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the urbanisation boom. In recent years, however, þorramatur has come to represent the supposed strangeness and peculiarity of traditional Icelandic food, and its very mention will send shivers down the spine of many modern Icelanders, overlooking the fact that many commonplace foods are also traditional though not generally thought of as part of the þorramatur category.
Birthdays, weddings, baptisms and confirmations
These are the various occasions for inviting the extended familyExtended family
The term extended family has several distinct meanings. In modern Western cultures dominated by nuclear family constructs, it has come to be used generically to refer to grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, whether they live together within the same household or not. However, it may also refer...
to a lunch or "afternoon tea" called kaffi in Icelandic, as filter coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
is usually served rather than tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
. Traditional dishes include the kransakaka of Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
origin and various types of brauðterta, similar to the Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
smörgåstårta
Smörgåstårta
Smörgåstårta is a Scandinavian cuisine dish that is popular in Finland, Sweden and Estonia. This salty cake is compositionally similar to a sandwich, but it has such a large amount of filling that it more resembles a layered cream cake with garnished top.The smörgåstårta is normally made up of...
with filling of e.g. shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
, smoked salmon
Smoked salmon
Smoked salmon is a preparation of salmon, typically a fillet that has been cured and then hot or cold smoked. Due to its moderately high price, smoked salmon is considered a delicacy.-Presentation:...
or hangikjöt
Hangikjöt
Hangikjöt is Icelandic smoked lamb or mutton, usually boiled and served either hot or cold in slices, traditionally with potatoes in béchamel sauce and green peas, or in thin slices on bread such as flatkaka or rúgbrauð....
and liberal amounts of mayonnaise
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...
between layers of white bread
White bread
White bread is made from wheat flour from which the bran and the germ have been removed through a process known as milling. Milling gives white flour a longer shelf life by removing the bran which contains oil, allowing products made with it, like white bread, the ability to survive storage and...
. Also popular for large family gatherings are various types of sponge cake
Sponge cake
Sponge cake is a cake based on flour , sugar, and eggs, sometimes leavened with baking powder which has a firm, yet well aerated structure, similar to a sea sponge. A sponge cake may be produced by either the batter method, or the foam method. Typicially the batter method in the U.S. is known as a...
, topped with fresh or canned fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
, whipped cream
Whipped cream
Whipped cream is cream that has been beaten by a mixer, whisk, or fork until it is light and fluffy. Whipped cream is often sweetened and sometimes flavored with vanilla, in which case it may be called Chantilly cream or crème Chantilly ....
, marzipan
Marzipan
Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar and almond meal. Persipan is a similar, yet less expensive product, in which the almonds are replaced by apricot or peach kernels...
and meringue
Meringue
Meringue is a type of dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar, occasionally some recipes may call for adding an acid such as cream of tartar or a small amount of vinegar and a binding agent such as cornstarch found in icing sugar which may be added in addition to the corn starch which...
. This tradition is satirised in an often-quoted passage from Halldór Laxness
Halldór Laxness
Halldór Kiljan Laxness was a twentieth-century Icelandic writer. Throughout his career Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels...
's novel, Under the Glacier, where the character Hnallþóra insists on serving multiple sorts of sumptuous cake for the bishop's emissary at all meals. Her name has become a byword for this type of cake.
External links
- Icelandic cooking, recipes and food culture.
- Matarsetur, an Icelandic association dedicated to the history of Reykjavík cuisine.
- The Shopper´s Guide to Icelandic food, an informative summary provided by the Farmers Association of Iceland.
- Traditional and Modern Icelandic Cooking - a short history by Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir
- What did they eat? An article on Icelandic food in the Middle Ages]
- Icelandic restaurants Information about restaurants that are offering Icelandic food]