Icelandic cuisine

A fisherman's hut in Reykjavík in 1835 with fish hung outside for drying. Wind-dried fish is as popular as ever in Iceland.

Important parts of Icelandic cuisine are fish, being in an area where fish is plentiful, lamb and dairy. 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 rye bread) and brennivín (an Icelandic akvavit). Much of the taste of this traditional country food is characterised by the preservation methods used; pickling in lactic acid or brine, drying and smoking.

History

Medieval Iceland

Interior of a recreated medieval longhouse at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.

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, pigs, goats, horses 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".

Cheese 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. It is likely that the predominance of skyr in the 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.

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 died out when overgrazing caused a shortage of firewood in most parts of the country. Instead of curing with salt the practice of preserving meat in lactic acid 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 diving into the acid barrel. Like in Norway, medieval Icelanders also knew the use of fermentation to increase the storage life of fish and meat. Fermentation is still used to make hákarl, cured shark and for curing herring. Fermented eggs 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.

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 and cooking meat by placing it in the hole, with hot embers from the fire, and covering tightly for the time needed. The longhouses were gradually replaced by Icelandic turf houses in the 14th century. These contained 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 cereals.

Early modern period

Putrefied shark, hákarl, is an example of a culinary tradition that has continued from the settlement of Iceland in the 9th century to this day.

The thing that defined Icelandic subsistence farming from the middle ages 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 also remained confined 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 farmers 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 lead 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.

Another result of the dominance of subsistence farming in Iceland was the lack of specialisation and commerce between farms. Interior trade seems to have been frowned upon 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 and biscuits sold for knitted wool mittens, blankets 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 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 1600's, stricter measures were taken to enforce the monopoly in 1685. The monopoly existed until 1787. One of its results was the predominance of rye produced in Denmark, and the introduction of brennivín, an akvavit produced from rye, at the cost of other cereals and beer.

Modernity

Women producing stockfish for export in Reykjavík in the 1910's.

The first written cookbooks to be published in Icelandic were translations of Danish books published in the 18th century, but the influence of the cuisine of Denmark was felt before that due to the influence of Danish merchants. When some of these became residents in Iceland after a ban on their settling was lifted in 1770, they often became the most important household in the neighboring countryside, a 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. This influence was very pronounced in pastry-making where there were few native traditions to begin with. Bakers of Danish origin operated around the turn of the 20th century in both Reykjavík and Akureyri and in some cases Danish pastry-making traditions have survived longer in Iceland than in Denmark.

In the first half of the 20th century many home economics 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 recently moved to Reykjavík during the urbanisation boom of the late 1940's. These associations organised popular midwinter festivals where they started serving "Icelandic food", traditional country foods served in a buffet that was later called Þorramatur.

Fishing on an industrial scale with trawlers started before WWI. 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 changing taste and in part due to steeply rising fish prices.

Types of food

Iceland offers a fine variety of all kinds of foods produced locally. The quality is excellent, in part because of a very clean environment.

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 haddock, plaice, halibut, herring and shrimp.

Meat

Perhaps the best is lamb meat (Icelandic: lambakjöt), mostly because the sheep range freely in the mountains. Iceland has strict regulations relating to meat production and the use of hormones is strictly forbidden. Poultry farming is considerable in Iceland. The most common types of bird reared are chicken, duck and turkey. Certain species of wild birds are hunted, including geese ducks and ptarmigan.

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. Horses 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.

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.

A potential source of meat, whaling was not possible in Iceland until the 20th century due to the lack of ocean-going ships. Beached whales were eaten, however, and the icelandic word for beached whale, hvalreki, is still used to mean a stroke of good luck.

Dairy products

Dairy products are very important to Icelanders. In fact, the average Icelander eats about 100 gallons of dairy products in one year. A wide range of cheeses and other dairy products are made in Iceland. There are over 80 types of cheese made, some of which have won international awards. Skyr (which is something between yogurt and the German "Quark") and mysa (whey) are specialities that have been made in farms through the centuries in Iceland.

Fruits and vegetables

Even though Iceland is situated near the Arctic Circle, many garden vegetables are grown outside, including cabbage and potatoes. Some other vegetables, fruits and flowers are grown in geothermally heated greenhouses.

Þorramatur

Hákarl hanging near Bjarnahöfn, Iceland.

Main article: Þorramatur

Iceland has a range of traditional foods, known as þorramatur, which are enjoyed seasonally from January to March. These traditional foods include smoked and salted lamb, singed sheep heads, dried fish, smoked and pickled salmon, cured shark and various other delicacies. Breads include laufabrauð (deep-fried paper-thin bread), kleinur (similar to doughnuts) and rye pancakes.

Hákarl

Main article: Hákarl

Hákarl (meaning ‘shark’ in Icelandic) is rotten 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 assoiciated with hardiness and strength. It is often accompanied by brennivín, a local schnapps.

Catering

There is a wide range of high quality restaurants in Iceland, serving specialities including freshly caught seafood, meat from naturally reared animals and prize game from the countryside.

External links

• Icelandic cuisine website Note: This website is subscription only.