Icelandic cooking, recipes and food

European rowans ( Sorbus aucupari , sometimes called European mountain ash) grow well in the Icelandic climate and are common garden trees. In the autumn after the first frost and thaw you can see thrushes feasting on the berries and getting tipsy on the fermented juice. Humans also eat rowan berries, especially in jams and jellies (raw berries will cause indigestion, so don't let the lovely colour tempt you to try them uncooked). The slightly bitter flavour makes rowan preserves an excellent match with strong cheeses and game, such as wild goose and reindeer, and it's also good with lamb. If I can get enough rowan berries from a non-polluted source I plan to try making this jelly: 2 litres rowan berries with stalks 500 gr apples with skins (Jonagold is recommended as being flavourful and rich in pectin) 750 ml water 900 ml sugar for every 1 litre of juice Pick the berries and freeze them overnight. This removes the worst of the bitter flavour of the berries. Bri...

Stone bramble berries have a somewhat bitter flavour that goes well with lamb and all kinds of game, for example reindeer and wild goose. I can usually only get a very small amount of them, but I often mix them with redcurrants to get a very nice, beautifully red jelly. Pick stone bramble berries. It takes a considerable amount of berries to get a good amount of juice, but I can't tell you exactly what amount of berries will yield what amount of juice. Flush the berries with cold water and put in a cooking pot. Bring to the boil on low and cook gently until the berries burst and release their juice. Pour the berries and juice into a cheesecloth strainer and strain away the juice. The cheesecloth may be squeezed to extract more juice.   Measure the juice and put it in a cooking pot and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and add 1 kg of sugar for every litre of juice (if it’s less than a litre, then add 100 grams of sugar for each 100 ml of juice). Stir to dissolve the ...

Someone e-mailed me not too long ago and asked for a recipe for salting mutton. This is the recipe in my mother‘s old cookbook. I haven‘t tested it, but am relying on my grandmother‘s advice for the information that was missing, such as the minimum brining time and how long it will stay preserved. The recipe contains saltpetre (potassium nitrate), the use of which has been mostly discontinued in Iceland due to health concerns. Saltpetre was used as an extra preservative and it also gives the food a characteristic pink hue. It may be safely left out, but the meat may not keep for quite as long as it would otherwise. The sugar tenderises the meat. Meat may be dry salted or brined. Dry salting is best for lean meat and brining for fatty meat. For 50 kg of meat (mutton, lamb, horse, beef, pork, etc.): Salting mixture: 3 kg salt (coarse pickling salt works best) 250 g sugar 2 litres water (30 g saltpetre) The meat should be cut into in serving-sized pieces (half-cutlets, steaks, etc.). It s...