Icelandic cooking, recipes and food

Today is Shrove Tuesday. This day is called Sprengidagur (Bursting Day) in Iceland. This is the last day before Lent, and during the time when Icelanders still observed the fast, it was the last day on which meat could be eaten until Easter. The origins of the Icelandic name for this day are uncertain, but today it is generally taken to mean "eating until you feel like you're bursting". Split pea soup and salted mutton has been the traditional meal for this day since the 19th century. Recipe: 2 l water 500 g lamb meat or mutton, preferably salt cured, or salt pork if lamb/mutton is not available 200 g yellow split peas 1 tsp salt 500 g potatoes 1 onion 500 g carrots and rutabagas, cubed/sliced 3-4 slices smoked bacon (optional) (I use a lot more) Soak the peas for time indicated on the packaging (or use peas that don't require soaking). Bring water to the boil. Cut onion into chunks and add to the water with the meat and peas, and cook for about 1 hour....

It's Bolludagur again - so it's time for a repost from 2008: In Iceland, the last Monday before Lent is called Bolludagur , or Bun Day. On this day, we stuff ourselves with delicious, sweet buns, and many families eat meatballs or fish balls for dinner ( bolla can mean both "bun" and "ball").  Two kinds of buns are made: One recipe uses yeast for rising, the other uses eggs. My mother always makes the egg kind, which are made with choux dough. As a result, I have never been able to acquire a taste for the yeast buns. The choux buns are basically profiteroles with a local twist. Choux buns, AKA profiteroles Bun recipe: 125 g margarine or butter 250 ml water 125 g flour 4 eggs   Put the water and margarine together in a saucepan and heat until margarine is melted. Sift the flour into the mixture and stir until the dough is smooth and thick. Keep the saucepan on the hotplate while stirring. Remove from the hotplate and allow to cool a little. Br...

Here you will find some information about the traditional Icelandic foods eaten at the Þorri feasts or Þorrablót . The links will take you to recipes or instructions for making some of these foods. Note: I can‘t find some of the photos I have of these foods and will add them as and when I either find them or am able to take new ones. Þorri is one of the old Icelandic lunar months. It begins on the first Friday of the 13th week of winter, which is usually between January 19th and 25th, but can occasionally begin on January 26th. It then ends ends on a Saturday between the 18th and 24th of February. The first day of Þorri is called Bóndadagur (Husband's Day/Farmer's Day - bóndi can mean either), and is dedicated to men (formerly only farmers). Since this is the coldest time of the winter, it is no surprise that Þorri has become a personification of King Winter. He is usually portrayed as an old man, tall and grizzled, who is as cruel to those who disrespect him as he is...

I thought it was about time to post a recipe, since I remembered a very old, traditional one I have not posted before. This is a very old Icelandic dish. Since it is made in pretty much the same way as liver sausage, except using fish products, I suppose you could call it fish-liver sausage (or pudding) in English.   For 1 person: 2-3 fresh cod’s stomachs 1 cod liver Rye meal Salt White pepper (optional) Water There are two basic methods of making kútmagar . In one you use rye meal and in the other you don’t.  Since I don’t expect you can buy fresh fish stomachs just anywhere and may therefore have to buy or catch whole fish and then remove the stomachs, I have included instructions on how to clean them: You take them and rub them inside and out with sand or coarse salt until you have removed the slime and anything else that may stick to them.  Both methods: Soak the liver in cold water for a while (30 minutes or so), then re...

This bread relies on fermentation for both rising and sweetness. I have not tested this recipe. 2 kg. rye flour 1 litre of water or a 1:1 mixture of water and whey 1 tsp salt Put the rye flour into a large bowl. Warm the water and add the salt and then add the water to the rye flour and mix well together. Turn out onto a floured table and knead until smooth and free of cracks. Rub a little bit of cooking oil on your hands and form the dough into a loaf. Put the loaf into a well-oiled container - Icelanders often use tins, but a cooking pot or a casserole dish may be used as well. It has to fit inside another, larger container. The dough must not fill the container as it will rise (the genius who wrote the recipe book unfortunately does not say by how much). Put a damp cloth on top of the container and leave to rise in a warm spot overnight. When the dough has risen, put baking paper on top of it and then close the baking container (with a lid, or if that‘s not available, with a...

Angelica ( Angelica archangelica ) is the most highly regarded medicinal plant growing in Iceland, considered more potent than even yarrow ( Achillea millefolium ) and Iceland moss ( Cetraria islandica ). It has been used to fight infections (bacterial, fungal and viral), as a local anaesthetic, to strengthen the immune system and as an aid to digestion and recent research has show it to be effective against cancer cells. Abroad it is used to flavour alcoholic drinks such as Bénédictine , Chartreuse, Vermouth and Dubonnet, and locally the root is used to flavour schnapps (Hvannarótarbrennivín). As a medicine it is most often made into a tisane or a tincture, using leaves, root or seeds. It is also a food plant. Here is one recipe: Take fresh, young angelica stalks, peel off the outer layer and wash the stalks in cold water. Cut away any spots. Pour hot water over the stalks, then cook them in salted water until they are soft. Drain carefully, and serve with whipped butter. May als...

This is a big recipe, enough for 6 cookie sheets. You can use it to make 1 1/2 cake or a six-layer cake. It is hard to make it smaller and still retain the correct thickness of the dough. Ingredients: 11/2 kg flour 900 g brown sugar 6 tsp baking soda 9 tsp ground cloves 10 tsp ground cinnamon 8 tsp ginger 900 g butter or margarine 6-7 eggs Buttercream: 600 g butter, softened 900 g icing sugar 2 egg yolks 2-3 tsp vanilla essence Rhubarb jam Instructions:  Mix together all the dry ingredients on a clean, dry table and crumble the cold butter/margarine into it until well mixed. (Use your hands to squish it in, or use a pastry cutter). Make a mound of the mixture and make a hole in the centre of it. Add the eggs and syrup and knead until well mixed. (This does not as much kneading as bread, only just enough to get everything well mixed). Divide the dough into six parts. Dust each with flour and roll out into even-sized portions onto well greased cookie sheets. B...

Brúnkaka" simply means "brown cake" in Icelandic, and the alternative name, "brúnterta" means the same, although "terta" comes from the same root as the English word for "tart". In Icelandic "terta" is a fancier alternative to calling a cake "kaka". Unlike the "Lísu brúnterta " recipe that I once posted, this one gets its colour not from cocoa powder, but from syrup or brown sugar and spices. I am posting two recipes, one today with syrup and one tomorrow with brown sugar, as some people may not have access to golden syrup. My grandmother makes these year round, but this Christmas season I discovered that for two of my friends, this cake is closely linked with Christmas from them. Here is the syrup version: Ingredients: 1 kg flour 500 g white sugar 5 tsp baking soda 3 tsp baking powder 1tsp ground cloves 5 tsp ground cinnamon 900 g butter or margarine 500 g golden syrup (Lyle's is the brand ...

Here is a third flatbread recipe. 500 g potatoes, cooked, peeled and cooled 250 g rye flour (or more, if needed) The amount of rye flour depends on how much moisture there is in the potatoes. Start with the given amount and add more if necessary. Mash the potatoes until smooth, or process in a food processor (take care not to over-process, or they may turn gummy). Knead the rye flour into the potatoes until you have a stiff, dense dough. Whole wheat flour may be mixed in with the rye flour. Roll out the dough into thin, round cakes. Dry-fry the cakes on a griddle or electric hotplate until browned with small burnt-looking spots. Links to the other recipes: Most commonly used recipe Luxury recipe

“All the housewives in the country should be on the habit of acquiring at least one barrel of salted herring for the winter. The barrel must be stored in a cold place, for if the herring goes rancid it will not make good food. It is our duty, Icelandic housewives, to ensure that more is eaten of the herring than is now the case, this wholesome, fine food, which is caught in such abundance off our shores.” Foreword to the chapter on herring dishes in 160 fiskréttir (160 fish dishes) by Helga Sigurðardóttir. Helga Sigurðardóttir was Iceland’s version of Mrs. Beeton. She was not only a cook book author whose books can be found in many Icelandic homes, but also a cooking teacher . Several of the recipes on this blog originally came from one or another of her cookbooks, whether altered or unchanged. In the following weeks I will be posting a selection of dishes from this book, beginning with that gem of a fish, the herring. 2 salted herrings 2 bunches fresh dill, chopped 200 ml whit...

This is a rather good Sunday dish. If you don't know how to de-bone a leg of lamb, either buy it de-boned or get your butcher to de-bone it for you. 1 leg of lamb (about 2 kg. before boning) 50 g prunes, stoneless 30 g dried apples 2 tsp. salt 3/4 tsp. pepper Soak the apple slices to soften. Rub half of the salt and pepper on the inside of the leg of lamb and stuff with the prunes and apple slices. Sew closed. Rub the remaining salt and pepper on the outside of the meat. Put meat into a greased oven pan and roast at 250°C for about 90 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the steak shows 160°C. Start by roasting for 10-20 minutes, then add water to cover the bottom of the pan, to a depth of about 1 cm. Baste the meat with the cooking liquid every 15 minutes or so. Top up the water when it starts to boil down. About 10-15 minutes before the steak is done, remove it from the oven, pour the cooking liquid into a saucepan, through a strainer. Put the steak bac...

Twice-baked bread keeps well and is good in all kinds of sweetened soups, like Sweet Soup , Crowberry Soup , and Cocoa Soup . 250 g flour OR 100 g bread or all-purpose flour and 100 g whole-wheat flour t tsp baking powder 1 tbs sugar 1/2 tsp ground cardamom 75 g butter or margarine 100-150 ml milk Sift together the flour, baking powder and cardamom and add the sugar. Add the softened butter or margarine and rub into the dry mix until the mixture is crumbly. Add the milk, no more than needed to make the dough stick together. Knead until smooth and roll up into sausage shapes. Cut into even-sized pieces and roll into balls. Arrange on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 180°C until light brown. Remove the buns from the oven and cool until they can be handled, then cut in half, put back on the cookie sheet and dry in the oven at a low temperature. Serve with the above-mentioned sweet soups or with coffee.

There is already one recipe for flatbread on this blog, but I came across another one that I thought would be interesting to post for comparison. The first recipe, which is the basic, traditional recipe, is just rye flour, salt and water, but this one is more elaborate, and would most likely have been made only in richer households, since it contains three types of flour, The use of a raising agent should also mean lighter bread. 200 g whole-wheat flour 200 g bread or all-purpose flour 200 g rye flour 4 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 450-500 ml milk Mix together all the dry ingredients. Bring the milk to the boil. Add the milk to the dry mix, stirring it in with a wooden spoon while it is too hot to touch and then knead it. When fully kneaded (smooth and even), divide into 10 pieces. Flatten and cut out into round pieces to fit the size of the skillet. Prick and bake on each side until the bread looks dry.

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...

I have no idea whether people still use this recipe, but I am publishing it here as a historical curiosity. The shark is fermented as instructed here . Remove the skin from the shark piece. Cook in boiling water until firm and cooked through. Remove and allow the liquid to drip off over night. Cut into pieces and mash in a cooking pot. Add sour butter (I never said this was good) or stale tallow. Serve hot with potatoes, or cold as a topping for rye bread.

Blood sausage is an ancient dish and can be found in many countries where domestic animals are kept and there are no taboos against eating blood. This is the Icelandic version. Slátur is the collective name for blood sausage and liver sausage , and also for the necessary ingredients. "To take slátur " means to buy the ingredients and make the sausages, and in fact Icelandic supermarkets sell boxes with blood, livers, suet and stomachs (sometimes also the salt, cereals, thread and needles) in the autumn when the summer lambs are slaughtered. 2 litres sheep's blood 1 litre water 50 g coarse salt 1 kilo rye flour 200 g flour 400 g oatmeal 2 - 2 1/2 kilos sheep's suet Some people add raisins or chopped Iceland moss to the stuffing. If using Iceland moss, use correspondingly less rye flour and a little more water in the stuffing. If using raisins, use correspondingly less suet. Cut each stomach into 4-5 pieces suitable for stuffing, or use bags of sausage skin or even pla...

This soup is among the oldest recorded Icelandic recipes. It's sweet-sour taste is unusual for fish-based soups. Traditionally, the recipe is given for halibut, but you can also use salmon, trout, wolf-fish or lumpfish, or other fatty fish. 1 1/2 kg fresh fish with bones, cut into pieces to fit in the pan 1 1/2 litre water 2 tbs white vinegar 2 tsp salt 2 bay leaves 50 g flour 100 ml cold water 1/2 lemon 20 prunes 1-2 tbs sugar 200 ml water potatoes parsley If the prunes are dry, soak them in water for an hour or so, or cook them in a little sugar-water with the zest of the 1/2 lemon until soft. Keep them whole. Put water, salt, vinegar and bay leaves in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the fish. skim off the scum when the liquid boils again. cook the fish until it loosens from the bones. Strain the cooking liquid into another saucepan, leaving a little in the pan with the fish to keep it moist. Mix together the flour and cold water into a smooth paste. Bring the strained coo...

I have never tried this soup, so I am not taking any responsibility if you make it and hate it! 1 liter strong whey 4-5 tbs sugar 1 cinnamon stick 50 g potato flour or cornstarch 100 ml cold water Cook the whey with the cinnamon and sugar for 5-10 minutes. Make a paste from the starch and cold water and stir into the soup to thicken. Pour into a bowl, sprinkle with sugar and cool. Red food colouring or crowberry (or redcurrant or cranberry) concentrate can be used to give the soup some colour.

The cod's cheeks are eaten both salted and fresh. This recipe will do for either. Salted cheeks must be soaked in water to wash out some of the saltiness. 10 cod cheeks an egg yolk, lightly beaten some breadcrumbs mixed with salt and pepper 100-200 g butter If you have whole cod's heads, cut away the cheeks and clean them well. Roll in the egg white, and then in the brumbs. Melt the butter in a frying pan and brown the cheeks in the butter. They may also be fried in an oven-proof dish in the oven. Serve with boiled potatoes.

You can use either rib cutlets or leg cutlets to make this dish. This was one of my favourite Sunday dishes when I was growing up, and remains a comfort food for me. The recipe works with pork or veal cutlets as well, but the traditional meat is lamb. 750 g of rib half-cutlets or leg cutlets of lamb 2 egg whites or 1 egg and 2 tbs milk 3 tbs bread crumbs (we generally use Paxo brand crumbs, but home-made or other brands are fine as long as they are unflavoured) 2 tsp salt 3/4 tsp pepper* 100 g butter or margarine 20 g butter 1-2 onions extra butter as needed 2-3 tbs water Traditionally, the cutlets are beaten with a meat mallet, but if you have nice, tender lamb, it really isn't necessary. Set up a mise-en-place: frying pan on the stove, dish with bread crumbs and spices, dish with egg, dish with cutlets. If using egg whites, whip them until they begin to froth. If using a whole egg, break and stir vigorously with the milk until slightly frothy. Mix together the bread crumbs and sa...