Icelandic cuisine

Authentic Icelandic cuisine is hard to describe. Often they call her unusual, peculiar, rustic, funny, and what is there – wild. Nevertheless, the fact remains: many gourmets from all over the world actively visit this country in order to taste local delicacies. And who knows what attracts them more – unusual combinations of tastes in seemingly ordinary dishes or original ways of cooking them.

History

There is very little detailed information about the stages of development of Icelandic cuisine. It is known that it was formed in approximately the same scenario as the cuisines of other Scandinavian countries. Moreover, absolutely everything influenced this process, from the history of the formation of the state itself to its climatic and geographical features.

There is also scant data on the food products it uses.

• For example, it is known that the predominance of lamb in the diet is a conscious choice of the Icelandic population, which for centuries feared that local animals would be infected with dangerous ailments and simply prohibited the import of any meat products.
• As for horse meat, in the XNUMXth century, due to the Christianization of the country, it was completely removed from the tables of the Icelanders, while already in the XNUMXth century it slowly began to appear on them again.
• And finally, about vegetables, fruits and cereals. Due to the cold snap in the XIV century, their cultivation here became impossible. However, already in the twentieth century, in some regions of the country, a crop of barley, potatoes, cabbage, etc. was harvested.

Features of Icelandic cuisine

Perhaps the main feature of local cuisine is consistency. Judge for yourself: even after several hundred years, practically nothing has changed in it. Here, fish and lamb dishes also prevail, which are prepared according to special recipes with a long history. True, the local chefs are no longer focusing on the latter, but on the quality of the ingredients used to prepare them.

It is impossible to remain silent about the special ingenuity of the Icelanders. Perhaps this is one of the few peoples who have learned to use their main attraction in the cooking process. We are talking about volcanoes – terrible and insidious, in which the locals bake bread or equip greenhouses for growing vegetables.

Due to the harsh climate, the dishes here are quite satisfying. In addition, it is conditionally possible to single out the products that are most often taken for their preparation. It:

• Fish and seafood. Cod, flounder, mackerel, salmon, herring, halibut, salmon, shrimp, scallops, stingray, lobster, shark – in a word, everything that is found in the waters washing the country. And they are on the tables of Icelanders all year round. They are smoked, pickled, dried, salted, stewed from them, made sandwiches and chops, and simply original dishes are prepared. For example, in local restaurants you can order pickled whale lips, whale steak and more.
• Meat. Lamb is found in all regions. In addition to it, there are pork, beef and veal, from which hot and cold snacks are prepared.
• Dairy products. Not a single Scandinavian cuisine can do without them, and Icelandic is no exception. Milk is drunk here daily and in large quantities. In addition, cereals, side dishes and sauces are made from it. But skyr is more popular – it is something like our yogurt with cottage cheese or too thick yogurt.
• Eggs – they are invariably present in the diet of the local population.
• Bakery and flour products – Icelanders have several types of bread, including juniper, volcanic, sweet, bread with or without caraway seeds. From baked goods, they like sweet brushwood-kleinur and pancakes with berries.
• There are not many cereals, but there is. They are used to cook porridge and soups.
• Vegetables and fruits. Most of them are imported due to the scarcity of the local land. However, the island grows potatoes, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers, albeit mostly in greenhouses.
• The drinks. It is worth noting that the local water is of incredibly high quality, so you can drink it from the tap or from reservoirs. True, cold, since when heated, the smell of sulfur, with which it is saturated, enriches it with a not entirely pleasant aroma. But that doesn’t stop Icelanders from loving coffee. This love, by the way, has been going on since the XNUMXth century and is felt even in some coffee houses, where they take payment only for the first cup of this drink, and the rest go as a gift.

Basic cooking methods:

Haukarl is the rotten meat of the polar shark. An original dish with a pungent taste and a pungent smell, which is considered the “business card” of the country. It is prepared in a special way for about six months (read: it just rots), but not because the locals are not familiar with other cooking methods. Just in a different form, it is poisonous and only rotting allows you to remove all toxins from it.

Hangikyot, or “hanging meat”. This is lamb meat smoked on birch wood and then boiled. It is served with peas, potatoes and sauce.

Gellur are boiled or baked “cod tongues”, which are actually triangular muscles under the fish tongues.

Hardfiskur is a dried or dried fish that the locals eat with butter.

Volcanic bread is a sweetish rye bread that is often prepared in a metal mold left in places where the upper layers of the soil are heated by volcanoes.

Lundy. It is smoked or boiled puffin bird meat.

Khvalspik, or “whale oil”. It used to be very popular. It was boiled and smoked in lactic acid.

Slatur is a blood sausage. A dish made from the guts, fat and blood of sheep, which, oddly enough, is served with sweet rice pudding.

Testimonial is a sheep’s head, stripped of wool. The brains are removed from it, and then it is boiled and soaked in lactic acid. Needless to say, everything is eaten, from the tongue to the cheeks and eyes.

Khrutspungur is a local delicacy made from lamb eggs that are pickled and then pressed and filled with gelatin.

Whale meat (minke whale) – steaks, kebabs, etc. are made from it.

Brennivin is an alcoholic beverage made from potatoes and caraway seeds.

Based on materials Super Cool Pics