Bronwyn's Kettle Worms to be Eaten Cold with Mustard - A Harvest Day Lunch with the "Vikings"

 

What did early medieval Scandinavians eat? It is an intriguing question that is difficult to answer. Part of the difficulty is that what has been written about them, was written after their time period, and is considered by many modern historians to be inaccurate.

Some information is available through what has been written within the Icelandic Sagas. Another resource that has provided a wealth of information is the excavation of midden pits, latrines, and old fireplaces. By recovering the remains of plants and animals as well as the various kinds of cooking vessels archeologists and food historians are able to hypothesize what could have been eaten based on what has been discovered.

This is an example of such a recipe. I took two recipes, one for Kettle Worms from Daniel Serra's "An Early Meal" and the other for Guest House sausages, and combined them to create my own sausage.

If you have not purchased Daniel Serra and Hanna Tunberg's "An Early Meal; A Viking Age Cookbook and Culinary Odyssey", do so. It is full of plausible recipes based on extensive research. I also recommend visiting the Ribe Viking Center website to learn a little more about early Scandinavians.

Bronwyn's Kettle Worms to be Eaten Cold with Mustard- Serves 8

1/2 pound ground pork

1/2 pound 80/20 ground beef

2 slices of uncured bacon minced

1 small apple cut into small dice

1 shallot (you could use ramps, leeks or wild garlic)

Thyme, salt, and pepper to taste

Plastic wrap

Instructions

1. Mix together the first three ingredients along with a couple of tablespoons of water until the meat becomes sticky

2. Add apples, shallot and your seasoning, and continue to mix until all are well incorporated

3. Divide the meat mixture into fourths. Roll each out into a log of similar size and shape.

4. Wrap each in plastic wrap and tie off the ends. NOTE: The plastic wrap will be taking the place of sausage casings you would need to remove if serving cold.

5. While you are wrapping your meat, place a pot of salted water on the stove and bring it to a simmer.

6. Place your sausages into the water and allow to simmer until they are cooked through. Remove from the heat.

NOTE: If you have a smoker, prepare it, and smoke your sausages instead. Instead of cooking them thoroughly in the water, cook them only long enough that they will hold together. Remove the plastic wrap, and then smoke overnight or for several hours. I personally find that simmering them first in the water keeps them moist.

I used commercial whole grain stone ground mustard, but if you are looking for one that is slightly more fitting, I recommend this recipe for mustard.

For more information on what has been discovered (food and cooking ware), I recommend the following resources:

• Hurstwic - Food, Diet, and Nutrition in the Viking Age

• Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Volume 31, June 2020, 102361 - Fragments of meals in eastern Denmark from the Viking Age to the Renaissance: New evidence from organic remains in latrines

• Nationalmuseet i København - Prehistoric period (until 1050 AD) / The Viking Age / Food

• Sons of Vikings - Viking Diet: Why you should eat like the Vikings did!

Sources:

Hald, Mette Marie et al. "Fragments Of Meals In Eastern Denmark From The Viking Age To The Renaissance: New Evidence From Organic Remains In Latrines". Journal Of Archaeological Science: Reports, vol 31, 2020, p. 102361. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102361. Accessed 12 Sept 2022.

Hurstwic: Food, Diet, And Nutrition In The Viking Age". Hurstwic.Org, 2022, http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/food_and_diet.htm. Accessed 12 Sept 2022.

København, Nationalmuseet. "Meat And Fish". National Museum Of Denmark, 2022, https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/food/meat-and-fish/. Accessed 12 Sept 2022.

Ribe Viking Centre: Viking Cooking At Home". Ribevikingecenter.Dk, 2022, https://www.ribevikingecenter.dk/en/learn-more/viking-slow-food/recipes/guest-house-sausages-served-with-root-vegetables.aspx. Accessed 12 Sept 2022.

Viking Diet: Why You Should Eat Like The Vikings Did!". Sons Of Vikings, 2021, https://sonsofvikings.com/blogs/history/eat-like-a-viking. Accessed 12 Sept 2022.

Flatbreads (Scandinavian) - A Harvest Day Lunch with the Vikings

 

The Ribe Viking Center offered an intriguing recipe for making flatbreads from various flours and then gave suggestions on how to flavor them. This is their recipe, with a few tweaks of my own.

First, I was unable to locate barley flour, so I made my own. I also added the milk that separated from the butter when I made it along with some of the whey from making the fresh cheese. In lieu of dried bilberries or dried lingonberries, I used the dried cranberries as suggested, along with hazelnuts. You could also substitute blueberries or raisins, or any dried fruit you favor.

To make your own flour

You do not need a grain mill to make your own flour. If you have a blender you can make your own flour.

I make the flour 1 cup at a time. Simply add the flour to the blender, pulse for a few seconds, and then turn it up to your highest setting, and allow it to continue to blend until the flour reaches the consistency you want. It's that easy. It should go without saying that if the blender seems like it is struggling, stop.

Before using the flour you might want to sift once or twice. You should only grind enough flour to use immediately. However, if you do make extra it can be stored in the refrigerator for about ten days, or in a freezer for a month.

Full disclosure, I have ground rice, barley, and a grain and pea mix to make various flours. The grain and pea mix was for soup originally, and it contained wheatberries.

Basic Flatbreads

Makes approximately 8 flatbreads

Ingredients

3 cups flour (I used the mix that was suggested on the Ribe Viking Site - 1 cup each of stoneground whole wheat, stoneground dark rye, and barley.

1 cup whey

Butter milk or water (in this case it was about 2 tablespoons) to make a dough that does not stick to the table

1-2 tsp. salt

Instructions

1. Mix salt and flour together

2. Add whey and water (buttermilk) and mix until the dough is formed

3. Cover the dough and set it aside for approximately 30 minutes

4. Mix in optional add-ins before dividing into 8 pieces and shaping into rounds approximately 1/2" thick. Allow the bread to set again for 20 more minutes.

5. Heat a dry pan over medium heat. Cook the flatbreads until they are golden. Serve.

NOTE: I placed the still hot bread into a ziplock bag because I was not going to serve it right away. Don't be alarmed when you see moisture build-up, leave the bag open, and the moisture that builds up will keep the bread from turning into hockey pucks.

Opt. Flavorings

Hazelnuts

Hazelnuts and dried fruit

Honey & Thyme

Garlic or Savory

Let your conscious be your guide

(Medieval Cooking Basics) Make Your Own Cheese and Butter

 

Making your fresh cheese and butter is an easy way to start a project that would require whey, or, buttermilk to complete. The flatbreads that I made for the Harvest Day "Viking" lunch needed whey or buttermilk to create.

Making your cheese and butter is cost-effective as well, especially when feast planning, and is one of the tricks I used to stay within a tight budget. A gallon of milk is less costly than a pound of butter, or, a pint of ricotta.

Fresh cheese should be served at the beginning of the meal. This is based on the dietetics of the time, which likens the stomach to an oven, where the opening of the stomach in preparation for continuing to "cook" what you eat and keep you healthy begins with those things that are light, easily digestible, sugared, spiced, or oil and vinegared. This creates room in the budget to serve ripened cheese at the end of a meal of meat, or nuts, after a meal of fish or both as you choose. Diners are full and will eat less of the ripe more expensive cheese at the end of the meal. To be quite frank, I only plan about 2 ounces of ripe cheese at the end of a meal per table, which works out to a pound of cheese for eight tables. I do also plan two to three different cheeses cut into bite-sized pieces as well. Yes, it's a trick I use and nobody has complained (yet) that there wasn't enough cheese.

To learn more about the very basics of dietetics and how a modern cook can plan a meal around them, check out the Medieval Cooking Basics Class How to Arrange the Feast; The Application of Medieval Dietary Theory to Modern Day Feasts.

There is tons of available different recipes on how to make your own cheese and butter available through google. This is how I do it

"Fresh Cheese"

1 Gallon of Milk makes approximately 1 1/2 to 2 cups of cheese

Ingredients

4 cups whole milk + 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (I prefer grass-fed organic milk or Fairlife whole milk, they produce the best flavor and curds)

Juice of a lemon (you can substitute vinegar)

Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Mix milk and cream together and place into a pot on the stove.

2. Heat until just below boiling. You will see steam rising from the milk and tiny bubbles forming all along the edge of the pot. Turn off the heat at this point

3. Squeeze in lemon juice, and add a pinch of salt. Allow setting on the stovetop until room temperature. The milk will curdle up and continue to curdle while it cools.

4. Strain off the whey by pouring the cheese into a cloth-lined strainer. Allow it to continue to drip for several hours or overnight depending on how firm you would like your cheese to be.

5. Add favorite add-ins and serve, or serve plain

NOTE: If you plan to bake the cheese, you will want a much dryer curd, you can add cream to it if it is too dry, but you can't take away too much moisture and nobody wants a soggy pie. If you want to serve the cheese as a "cream" cheese, leave it a little moister and blend in a blender.

"To Make Butter"

2 cups of heavy cream make approximately 1 cup of butter

Somewhere out there a real chef or old-time homesteader is probably going to gasp in horror at what I am about to disclose. This was a happy mistake on my part.

Ingredients

Heavy Whipping Cream

Pinch of Salt

Instructions

1. Pour heavy whipping cream into a blender and add the pinch of salt, with the idea that you are going to make whipped cream.

2. Pulse a few times, then set on "blend" and walk away for a few minutes to fold the laundry.

3. Lose track of time (ten minutes or so) and return too late to save the whipped cream, and voila, you have butter. What??

4. Remove butter from the blender, save what is left of the butter milk, curse the fates, and then press onward----

5. Using ice water to firm the butter and clean it. Using the back of a spoon or spatula press the water into the butter and rinse it a few times until the water runs clear. Pat or press the butter into shape, and store it to serve later.

Note: It is THAT easy. You can serve the butter right away if you wish without cleaning it, which will result in a very creamy spread. I prefer to clean the whey(?) out so that the butter lasts longer. One difference you will note right away, it is not yellow, it will be white. You can color it if you wish to serve it in a more familiar way. I choose not to.

The liquid that is strained off is a kind of "butter-milk" and you can drink it but it is much better if used right away to bake. If you need fermented buttermilk for baking, mix one part of the strained liquid with three parts of milk and allow to set overnight. Voila!

Medieval Basics - Gilding

 Koekerye (1570)

33 Gilding Make a little honey water, brush the almonds with it, then put the gold or silver on them, and push it down with cottonwool where it does not lie straight. You can also gild gingerbread and other things this way. Prepare a broad stick to lift up the gold with. Do not touch it with the bare hand or it will spoil. Printed in Luebeck by Johan Balhorn, 1570

This is not a recipe. It is a how to gild items that you may wish to present with edible gold. This is something I learned how to do through trial and error. It was an expensive lesson and I hope to spare someone else the expense based on my experiences.

What is edible gold leaf?

Gold leaf is actual gold that is a high enough quality that it can be safely consumed. Make sure that when you are purchasing gold leaf that it is marked as "edible", otherwise, you are risking the consumption of things that can make you ill. Gold leaf will not enter your digestive system, but will pass through your body without being absorbed. It is tasteless, and for the most part, it goes unnoticed while eating.

Is gold leaf expensive?

Edible gold leaf is expensive. Edible gold leaf is made from 24 karat.

What is the best use for gold leaf?

The best usage for gold leaf is as an accent to your presentation, rather than using it to completely cover an item. Regardless of how you use it, the use of it will lend a very luxurious look to your presentations.

What does it look like?

Gold leaf can be purchased as either loose leaf sheets, or transfer sheets. It is usually found in small booklets that are approximately 2" x 4". My preference are loose leaf sheets.

What tools will I need?

• Gloves - to prevent the gold leaf from sticking to the oils on your skin and messing up your work

• At least two very fine bristled brushes- one to transfer the gold from the sheet to your presentation and one to dampen the surface of your presentation so the gold has something to stick to (I use a paintbrush)

• An area that is free of drafts - the sheets that you purchase are extremely thin and very sensitive to airflow.

How do you apply gold leaf?

For loose gold leaf:

To use gold leaf, the surface that you will be attaching it to must be moist. You can moisten the area with a brush that has been dipped in water and then pressed onto a bit of paper towel to remove excess moisture before painting the surface of the object you will be gilding. You can also use egg whites, or a solution of gum Arabic.

Carefully fold back the paper of the booklet before lifting the leaf from between the paper with a clean, dry, brush and then move it onto the area you want to apply it. The gold will want to adhere to *everything* so you will need to be very careful when handling it that you use only a small amount at a time.

The sheets of gold are ultra thin and will fold over on themselves as soon as they are lifted from the paper.

I prefer a more rustic look when gilding. The Spanish Wedges pictured above are an example of that. The gold leaf does not adhere to the entire surface of the item.

For transfer gold leaf:

Using transfer gold leaf is not always advisable. If your project is smaller, loose leaf gold leaf is the better option. For large areas (such as an entire cake), transfer may be best.

As above, the area that will be covered should be moist. Unlike above, you will want to lift the transfer sheet and place it face down on the surface. You will want to smooth the leaf down using very light pressure to ensure that the sheet is stuck to the surface. A large make up brush would be best.

Once you have gone over the whole of the backing sheet, gently pull the backing away from the object starting from one corner. It is not unusual to find that small pieces of gold leaf may remain attached to the backing sheet. Repeat the above steps to adhere it to the object you are gilding.

Note: Gold Leaf will never have a 100% smooth finish and that is it's beauty, it will always be imperfectly perfect, so don't stress if it you see imperfections--whatever you have gilded will be absolutely stunning!

Source

Culina-Vetus.De, 2022, https://www.culina-vetus.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Koekerye-1570.pdf. Accessed 21 Sept 2022.