If you visit Iceland in late January or February, you'll notice restaurants advertising special "traditional food" menus and grocery stores selling trays of food that look like a dare. Welcome to Iceland's midwinter feast season, when Icelanders celebrate the old ways of eating.
The feast is called Þorrablót (roughly "THOR-ra-blote"), after an old Icelandic winter month. That's the only Icelandic word you need for this one.
What it is
The season begins on a Friday in late January (between January 19 and 25) and runs until late February. The tradition started as a pagan midwinter feast and was revived in the 19th century as a celebration of Icelandic heritage, and it has stuck.
Today, towns, clubs, workplaces and families throw midwinter parties: long tables, traditional food, schnapps, singing and, often, dancing late into the night.
What's on the plate
The menu is the food Icelanders preserved to survive winter before refrigeration: dried, smoked, salted or soured in whey. Some of it is delicious to anyone. Some of it is an acquired taste. Here's what you'll find, from easy to extreme.
The easy ones
- Dried fish: Eaten with butter. The friendliest thing on the tray.
- Smoked lamb: Rich and savory, usually on rye flatbread.
- Rye bread: Dark, dense and slightly sweet.
- Pickled herring.
- Mashed rutabaga, served alongside the meat.
The middle ground
- Liver sausage: A little like a mild, crumbly pâté.
- Blood sausage: Bound with oats.
- Head cheese: A jellied loaf made from sheep's head.
The deep end
- Singed sheep's head: Cut in half and served whole. Yes, eyes included.
- Soured ram's testicles: Pressed and preserved in whey.
- Soured meats in general: Preserving food in whey gives it a sharp, tangy flavor.
- Fermented shark: Cured for weeks and dried for months. Strong ammonia smell. Eaten in small cubes.
And to wash it down: Brennivín, Iceland's caraway-flavored schnapps, nicknamed "Black Death."
Why sour food?
Iceland has always been short on salt and firewood. Souring food in whey, left over from making skyr, was a cheap, reliable way to preserve meat through a long winter. It's an old survival technique that turned into a tradition.
How a visitor can try it
- Restaurants: Many Reykjavík restaurants offer traditional midwinter plates or tasting menus during the season. It's the easiest way to try a little of everything.
- Grocery stores: During the season, supermarkets sell ready-made trays of the traditional foods and tubs of fermented shark. Buy a small mixed tray and share it with your group.
- Local parties: These are usually community events, often ticketed and in Icelandic. If an Icelandic friend invites you, go.
- Year-round: Dried fish, smoked lamb and fermented shark are sold all year, so you can try the highlights any time.
How to survive your first midwinter plate
- Start easy. Dried fish with butter, then smoked lamb on flatbread.
- Work up. Try the liver sausage and head cheese next.
- Save the shark for last. One small cube, chewed a few times, then the schnapps.
- Don't judge by the smell. Most of it tastes milder than it smells.
- Take pictures. Nobody back home will believe you otherwise.
The gateway snack
Ask Icelanders which midwinter food they'd eat any day of the year and most will say the dried fish. It's the gateway dish, the one that needs no bravery at all.
It's also the one we're bringing to the U.S. HardFish is wind-dried Icelandic cod with nothing added but salt (and no ram's anything), at about 84% protein. Join the founding list and we'll let you know when it launches.