Important parts of Icelandic cuisine are lamb, dairy, and fish, due to Iceland's proximity to the ocean. Popular foods in Iceland include skyr, hangikjöt (smoked lamb), kleinur, laufabrauð and bollur. Þorramatur is a traditional buffet served at midwinter festivals called Þorrablót and containing a selection of traditionally cured meat and fish products served with rúgbrauð (dense dark rye bread) and brennivín (an Icelandic akvavit). Much of the taste of this traditional country food is determined by the preservation methods used; pickling in fermented whey or brine, drying and smoking.
Modern Icelandic chefs usually place an emphasis on the quality of the available ingredients rather than age-old cooking traditions and methods. Hence, there is a number of restaurants in Iceland that specialise in seafood and at the annual Food and Fun chef's competition (since 2004) competitors create innovative dishes with fresh ingredients produced in Iceland. Points of pride are the quality of the lamb meat, seafood and (more recently) skyr. Other local ingredients that form part of the Icelandic chef's store include seabirds and waterfowl (including their eggs), salmon and trout, crowberry, blueberry, rhubarb, Iceland moss, wild mushrooms, wild thyme, lovage, angelica and dried seaweed as well as a wide array of dairy products.
Animal products dominate Icelandic cuisine and pursuing a vegan lifestyle in Iceland is impossible without relying on imported foods. Popular taste has developed, however, to become closer to the European norm, and consumption of vegetables has greatly increased in recent decades while consumption of fish has diminished. Fresh lamb meat remains very popular while traditional meat products, such as various types of sausages, have lost a lot of their appeal with younger generations.
History
The roots of Icelandic cuisine are to be sought in the traditions of Scandinavian cuisine, as Icelandic culture, from its settlement in the 9th century onwards, is a distinctly Nordic culture with its traditional economy based on subsistence farming. Several events in the history of Iceland were of special significance for its cuisine. With Christianisation in 1000 came the tradition of fasting and a ban on horse meat consumption, but the event which probably had the greatest impact on farming, and hence, food, was the onset of the Little Ice Age in the 14th century. This severely limited the options of the farmers who were not able to grow barley anymore and had to rely on imports for any kind of cereal. The cooling of the climate also led to important changes in housing and heating where the longhouse of the early settlers, with its spacious hall, was replaced by the Icelandic turf houses with many smaller rooms, including a proper kitchen, which persisted well into the 20th century.
Usually the Reformation in 1550 marks the transition between the medieval period and the early modern period in Icelandic history. Until the agricultural reforms, brought on by the influence of the Enlightenment, farming in Iceland remained very much the same from the 14th century to the late 18th century. A trade monopoly instituted by the Danish king in 1602 had a certain impact on culinary traditions although the influence of the cuisine of Denmark was most felt in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. In the early 20th century an economic boom based on fishing caused a slow transition from traditional dairy and meat-based foods to fish and root vegetables, which was at the same time a transition from the dominance of preserved foods towards greater emphasis on fresh ingredients.
Medieval Iceland
When Iceland was settled by immigrants from Scandinavia and Viking colonies in the British isles they brought with them the farming methods and food traditions of the Norse world. Research indicates that the climate was much milder in Iceland during the Middle Ages than it is now and sources tell of cultivation of barley and oats. Most of this would have been consumed as porridge or gruel or used for making beer. Cattle was the dominant farm animal, but farms also raised poultry, pigs, goats, horses and sheep. The poultry, horse, sheep and goat stocks first brought to Iceland have since developed in isolation, unaffected by modern selective breeding. Therefore they are sometimes called the "settlement breed" or "Viking breed".
Preservation methods
Fish was stored in salt and before the Black death Iceland exported stockfish to the fish market in Bergen. However, salt seems to have been less abundant in Iceland than in Norway and saltmaking, which was mostly done by boiling sea water or burning seaweed, gradually disappeared when overgrazing caused a shortage of firewood in most parts of the country in the 14th century. Instead of curing with salt the practice of preserving meat in fermented whey became dominant in Iceland. This method was also known from Norway but acquired little significance there. Archeological digs in medieval farms have revealed large round holes in storage rooms where the barrel containing the acid was kept. Two medieval stories tell of men who save their lives in a burning house by staying submerged inside the acid barrel. Like the Norwegians, medieval Icelanders knew the use of fermentation for preserving both fish and meat, a method that greatly alters the taste of the food, making it similar to very strong cheese. Fermentation is still used to cure shark (see hákarl), skate and herring. Fermented eggs are a regional delicacy, rarely found nowadays. The practice of smoking and drying meat and fish was also practiced, although the drying of meat was seen as somewhat of a last resort, the preferred method being pickling in acid.
Cheese
Cheese was made from goat and sheep milk as well as cow milk. Skyr, a soft yoghurt-like cheese eaten with spoons, was originally a tradition brought to Iceland from Norway but has only survived in Iceland. The whey left over when making skyr was made to go sour and used for storing meat. It is likely that the predominance of skyr in Icelandic cuisine caused the disappearance of other cheesemaking traditions in the modern era, until industrial cheesemaking started in the first half of the 20th century. Cheesemaking made necessary the practice of seter-farming ( seljabúskapur ), living in mountain huts in the highlands in late spring where the kids/lambs were separated from their mothers while they were milked. Cheesemaking would sometimes take place directly in these huts.
Cooking and meals
In the longhouses of the first settlers there was usually a long fire in the center to warm the house. Around it there were holes dug in the floor that were used as earth ovens for baking bread and cooking meat by placing it in the hole, with hot embers from the fire, and covering tightly for the time needed. Boiling was done in wooden staved churns by putting hot stones from the fire directly into the liquid (a practice that continued to the modern age). Low stone hearths were also used, but mostly the cooking was done on the floor. The longhouses were gradually replaced by Icelandic turf houses in the 14th century. These would have a kitchen with a raised stone hearth for cooking called hlóðir . At the same time the cooling of the climate during the Little Ice Age made it impossible to grow barley and sheep replaced the more expensive cattle as dominant livestock. Iceland became dependent on imports for all cereals. The shortage of firewood meant that peat, dung and dried heather became standard heating materials.
In medieval Iceland there were two meals during the day, the lunch or dagverður at noon and supper or náttverður at the end of the day. Food was eaten from bowls. Wooden staved tankards with a hinged lid were used for drinking, but these would later develop into the bulging casks, called askar used for serving food. Elaborately carved drinking horns were used on special occasions by the upper class. Spoons were the most common eating utensil, made of horn or bone, and often decorated with carvings. Except for feasts, where tables would be laid, people ate their food from their lap, sitting on their beds which lined the outer wall of the longhouse. An important role of the farmer's wife was to correctly portion the food. In richer households this role was entrusted to a special butler called bryti .
Early modern period
The thing that defined Icelandic subsistence farming from the middle ages well into the 20th century, was the short production period (summer) compared to the long cold period. Apart from occasional game, the food produced in the three months of summer had to suffice for nine months of winter. It has been estimated that using these methods of subsistence Iceland could support a population of around 60,000. During all these centuries farming methods changed very little and fishing remained confined to hook and line from rowboats constructed from d
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