Þorramatur - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Þorramatur (ˈθɔrːamatʏr̥, food of the Þorri
Þorri
Þorri is the Icelandic name of the personification of frost or winter in Norse mythology, and also the name of the fourth winter month in the Icelandic calendar....

) is a selection of traditional Icelandic food

Icelandic cuisine

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 , kleinur, laufabrauð and bollur...

, consisting mainly of meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

and fish

Fish (food)

Fish is a food consumed by many species, including humans. The word "fish" refers to both the animal and to the food prepared from it. Fish has been an important source of protein for humans throughout recorded history.-Terminology:...

products cured

Curing (food preservation)

Curing refers to various food preservation and flavoring processes, especially of meat or fish, by the addition of a combination of salt, nitrates, nitrite or sugar. Many curing processes also involve smoking, the process of flavoring, or cooking...

in a traditional manner, cut into slices or bits and served with rúgbrauð

Rúgbrauð

Rúgbrauð is an Icelandic straight rye bread, dark and dense, usually rather sweet, traditionally baked in a pot or steamed in special wooden casks by burying it in the ground near a hot spring. Modern rúgbrauð is usually made in a square baking pan. The bread is crustless, dark and very dense and...

(dense and dark rye bread

Rye bread

Rye bread is a type of bread made with various percentages of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat flour...

), butter

Butter

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...

and brennivín

Brennivín

Brennivín is a brand of schnapps that is considered to be Iceland's signature liquor. It is made from fermented potato mash and is flavoured with caraway seeds. It is sometimes called svarti dauði ....

(an Icelandic akvavit

Akvavit

Akvavit or aquavit is a traditional flavoured spirit that is principally produced in Scandinavia, where it has been produced since the 15th century....

). Þorramatur is consumed during the Nordic month of Þorri (Thorri), in January and February, particularly at the mid-winter feast of Þorrablót

Þorrablót

Þorrablót , or Thurseblot, is an Icelandic midwinter festival that takes place in the month of Þorri, according to the Old Icelandic Calendar, which starts in late January and ends in late February. These festivals were started by Icelandic student associations in the latter half of the 19th century...

(Thorrablot) as a tribute to old culture. Being thus connected with the tradition of Þorrablót festival

Festival

A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

s, Þorramatur is most often served as a buffet

Buffet

A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...

History

Þorramatur is an example of invented tradition

Tradition

A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...

that first emerged with the midwinter festivals of regional associations of migrants that had moved from the Icelandic countryside to Reykjavík

Reykjavík

Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...

during the urbanisation boom of the post-World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

-era. These festivals were very popular in the 1950s and 1960s and some of them are still held every year although their impact on Reykjavík nightlife has greatly diminished. Sometimes at these events, there would be served "Icelandic food" or "Icelandic food by ancient custom". This was usually a buffet of country food, often particular for the region in question and quite familiar to the people attending, but which had become rare on the tables of ordinary city-dwelling Icelanders by the middle of the 20th century.

The idea of connecting this kind of buffet to the month of Þorri

Þorri

Þorri is the Icelandic name of the personification of frost or winter in Norse mythology, and also the name of the fourth winter month in the Icelandic calendar....

and the Þorrablót

Þorrablót

festivals, which had been held by many student associations since the late 19th century, was of the restaurant Naustið in Reykjavík. In 1958 the restaurant started advertising Þorramatur, which is the first mention of the word in Icelandic texts. The food was served in large wooden troughs, containing enough food for four people, that were copies of old troughs that could be seen at the National Museum of Iceland

National Museum of Iceland

The National Museum of Iceland was established on 24 February 1863, with Jón Árnason the first curator of the Icelandic collection, previously kept in Danish museums...

. The idea, according to the owner, was to give people who were not members of a regional association the opportunity to taste traditional country food. It was also an attempt to revive an otherwise rather dull season for restaurants. The attempt was successful, as the idea immediately caught on and boosted the popularity of Naustið, even though it was quickly copied by other restaurants. Very soon, many of the regional associations and the student associations which organised Þorrablót festivals every year, started serving Þorramatur buffets at their events.

Þorramatur has undergone many changes since the 1950s. The large midwinter festivals of associations in Reykjavík have been supplemented by many smaller ones and nowadays even informal family gatherings can be called Þorrablót, which has become defined by the serving of Þorramatur, i.e. the consumption of Þorramatur is the necessary and sufficient condition for any kind of party

Party

A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, or recreation. A party will typically feature food and beverages, and often music and dancing as well....

to be called "Þorrablót". Originally, this led to the standardisation of the buffet around a few foods mass-produced by large meat-production houses for the Þorrablót season, whereas before it often had to be locally procured. Not least, Þorrablót festivals have become one of the high points of the year in the rural countryside and villages around Iceland in the last three decades. Being thus exported from the city to the countryside the buffet has come to reflect again regional culture and traditions.

Þorramatur has also changed to reflect changing tastes. The traditional method of storing meat by submerging it in fermented whey

Whey

Whey or Milk Serum is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a by-product of the manufacture of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is manufactured during the making of rennet types of hard cheese like cheddar or Swiss cheese...

, which gives the food a characteristic sour taste, is unfamiliar to most generations of Icelanders living today and therefore a Þorramatur buffet usually has a choice between sour and unsour pieces of the same food, served on separate trays as the acid readily contaminates food it comes in contact with. Some of the food, for example the rams' testicle

Testicle

The testicle is the male gonad in animals. Like the ovaries to which they are homologous, testes are components of both the reproductive system and the endocrine system...

s, has to be cured by the acid before serving though. A number of foods have been added to the buffet that have never gone out of fashion in Icelandic cuisine, such as smoked lamb

Domestic sheep

Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...

, fermented

Fermentation (food)

Fermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation in simple terms is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol...

shark

Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....

and dried fish, which are still commonly consumed in all seasons. Þorramatur also may include some novelties, traditional food that was strictly regional and even rare as such, and unfamiliar even to the older generation. Examples include seals

Pinniped

Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...

' flippers, known only from the Breiðafjörður

Breiðafjörður

Breiðafjörður is a large shallow bay, about 50 km wide and 125 km long and located in the west of Iceland. It separates the region of the Westfjords from the rest of the country. Breiðafjörður is encircled by mountains, including glacier Snæfellsjökull the Snæfellsnes peninsula on the south side...

area, which is sometimes, albeit rarely, served as part of Þorramatur.

Dishes

Þorramatur consists of many different foods, including:

Kæstur hákarl
Hákarl
Hákarl or kæstur hákarl is a food from Iceland. It is a Greenland or basking shark which has been cured with a particular fermentation process and hung to dry for four to five months...

, putrefied Greenland shark
Greenland shark
The Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus, also known as the sleeper shark, gurry shark, ground shark, grey shark, or by the Inuit languages name Eqalussuaq, is a large shark native to the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean around Greenland and Iceland. These sharks live farther north than any...
Súrsaðir hrútspungar, the testicle
Testicle
The testicle is the male gonad in animals. Like the ovaries to which they are homologous, testes are components of both the reproductive system and the endocrine system...

s of rams pressed in blocks, boiled and cured in lactic acid.
Svið
Svið
Svið is a traditional Icelandic dish consisting of a sheep's head cut in half, singed to remove the fur, and boiled with the brain removed, sometimes cured in lactic acid....

, singed and boiled sheep heads, sometimes cured in lactic acid
Sviðasulta, head cheese
Head cheese
Head cheese , or brawn , is a cold cut that originated in Europe. A version pickled with vinegar is known as souse. Head cheese is not a cheese but a terrine or meat jelly made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig , and often set in aspic. Which parts of the head are used can vary, but the...

or brawn made from svið, sometimes cured in lactic acid
Lifrarpylsa (liver sausage), a pudding made from liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...

and suet
Suet
Suet is raw beef or mutton fat, especially the hard fat found around the loins and kidneys.Suet has a melting point of between 45° and 50°C and congelation between 37° and 40°C....

of sheep kneaded with rye flour and oats
Blóðmör (blood-suet; also known as slátur, meaning slaughter), a type of blood pudding
Blood pudding
Blood pudding may refer to either:*Black pudding, a sausage made with animal blood*Tiết canh, a North Vietnamese blood pudding*Blood Pudding, an icelandic dish...

, which is made from lamb's blood and suet, kneaded with rye flour and oats
Harðfiskur, wind-dried fish (often cod
Cod
Cod is the common name for genus Gadus, belonging to the family Gadidae, and is also used in the common name for various other fishes. Cod is a popular food with a mild flavor, low fat content and a dense, flaky white flesh. Cod livers are processed to make cod liver oil, an important source of...

, haddock
Haddock
The haddock , also known as the offshore hake, is a marine fish distributed on both sides of the North Atlantic. Haddock is a popular food fish and is widely fished commercially....

or seawolf
Seawolf (fish)
The Atlantic wolffish , also known as the Seawolf, Atlantic catfish, ocean catfish, wolf eel , or sea cat, is a marine fish, the largest of the wolffish family Anarhichadidae. They are commonly sighted throughout Asia...

), served with butter
Rúgbrauð
Rúgbrauð
Rúgbrauð is an Icelandic straight rye bread, dark and dense, usually rather sweet, traditionally baked in a pot or steamed in special wooden casks by burying it in the ground near a hot spring. Modern rúgbrauð is usually made in a square baking pan. The bread is crustless, dark and very dense and...

(rye bread), traditional Icelandic rye bread
Rye bread
Rye bread is a type of bread made with various percentages of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat flour...
Hangikjöt
Hangikjöt
Hangikjöt is Icelandic smoked lamb or mutton, usually boiled and served either hot or cold in slices, traditionally with potatoes in béchamel sauce and green peas, or in thin slices on bread such as flatkaka or rúgbrauð....

, (hung meat), smoked and boiled lamb or mutton, sometimes also eaten raw.
Lundabaggi, sheep’s loins wrapped in the meat from the sides, pressed and cured in lactic acid
Selshreifar, seal's flippers cured in lactic acid

During the month of þorri, þorri buffets are quite popular in Iceland where many restaurants in Reykjavík

Reykjavík

and elsewhere serve þorramatur, sometimes on wooden platters, called trog (trough). At these gatherings, Icelandic Brennivín

Brennivín

is often consumed in copious amounts. Plastic trays with a selection of þorri

Þorri

Þorri is the Icelandic name of the personification of frost or winter in Norse mythology, and also the name of the fourth winter month in the Icelandic calendar....

delicacies can also be found in supermarkets during midwinter.

History

Dishes

Further reading