Icelandic cuisine

The flavors of this traditional country food originate in its preservation methods: pickling in fermented whey or brine, drying, and smoking.

At the annual Food and Fun chef's competition (held since 2004), competitors create innovative dishes with fresh ingredients produced in Iceland.

When Iceland was settled by immigrants from Scandinavia and Viking colonies in the British Isles, they brought their farming methods and food traditions of the Norse world.

The poultry, horse, sheep and goat stocks first brought to Iceland have since developed in isolation, unaffected by modern selective breeding.

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.

Archeological digs in medieval farms have revealed large round holes in storage rooms where the barrel containing the lactic acid was kept.

Two medieval stories tell of men who saved their lives in a burning house by staying submerged inside the acid barrel.

Medieval Icelanders used fermentation for preserving both fish and meat, a method that greatly alters the taste of the food, making it similar to very strong cheese.

The cooling of the climate during the Little Ice Age made it impossible to grow barley, and sheep replaced the more expensive cattle as predominant livestock.

Except for feasts, where tables would be laid, people ate their food from their laps, while sitting on their beds, which lined the outer wall of the house.

Fishing ships from the coastal areas of Europe stopped for provisions in Icelandic harbors and traded what they had with the local people.

This would include stale beer, salted pork, biscuits, and chewing tobacco, sold for knitted wool mittens, blankets, etc.

Merchant ships put in occasionally from Holland, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Spain, to sell their products, mainly for stockfish.

Corn bought from the merchant would be ground using a quern-stone (called kvarnarsteinn in Icelandic) and supplemented with dried dulse (seaweed) and lichens.

This could also be baked by burying the dough in special wooden casks in the ground close to a hot spring and picking it up the next day.

Food was served in askar, low and bulging wooden staved casks with a hinged lid and two handles, often decorated.

Forced into self-reliance, Icelanders began to emphasize production and consumption of local vegetables raised during the short growing season.

Reykjavík, which developed as village by the end of the 18th century, began to grow and became a center of a melting pot of Icelandic and Danish culinary traditions.

The modern generation rejected many traditional foods, embracing the concepts of "freshness" and "purity" associated with ingredients from the sea, especially when marketed abroad.

In the beginning of the 20th century, farmers living near the towns would sell their products to shops and directly to households, often under a subscription contract.

They granted the regional farmers' cooperatives, most of them founded around the start of the 20th century, a monopoly on dairy and meat production for the consumer market.

When a sheep was slaughtered (usually the young rams and infertile ewes), most or all of the carcass was used for making food, which was carefully preserved and consumed.

Vegetables such as rutabaga, cabbage and turnips are usually started in greenhouses in the early spring, and tomatoes and cucumbers are entirely produced indoors.

One version called vínarterta, popular in the late 19th century, with layers of prunes, became a part of the culinary tradition of Icelandic immigrants in the U.S. and Canada.

These are usually accompanied by a béchamel or mushroom sauce, boiled potatoes and peas, pickled beetroot or red cabbage and jam.

On 23 December (mass of Saint Thorlak) there is a tradition (originally from the Westfjords) to serve fermented skate with melted tallow and boiled potatoes.

The idea became very popular and for older generations the taste of the food will have brought back fond memories of growing up or spending summers in the countryside before World War II and the urbanisation boom.

Traditional dishes include the kransakaka of Danish origin and various types of brauðterta, similar to the Swedish smörgåstårta with filling of e.g. shrimp, smoked salmon or hangikjöt and liberal amounts of mayonnaise between layers of white bread.

Also popular for large family gatherings are various types of sponge cake, topped with fresh or canned fruit, whipped cream, marzipan and meringue.

This tradition is satirised in an often-quoted passage from Halldór Laxness's novel, Under the Glacier, where the character Hnallþóra insists on serving multiple sorts of sumptuous cake for the bishop's emissary at all meals.