Hrossabjúgu, uppstúf og kartöflustappa

Horse sausage, white sauce and mashed potatoes

Here I'll show you a very classic Icelandic specialty - "bjúga", a sausage made from meat dough, salted and smoked. (Incidentally, bjúgu used to be the classic lunch on the day before Christmas Eve, on Þorláksmessa.)

The sausage “bjúga” is made from horse, pork or beef. It consists of meat that is put through a meat grinder and the sausages are then salted and smoked. This gives the sausage its very special, intense smoky taste. I found it to take a bit of getting used to, but ultimately quite tasty!

By the way, our horse sausages here were traditionally served in a white sauce with potatoes or mashed potatoes as well as peas and red cabbage.

Ingredients for 4 servings

4 sausages

Ingredients for the white sauce

1 Tbsp margarine
1 Tbsp flour
400 ml milk

1 tsp sugar

1 pinch of coarse sea salt

1 pinch of pepper

1 pinch of nutmeg

Ingredients for the mashed potatoes

800 g potatoes

100 ml warm milk

150 g soft butter

salt and pepper

1 Tbsp sugar

Preparation

Put the sausages with skin in a pot, pour in cold water and bring to the boil.

Then reduce the heat and let the sausages simmer for about 30 minutes.

For the sauce, melt the margarine in a small saucepan.

Add the flour and stir.

Then pour in the milk in small portions while stirring constantly and then let the whole thing simmer for about 5 minutes.

Then season with sugar, salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.

To make the mashed potatoes , wash the potatoes, peel them if necessary and boil them in salted water.

Then drain the water and mash the cooked potatoes and mix with the hot milk.

Melt the butter in it, stir and season with salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon of sugar to taste.

Then serve the bjúgu directly with the mashed potatoes, the white sauce and peas and red cabbage.

[Translated from here.]