Þorramatur

After the delicious Christmas goods disappeared from the supermarkets, the glazed hams, the roasted ptarmigan and all the other delicacies, the new seasonal goods have now arrived in the freezers: Þorramatur .

Lots of very special delicacies for your very own Þorrablót at home, to which you can invite friends and relatives.

Thorrablot

The Þorrablót was an ancient Nordic sacrificial festival celebrated between mid-January and mid-February. Everything that had a long shelf life in winter was eaten, especially pickled foods such as black pudding and liver sausage, mutton testicles, whale meat, seal fins... Sounds delicious, doesn't it? In recent decades, this ancient pagan tradition has been revived in Iceland (see the notes below for more on the history of Þorrablót).

Today you can easily get almost everything you need for a hearty Þorrablót in the supermarket:

Lots of very special traditional Þorramatur such as lamb meat heavily smoked over sheep dung ( hangikjöt ), salt meat ( saltkjöt ), sheep's head brawn ( sviðasulta ), pickled ram testicles ( súrsaðirhrútsprungar ), black pudding ( blóðmör ), liver sausage ( lifrapylsa ), rolled meat ( lundabaggar ), breast meat ( bringukol lar ), dried fish ( harðfiskur ) and rotten shark ( hákarl ).

We didn't dare touch the 2 kg bucket with various súrmatur (= meat products marinated in whey), ...

... but just to be on the safe side, just buy a small Þorrabakki (= serving tray with Þorramatur) with four different specialties, plus a classic pack of mashed turnips ( rófustappa ) and a pack of mashed potatoes ( kartöflumús ).

Traditionally, sweet rye bread ( rúgbrauð ) and flatbread ( flatbrauð ) with butter are served with it.

The Þorramat is actually eaten cold, with warm mashed turnips, warm mashed potatoes and bread served with it.

To be honest - not even that tasty for a Central European palate.

We didn't agree on what we liked the least - my husband found the testicles quite edible, but there were too many solid spots in the salted meat and he didn't like the sheep's head brawn at all. I found the testicles far too sour and too much goo, but I was able to eat the brawn with enough mashed potatoes and turnips to some extent. But really tasty - no, neither of us found it really tasty.

PS: The history of Þorrablót

Þorrablót is an ancient Nordic sacrificial festival celebrated in the fourth winter month of the Old Icelandic calendar ( Þorri ). Literally translated, Þorrablót means something like “blood (sacrifice) in the month of Þorri”.

The month of Þorri begins on the first Friday between January 19th and 26th. This month is also called the “drought month” - it is the month in which all supplies were finally used up and there was nothing new, fresh to eat.

In the past, people used to celebrate a big festival on the farms this month, taking turns in the neighborhood, at which traditional Icelandic food was served, everything that could be kept for a long time in winter - for example pickled foods such as black pudding and liver sausage, pickled mutton testicles, pickled things Whale meat... there was a lot of eating, drinking and sinking at these festivals. However, this "pagan festival" soon became a thorn in the side of the Christians and so it was forgotten or frowned upon over the centuries.

The first recorded Þorrablót of modern times took place in 1873, organized by a group of Icelandic students. Starting around 1880, the Icelandic Antiquities Society held an annual festive Þorrablot. In the 1950s, local heritage associations in the countryside also offered festive buffets for Þorrablót. The Naustið restaurant in Reykjavík began offering Þorramatur in 1958 to give city residents the opportunity to try this traditional Icelandic dish.

[Translated from here.]