SC - Sources, not sauces... slightly OT

[Brian L. Rygg or Laura Barbee-Rygg]

Bear wrote:

>I've got a few questions about whey preservation and the cellar.
>
>In the arctic regions I have been in, permafrost, permanently frozen
>sub-soil is common.  Cellars dug into permafrost often act as refrigerators
>as long as the are insulated from external heat sources, such as heated
>house.  Does Iceland have permafrost and are the cellars seperate from the
>house?


No, we do not have permafrost and freezing really wasn´t an alternative
except for short periods of time, because the weather here is so unstable.
There is no evidence that freezing was ever used as a method of
preservation. Not that food wasn´t sometimes frozen - unintentionally. The
following is taken from the writings of a 19th century Icelander, describing
the food of his childhood:

"The evening meal was eaten at 8 o´clock. That was usually hræringur, a
mixture of skyr (curds) and a porridge. This was not always very appetizing
in winter, when the skyr was sometimes frozen solid and had to be chopped up
with an axe – and the porridge bowls contained as much ice as skyr. And the
room where the people ate their meals was usually icy cold as well."

We also do not have cellars. That is, traditional Icelandic buildings do not
have cellars but sometimes holes or caves were dug into hills and used for
storage - they are called "jarðhús" (earth houses). There was one on the
farm where I grew up, mostly used to store potatoes. It was dug into a small
hill, at least 100 meters from the farmhouse.

The whey barrels were usually dug into the floor of the pantry, or the
kitchen itself, if there wasn´t a separate pantry. This seems to have been
done from a very early age; excavations at Stöng in Þjórsárdalur, buried by
volcanic ash in the early 11th century, show that three huge barrels have
been dug into the floor there.

>Adamantius commented about the lactobacillus in the whey.  The
lactobacillus
>I am familiar with (in sourdough), produce acetic acid when they are in an
>aerobic environment and produce lactic acid when they are in an anaerobic
>environment.  Is there any information about the types and concentrations
of
>acid in the whey pickling process?


I´m not too sure about this but will try to find out something.

Nanna

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