SC - A new project....

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

ÚlfR wrote:

>Is the stuff sold in stores in Iceland live? Or can one purchase the
>culture in a more stable form? In other words, what ways would I have of
>obtaining a way to make the real thing?


Yes, it is, and no, you can´t, as far as I know. Well, you could ask someone
who is going to Iceland to pick up some skyr for you ... Skyr was available
in Denmark in the 1970s and 80s but I don´t think it is commercially made
there any more. Or if you think the Swedish postal/customs/whatever
authorities wouldn´t mind, I can always try to mail you some. (Here in
Iceland, we hold the opinion that in Sweden, anything that is not
expressively allowed is forbidden by default.)

>One I saw -- and have used extensively -- was to use yoghurt (in Sweden
>yoghurt is like the Greek stuff, but with less fat -- 3% unless you buy
>the tasteless low fat versions -- and more pourable in consistency), and
>strain it overnight. The result has a consistency a bit like cream
>cheese, and have a tart, yoghurty, flavour. How close would this be?

Close enough to use in recipes, I´d say. To me, skyr has a pretty unique
taste but I´m not sure how others will find it. I´ve seen the sweetened,
modern versions likened to Indian shrikhand, which I can´t remember having
tasted, but it is basically strained yoghurt, beaten and sweetened.

>Are you talking thick as in hard cheese, or as in cream cheese? Would it
>still be spreadable? Since t is mixed I presume the latter.

Yes, cream cheese is about right, but this type isn´t available commercially
any more - not here in Reykjavík at least. The traditional skyr now sold is
somewhat softer and not quite as tart. But the modern, milder versions are
much more popular with the younger generations.


>Any period (or at least perioid) recipies featuring it? I recall
>mentions from the sagas of it being eaten, and of Grettir encountering a
>maid carrying a skin full of it, but never a recipie.


I can´t remember any recipes offhand but some sources seem to indicate that
unstrained skyr, ólekja, was drunk or eaten as a soup - we still make soup
from it and eat it with crushed rusks or even cornflakes. There are lots of
18th and 19th century recipes or descriptions of food that includes skyr but
I can´t recall anything older than that. Except berjaskyr, and maybe
hræringur  - I´ll try to look that up tomorrow.

>> Berjaskyr - skyr mixed with bilberries and crowberries - is actually my
>
>Crowberries as in Empetrum nigrum? I have a slight aversion to them
>after subsisting to a large extent on them and iceland lichen (Cetraria
>islandica) for a week a few years ago, but yes, the flavour could be
>nice here. And V. myrtillus is *nice* in such contexts. I need to pick
>some E. nigrum this summer and freeze. Definitely.

Yes, it is Empetrum nigrum. Well, as I´ve said, crowberries and bilberries
were the only berries I had tasted until I was a teenager, and I concede
that crowberries might not taste all that wonderful to someone used to a
much wider variety of wild berries.
>
>> favorite food ever. And hræringur - skyr mixed with cold oatmeal
>> porridge -is one of the very few foods I really dislike. Unfortunately,
my
>
>This will have to be tried. It sounds interesting, and not nessesarilly
>bad at all. If it turns out well I can see a cold lunch in SCA camps (is
>it documentable? Pretty please with wildflower honey on top tell me it
>is?). Would other porridges than pure oatmeal ever be used?


Yes, orginally it would probably have been barley porridge, or maybe rye.
And it isn´t really that bad, I know quite a few people who like it. I´ll
try to find out if it is documentable.

Nanna