[Sca-cooks] Icelandic, Saami and "Viking Food"

Fri Feb 4 12:57:25 PST 2011

Something to add to our repertoire of bizarre and yummy foods.

Lifrarpylsa - Icelandic style Haggis 
(http://www.simnet.is/gullis/jo/meats.htm#Lifrarpylsa)
Mjólkursoðinn lundi- Puffin in milk 
sauce(http://www.simnet.is/gullis/jo/meats.htm#lundi)
Svið og sviðasulta- Sheep's heads and sheep's head jam 
(http://www.simnet.is/gullis/jo/meats.htm#heads)

Blóðmör - Icelandic blood sausage( 
http://icecook.blogspot.com/2010/01/blomor-icelandic-blood-sausage.html)Dyrestek 
med viltsaus- Roasted Reindeer with game sauce. I have about a dozen variations 
of this recipe. This is the quickest version in English. If anyone can send me 
reindeer I will be Seventh Heaven! Elk is the closes I can find. Caribou is 
seasonal and recently difficult to get. 

(http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/showRecipe.jsp?document=ReindeerRoast.html)

The Saami have a dozen or variations of cooking and serving reindeer. They even 
made butter and cheese from the milk.  After the 17th Century many Saami women 
started taking care of goats and cattle, but reindeer remained a staple. I have 
to find it again, but in recent years they have had "Saami Iron Chef" in 
Northern Sweden using reindeer. 

 ánægð Þorrablót! February is also the month where Iceland celebrates Þorri! 
This is the time of month where skyrhákarl,and glerhákarl are eaten with a lot 
ofbrennivin. ( wonder what this is??? It makes lutfisk taste yummy!)

Bless Bless
Aelina

Duct Tape is like the Force: It has a light side & a dark side
and it holds the universe together.

________________________________

Randell Raye said:
>  I just need to learn the appropriate Asian language words for Sheep stomach
>  and lungs...then I can make a haggis :)

To which Stefan replied:
> Getting lungs in the US will be a problem. I'm not sure what your information 
>sources are for haggis, but you might wish to look at this file. I seem to 
>remember that some of the recipes in this file are actually period, as opposed 
>to just being "traditional". I also seem to remember some vegetarian haggis, or 
>at least the filling is.
> 
> haggis-msg (106K) 1/29/08 Scottish haggis recipes. comments on haggis.
> http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MEATS/haggis-msg.html
> 
> There are also comments on canned haggis. I did recently finally taste some 
>canned haggis at a fair here in Austin a few months ago. Actually not too bad, 
>but much, much stronger tasting than the freshly made haggis that I've had.

As i have posted, lungs are not legal to be sold as human food in the US because 
of the potential of spreading diseases.

As for haggis, last August i posted a sort of synopsis of a recipe for a 16th c. 
Persian dish called gipa (hard g, as is good), which is strikingly like haggis. 
Here is the current version of my translation from Fragner's German translation:

Bert G. Fragner
"Zur Erforschung der kulinarischen Kultur Irans"
(Toward an Exploration of Iranian Culinary Arts)
in Die Welt des Islams 23-24 (1984), pp. 320-360.

gîpâ-polâw (n.40)
pp. 350-351

Know that, cooked according to rule and regulation, gîpâ is a tasty dish, when 
it is prepared properly. Thus it is done: Clean rumen stomachs, abdominal 
networks and mesentery*/chitterlings (shîrdân va charbâ-ye rudâ va shekanbâ) of 
sheep several times and'afterwards rubbed with Iraqi soap (?, sâbûn-e 'erâqî) 
using a napkin and then rinsed again. Then shred/chop a lot of meat, and it is 
important that it has no bones. Fat-tail from sheep is used in large quantities, 
such that cracklings are processed and removed. [In the hot fat] put onions in 
the weight of two mann according to Tabriz measurement, also fifty mesqâl of 
spices, valerian (?, sonbolâ)** and davâlâ (probably a kind tree lichen) in 
necessary quantity, and finally a half-mann of rice. Some people add saffron as 
well. The quantity of meat should be two mann and tail fat equal to one mann -- 
these are the ingredients for a whole meal. All this is mixed [over the fire]. 
The lower the liquid, the better it is, because so much onion is used for this 
dish. If one uses too much liquid, the food loses its consistency and is 
overcooked. Now the sheep's rumen and the other [innards] are filled, as should 
be, so they do not burst. Once they are filled, they are sewn shut, placed in a 
kettle and cooked, until they are soft. Then wipe them off and wash them in cold 
water. If one lines the bottom of the kettle with sheep ribs, [the gîpâ] is 
particularly good. The latter is a creation of my very own self! Then layer the 
rumen stomach and the other [guts] nicely [in a vessel] over one another, drip 
fat and clear meat soup (shorba) there over and let the whole marinade. The fire 
must be set up so [low] that the dish simmers very slowly until morning and, 
when it is done, is not burned, but soft and lightly browned. In the morning, 
place a thin flat bread on it and the gîpâ done.

40) gîpâ is obviously a very traditional category of dishes in which rice is 
combined with offal. In cookbooks from the 20th century gîpâ-dishes are no 
longer mentioned with one exception. Only Forough Hekmat (The Art of Persian 
Cooking, Tehran, 1961, p. 82 f.) describes two gîpâ recipes. With regard to 
Boshâq-e at'emâ he says explicitly, that we are dealing with very old-fashioned 
food, that one traditionally used to eat early morning. (Similar to kallâ-pâchâ, 
soup made from sheep's heads and feet). As already mentioned, Bâ'ûrchî-Baghdadi 
(1521) still brings a total of nine gîpâ recipes (Kârnâmâ, p. 166-172).

(my notes)
* Mesentery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesentery
(not sure what American butchers call it, if they call it anything... anyone 
know?)

** sonbola = sumbul, which often = jatamansi = spikenard

I have left in the special characters, in this case a-circumflex, i-circumflex, 
and u-circumflex (originally written as those vowels with macrons), but i know 
these sometimes cause problems in e-mail.
-- Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita
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