Attention Brethren: The Viking Battle Begins! Come Join the "Viking Feast" BBQ Brethren Throwdown!

[Moose]

Our new TD category is...

"A Viking's Feast"



How exciting! We get to wear really cool helmets and drink lots of alcohol!I hope that's one of the special rules of this TD!
:clap2:


As chosen by Kathy's Smokin' for her brilliant win in the "Let's Cook Like Julia Child!" Throwdown.

I would like to call "A Viking's Feast" TD next. I've gotten interested in Scandanavian cuisine (a cultural region consisting of the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and sometimes also of Iceland, Finland, and the Faroe Islands) from watching Scandanavian chefs on the public television series "New Scandanavian Cooking". (http://www.newscancook.com) What strikes me the most about Scandanavian cooking is their love of cooking outdoors, much of the time in cold and windy weather conditions. Either old or new Viking/Scandanavian cuisine is welcome in this TD. Right now Copenhagen, Denmark, is on the cutting edge of new gourmet fare.

Moose, I amalgamated the following from reading a few articles.

Old time Vikings had to preserve protein without electricity which meant smoking meat and fish was important to winter and seafaring survival. Typical available meats were pigs, sheep, goats, cows, horses (all for meat and milk); hare, wild boar, squirrel, deer, reindeer, seal, walrus, polar bear; chicken, geese, ducks, wild birds (all for meat and eggs). They typically drank little whole milk, rather they made dairy products like buttermilk, curds, butter and cheese. Milk was only available in spring when animal mothers were nursing their young. Cheese and butter were fermented to keep over winter. Cultivated grains were oats, rye, barley, wheat and bread was made flat or risen with wild yeast, buttermilk, sour milk and leftover yeast from brewing beer. Vikings drank a lot of ale and celebrated with mead. Freshwater fish like salmon, trout and eel were important as well as coastal shellfish, herring and deep-sea cod. Common fruit and vegetables were wild carrots, turnip, cabbage, onion, apples, plums, cherries, wild strawberries and sloes (blackthorn bush fruit). Hazelnuts and walnuts were gathered. Spices and flavourings included dill, corriander, wild celery, horseradish, cumin, mustard, hops, poppyseed, fennel, sea salt and honey. Potatoes, orange carrots, tomatoes and sweet corn were not available in the Old Viking Era but are available to modern day Vikings. Food was smoked, spit-roasted and soups/stews were a permanent fixture on open fires.

Did you get all that? Good! :mrgreen:

Now I just have to figure out how to make Viking Nachos!



You may submit entries that are cooked from Friday 8/2 through Sunday 8/11.

Entry pictures must be submitted by 6 a.m. Central US Time on Monday morning 8/12.

Click HERE to go to the entry thread.


Best of luck and even better eats to all!

 

[Moose]

 

[Happy Hapgood]

It should be a good one!

 

[Ron_L]

There's a Viking Throwdown? How cool! That would be almost as much fun as a Pickle Throwdown!