What did the Vikings eat?

The word Viking is the old Norse word for pirate or raider which is something they became very famous for, and because of this people of other countries began to refer to the people of Scandinavia as Vikings. They were known as fierce warriors, skilled traders, and sailors, making themselves famous by raiding many different countries and spreading their culture and religion in the lands they captured. Most people know what they looked like and almost anyone can recognize a Viking longship, but when it comes down to their diet this is more of a mystery, so what did Vikings eat?

Food obviously played a huge role in the survival and prosperity of a civilization, but the Viking‘s lack of decent growing land was one of the main reasons why they ventured out in search of other countries. Here’s a list of the foods that were eaten in Scandinavia between the years 700AD and 1100AD, the age of the Vikings.

Grain

Barley, Oats, Rye

Barley, Oats, and Rye were the only grains they farmed and these would have been the most important thing to grow during the year. Vegetables and fruit go off and you can’t guarantee you’re going to catch fish or game, but grain can be dried and provided the only guarantee of food through the winter.

Grain was fermented and made into ale which was flavoured with hops grown on a semi-wild basis. Making bread, porridge, and adding grain to stews were the most common ways to cook with it, something mostly done by the women. The dough would be made and flattened into breads which were roasted on a rack next to the open fire pit in the centre of their homes.

Vegetables

Cabbage, peas, beans, Garlic, Leeks, Turnips, chickpeas, lentils, nettles, seaweed

Viking gardens were typically quite small, with a huge portion of their diet being made up of grain, fish, meats, and wild food. Only grain was mass-farmed since it was the most important crop, leaving vegetables to be optional for anyone who had the land and the time to tend them.

Since there was no way to preserve vegetables in the long term they were more of a substantial food boost during the summer and Autumn as opposed to a regular staple. A huge amount of their food came from gathering in the wild, and nettles are known to have been heavily featured in their diet. Wild green leaf plants, root vegetables like burdock, seaweed, and a small selection of herbs all helped to bulk up their meals.

Meat and Fish

Cow, Goat, Sheep, Pig, Duck, Chicken, Trout, Salmon, Whale, Eel

Tending animals was a very important job in the Viking community as they provided a consistent source of food. A chicken or duck will lay its body weight in eggs several times over during its lifetime and is only seen on the dinner table if they were either old or male. Goats and sheep were herded in the countryside and normally stayed on farms outside the settlement, providing much-appreciated milk.

Cows and pigs were more valuable and were the kind of animals to be slaughtered for a feast. The more valuable animals would often live in the same house as the people would, with a central wall dividing the property into two to form a barn in one half. Fish was a major staple to the Vikings which is one of the main reasons the majority of their settlements were built along the coast. The types of fish and shellfish they would have eaten would depend on what they could catch at the time, but fish is thought to have made up at least a quarter of their total diet.

Fruit and nuts

Sloe berries, bilberries, lingonberries, apples, cloudberries, raspberries, hazelnuts, pine nuts

Due to the cold climate fruit has a difficult time getting the right amount of sun to make them big and sweet which often leads to smaller and more sour harvests. Hazel and pine trees were the only nuts-bearing trees that were plentiful enough to provide a decent harvest and acorns would most likely have been gathered on mass during the fall. Since it was so difficult to grow fruit it was collected almost exclusively on a wild gathering basis as the tiny amount it would provide wasn’t worth wasting good growing soil over.

Other foods

Dairy products, Honey, vinegar

Dairy was highly valuable to the Vikings and not just because of the food it provided. It was an excellent source of calcium and protein that would come in throughout the whole year and not just when something was slaughtered. Studies on the bones of Vikings have found that in general, they didn’t suffer from a lack of nutrients, even though they severely lacked fruit and a variety of grown vegetables. Every drop of milk would have been used in one form or another, the leftover whey from making cheese would be poured into soups and stews and buttermilk was drank whenever available.

Honey was the only form of sugar they had and was often made into mead which was the strongest source of alcohol they could make. It would be considered a rare treat to eat it directly and was more often than not turned into mead. They had no way of farming bees and honey could only be obtained from destroying a nest, giving no more than a pint for every time they did so. Products like vinegar were used mostly to preserve things, such as pickled herring or onions. They made it by simply making ale and leaving it exposed to the air which turns it sour and breaks down the alcohol into vinegar.

Food preservation

Grain was the easiest thing to preserve as all it took was drying it out after the harvest and making sure it didn’t get wet again. Dried grain can last for several years if kept in the right conditions but would only have to last through a single winter.

Meats would be smoked for the short term but would only last a couple of weeks, which was fine if a single animal was slaughtered and shared between a family. The only long-term method for preserving meat was salting, something that worked best with pork due to its naturally high salt content. The meat would be placed in a pot with alternating layers of salt and meat, with a strong brine being poured in when the container was full to fill in any gaps. Salted meat can last for several weeks to a few months if done properly, but it would be risky to leave it for such a length of time.

Stockfish is the other product that was mass-produced across Scandinavia and provided people with a source of seafood that could last for several months. Stockfish is just whitefish like cod that has been gutted and hung up to dry in cold air for several weeks which removes all the moisture and makes it safe to eat for a long time. To eat stockfish you have to soak it in water for several hours first or preferably overnight.

Instead of having to risk eating three-month-old salted pork, their animals would be slaughtered periodically to ensure fresh meat was available as often as possible. Vinegar was the only method they had of preserving vegetables since it could be produced in large quantities, but there are only so many pickled goods people can eat before getting sick of them.