Revisiting Rations, Part 7: Norse

Revisiting Rations, Part 7:  Norse

It was requested that I do a Norse-style ration, and, to be honest, I portray a person of that culture in my LARPing, so this is somewhat near and dear to my heart.  What we have here comes largely from the Ribe Viking Center and some of these recipes are things I've been making since I first starting cooking for my LARPing.

What we have here is a smoked herring and slice of leg of lamb served with honey-dill mustard, "trail bread" with bacon and onions, goat cheese, gjetost (another type of goat cheese, basically), and, of course, mead.

The Meat:  Lamb and Herring

Yes, that's a whole herring (well, okay, it's gutted) and a slice of lamb.  These were salted to help dry them prior to smoking and were very lightly seasoned--after all, we have mustard for them.  These meats are dry and heavily smoked (I used apple wood here) so that they will last the weekend.

Honey-Dill Mustard

I need to get a better camera (and more serving bowls) if I'm going to keep this up.  Stay posted!  This is a whole-grain mustard made with mustard seed, dill, honey, red wine, and red wine vinegar, then ground in a mortar and pestle until it just comes together.  It's quite spicy and rather nice with the plain meats.  I might want to add a dash of horseradish next time, though.

Goat Cheese

This is, effectively, a slightly salted chevre and one I made in preparation for this ration.  It's good, but very distinct from cow's milk cheese.  Note that even though it's a full round, this is a very thin wheel (I didn't get much goat milk) and so it is what it is.

Gjetost

Gjetost is also known as Ski Queen cheese, peanut butter cheese, and probably a bunch of other things.  I got very hooked on it when I was hanging with a friend from Norway.  It is, effectively, the cooked-down whey from making goat cheese (if you do it with cow's milk, the result is called mysost).  Because this batch is homemade, it has crystallized somewhat and, as a result, isn't as smooth as the stuff you'll get at the store, but it's still delicious, and besides, you might as well use that whey!

Mead

I know, I know, you can't see the golden deliciousness in that mug.  This particular batch is Bray's One Month Mead, albeit aged for about 6 months now.  It is delicious and slightly sweet still (which is surprising given that this typically brews very dry).  It made a perfect accompaniment to the meal here, although I may have wanted another mug.  Or two.  Or just finish off the gallon and be done with it.

How Long Will it Last?

Okay, in this case, we have both seafood AND dairy to worry about.  Except we really, really don't.  The goat cheese is going to be the first thing to go bad, and that's assuming you let it get hot.  Keep it cool and dry and you'll be good all weekend.

A note on the mead:  if allowed to get hot, there is a VERY good chance that fermentation will restart, meaning that any bottle you keep it in might just become a foamy bomb.  So keep it cool and skol!