Viking Food

Page 3 of 5

• 1. The day begins
• 2. A typical day
• 3. Feast night
• 4. The end of the day
• 5. Find out more
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Feast night

With no fridges or freezers our Viking family has to take special measures to stop their food going bad. Meat and fish can be smoked or rubbed with salt. Fruit can be dried; grains are made into bread or ale. Dairy produce such as milk is made into cheese. Cooking the meat will make it last a little longer, making sausages will make it last longer still.

At sunset the family gather together in the long house. The usual evening meal will be enlarged tonight because it is one of the three Viking feast nights. In their homelands a horse would have been sacrificed to the old Gods. Horsemeat was spitted and roasted rather like a kebab. Sven and his family nominally follow the Christian faith, however, so although they celebrate the traditional feast, tonight they will dine on roast lamb. There will also be salted fish and pork, goat and plenty of fresh bread. For dessert the Vikings will eat fresh fruit and a little honey on buttered bread. Beer will be drunk as well as mead, a beverage made from honey.

'Horsemeat was spitted and roasted rather like a kebab.'

The Vikings had bowls and plates very similar to our own, but made more often from wood rather than pottery. They ate with a sharp pointed knife, which served as both a knife and a fork (the latter would not be invented for another century). Spoons were made from wood, horn or animal bone. They were often carved with delicate patterns of interlaced knotwork and the heads of fabulous beasts. Drink was taken in horns, similarly decorated and sometimes with metal tips and rims.

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Published: 2001-11-01