Yes, Vikings Ate That

Yes, Vikings Ate That

Groennfell Meadery
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We put an enormous amount of work into our recipes at Colchester’s Mead Hall. Not just making the food every day, but coming up with the recipes themselves.

One of the reasons we have a limited and rotating menu is that everything you eat represents extensive research and tons of experimentation.

While most of our food is locally grown or made in-house, we strive to use only Old World ingredients: things that would have been available in Scandinavia during the Viking Era through late Middle Ages. We use traditional curing, smoking, boiling, and roasting techniques as well.

Why do we do all this work? Because it’s cool. And, frankly, we’re nerds about this. Rules actually help us to be more creative. If we can only use certain ingredients, it makes us think in new ways.

Another reason we do all of this is because the Vikings had an extremely healthy diet. It’s tough to conquer the land and seas without a good breakfast of fatty meats and lots of vegetables. As part of our mission to build strong communities, we are deeply committed to providing healthy, ethically sourced foods.

The one area where we take some license is with our cheeses. They are all imported from Scandinavia, and cheese was probably a very important part of the Viking diet, but we simply have no way of knowing what types of cheese they were eating.

Oh yeah, and since we’re fanatically committed to being an open source company, all of our recipes are free for you to make at home. Once we have them all locked-down, we’ll be publishing them for your enjoyment! 

If you’d like to try your hand at developing Viking-era dishes, some of our favorite resources are:
Viking Answer Lady
Hurstwic
And the wonderful book, Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink

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