Once Sent from the Golden Hall

So, the theme of the week for Reddit’s 52 Weeks of Cooking Challenge is Nordic cuisine. As soon as I new that theme was coming up, I was ready to an awesome write-up about the explosion of popularity that Scandinavia has seen in recent years. About Rene Redzepi and about Noma, about Magnus Nilsson and Fäviken. To a much lesser extent,  I was going to write about how metal bands from the region are pretty spectacular. You can probably gather from the way this is going so far, those are not the things that I’m going to write about.

As I may or may not have mentioned on here before, I really have a thing for historical recipes. I think discovering how we ate through history is pretty fascinating, but also the recreation and reinterpretation of the same ideas can prove to be both challenging and exciting. So for Nordic cuisine, I wanted to look into how Vikings ate; what kind of staples held them over on their way to Valhalla. And as I typed “viking recipes” into the search engine, on only the second link to come up, and even the very first recipe from that link, a word appeared on the screen that would change my whole game plan.

Gruel

That’s right, gruel. The slop that was given to Dickensian orphans out of sheer economic necessity. As further research proved, gruel was actually a fairly common dish throughout Europe during the middle ages, and isn’t just a synonym for half-hilariously-half-painfully awful food. So, out the window  went my idea for a piece to pay homage to, if not the originators of than certainly the champions of, truly local food systems. In came the idea that amused me on a fairly childish level and made me giggle. I don’t know what that says about me as a chef.

Similar to a thin porridge, gruel is really just a cereal or grain that’s cooked with milk. It seems like the thickness is the defining factor, often being drank rather than eaten. Fruit and sugar are common additions to make it a bit more palatable. According to the site, vikings made porridge and gruel between the 7th and 11th of May over an open fire in their longhouses (no details are given as to why those dates are relevant). This is a pretty traditional version of the dish: Toasted barley, pears and honey. It came together in about 30 minutes and would make for a perfect, hearty breakfast, especially considering that cold months are rapidly approaching.

Toasted Barley Gruel with Pears & Honey

makes about 2 servings

• Anjou Pear, peeled, cored, 2 each
• Water, 4 cups
• Honey, 2 tablespoons, plus more as needed
• Pearled Barley, 1 cup
• Whole Milk, 4 cups
• Kosher Salt, 1/4 teaspoon

Combine water and honey and bring to a boil. Poach pears until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove While pears are cooking, add barley to a dry sauce pot and bring to medium-high heat. Toast until aromatic, about 2 minutes. Add milk and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer  and cook until barley is tender, about 20 minutes. Dice cooked pears and mix with barley, serve hot, topped with honey.

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Deck the Halls with Hops and Barley

Who likes Christmas? Everyone likes Christmas, that’s who. Regardless of your religious convictions, Christmas is universally seen as a pretty sweet time of year. Along with the more happy traditions of family gatherings and togetherness, there are the less savory traditions of… well, family gatherings and togetherness. At this point, many people choose to consume vast quantities of alcohol for one reason or another. And this brought the thought to mind, why not make some beer for the Christmas season?

To keep in the Christmas spirit, I brewed a Cranberry Witbier and a Spruce Ale. Pretty Christmas-y, right? Unfortunately, only the Cranberry yielded any good pictures, so we’ll talk about that one for now.

Witbiers are traditionally made from an even mix of malted wheat and barley. The batch the I brewed also had some flaked oats in it to add some body to the final product.

To make the beer nice and Christmas-y, during the boiling process I added fresh cranberries as well as cinnamon, coriander, bitter and sweet orange peel, and a traditional brewing spice called Grains of Paradise.

In keeping with the German Witbier tradition, hallertau hops were used for flavor, acidity, and aroma in the final beer.

I normally run ales on a 6 week fermentation schedule, so next weekend both beers with be transferred into secondary fermentation. To add more color and flavor, the Witbier will get an addition pound and a half of fresh cranberries that will get strained out before bottling. Once they’re done, I’ll post a tasting review and, if I get time, some recipes for a good food pairing.

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