A viking day

With all big events of the summer cancelled, you have to create your own opportunities to wear costumes and have fun. Up in Rättvik two women, who had planned to spend the summer on tour to different viking markets and events to sell their goods, have instead put up a viking camp that you can visit and experience the viking life. This weekend they had a bit of soft opening, meaning that everything is ready but they won't welcome visitors until next weekend. Even if the viking age isn't a focus area for me, I do have my quick viking and of couse I jumped at the chance to cook historical food on open fire again.

The weather on the morning was dreadful, with really heavy rain, but I trusted the weather forecast that said that it would get better, and after lunch it cleared up and I set off to Vikarbyn outside Rättvik. Ok, technically it's Öja, on the outskirts of Vikarbyn, outside Rättvik.

Me in front of their big, main tent that act as a viking hall. 

Together with my viking outfit I'm wearing some accessories that are good examples of why it's good to have a few "time-travelling" garments that you can use for almost anything. I'm using my standard unsmocked, linen apron, last used for an 1897 photo shoot,  for shoes I'm using a very neutral pair of black slip on shoes in fake leather. They are so non-descript that I can use them for all eras where I don't have proper shoes. On my head I'm wearing my 16th century veil that I usually tie around my wulsthaube, but now I just tied in the back of my head. Viking women didn't have to cover their hair out of modesty, but I think it's a nice and practical way to keep the hair out of the way. Im also very happy with my new glasses that I have bought to be less visible when I'm costume. The frames are so thin that they are hardly visible in photos, compared to my standard thick, red frames. Later when it got a bit chilly I also wore my Skjöldehamn hood.

The camp is situated with a lovely view over Lake Siljan The only thing marring the historical feeling is the blue plastic balls for straw that the neighbouring farmer has set up, and they can't be totally covered by the wooden fence. They also have sheep, with very newborn lambs, goats and hens around.

The center of the camp is the open hearth. In the background you can also see several smaller tents.

After having a look around the camp and just sitting and talking around the fire it was time to get cooking, with historical food on open fire there is no such thing as a quick meal.

Basting the steak with the marinade

For the food recipes I haven't used any primary sources, instead relying on the recipes from Ribe Viking Center in Denmark, available in both Danish, English and German, and Fotevikens museum, available in Swedish and English.

The main dish was an alemarinated pork steak. The Ribe recipe called for regular lager, but I switched it for an ale instead. The pork had marinated for 24 hours, and it took almost 3 hours to cook over the fire. When it was ready it was delicious, you could really feel the ale flavour through the meat, and the pork was just done so it was tender but not so much that it fell into pieces. It could probably be on for even longer if you want it more tender.

Some were more eager to eat than others

With the steak we had buttermilk flatbreads. Basically buttermilk, coarse ryeflour and some salt mixed together to form a firm dough. I made the dough in the morning, and then we baked it in the evening. The idea is to let the buttermilk and rye interact and turn sour and create a natural leavening. The effect was small, but it was there. Since you can't buy buttermilk in Sweden I had to make my own butter in order to get buttermilk. For the butter I used 700 ml of cream and whisked it until I got butter, I used my very modern stand mixer for the whisking. The butter was then flavoured with salt and a teaspoon or so with honey, while I used the buttermilk for the bread.

I also had some turnips that we put in the embers. They tasted good, but it was a bit hard to remove the charred outer skins from the turnips. Finally on the way to Rättvik I had passed my mother and picked up a big, bunch of nettles, so we made nettle soup. The nettle soup didn't have any recipe but it was nettles, some small yellow onions and a small parsnip, cooked until tender in stock (we used a modern stock cube).

All in all it was a real viking age feast, and a great escape from 2020. I will probably go up and visit more times in the summer. If you want to visit the camp it is open weekends the whole summer, but you need to prebook your visit, in order to be able to maintain social distancing they can't have too many visitors at once. Learn more at Ingvara.se, the site is in both Swedish and English.