Did you know in Iceland they bake bread by using heat from nearby volcanoes,
and even though we have no volcanoes here where I am, knock on wood,
I still am going to attempt to make Rúgbraud
so thank you to Wondrium for sponsoring this video as we make Icelandic volcano bread
this time on Tasting History.
So this may be the easiest bread recipe I have ever made in my life,
it is nearly foolproof which is perfect for me.
The one thing that is difficult is just waiting for it to be done
because it can take up to 24 hours to bake but I promise you it is worth it
for the end product of this sweet Rúgbraud.
Rúgbraud, or rye bread has been popular in Iceland for centuries,
and in 1602 when Denmark established a monopoly on the grains imported to Iceland
it became very popular mostly due to the fact that there was no alternative to eat
even as late as 1900 the average Icelander would eat 50 to 60 kilograms of rye per year,
that's about 120 pounds which is a lot more than the three kilograms that they eat today.
Now this rye bread of Iceland is very special and can go by several different names.
One is Thrumari and that means thunderer because if you eat enough of it you will produce...
thunder.
In a way you'll be like the god Thor.
Another word is Hverabraud which literally means hot spring bread because of how it's baked,
from the heat produced by liquid-hot magma from just below the earth's surface.
See Iceland didn't get their first oven until around the year 1900 and they didn't really need it because
there's oven in the ground all around them.
This bread would be made by digging a hole near a hot spring and just a few feet down you'll have boiling water actually coming up.
Then you make the dough, put it into a sealed container and put that into the boiling water,
cover it up with sand and wait until it's baked
It's similar to the way that you make a boiled pudding, but in this case you end up with
a dense but soft bread.
Now while researching Rúgbraud and specifically these hot springs of Iceland
I kind of fell down a geological rabbit hole and wanted to learn more about Iceland and their volcanoes,
and so I ended up watching a documentary on the topic on Wondrium who is sponsoring today's video.
As I've mentioned in the past I spend a lot of time watching documentaries and other programs on Wondrium which used to be The Great Courses Plus.
Wondrium has an amazing library of educational videos taught by experts in the field
on every topic from history, food, travel, and of course geology.
While watching 'Iceland: Where Fire Meets Ice"
I learned about a specific volcano called Laki which erupted in 1783,
and killed half of the livestock on the island which led to a quarter of the human population dying off,
but it ended up affecting the climate around the entire Earth, and so there was famine in Japan, drought in India
and huge crop failures all across Europe,
and Ben Franklin who was living in Paris at the time speculated that it caused the harsh weather conditions of the next year,
and those conditions were linked to civil unrest in France that ended up leading to the French Revolution.
Crazy how those dominoes fall.
And if you want to learn more amazing stuff like this go to wondrium.com/tastinghistory
or just click on the link in the description to start your free trial today.
Now while I do want to visit the volcanoes and the hot springs of Iceland someday,
here in Burbank we we don't have a lot of geothermal activity so I'm going to be following the way that it was made
around the year 1900 which includes an oven.
So for this recipe what you'll need is: 4 cups or 480 grams of rye flour,
2 cups or 240 grams of whole wheat flour, 1 cup or 200 grams of brown sugar,
1 cup or 335 grams of golden syrup.
So the most typical is Lyle's Golden Syrup and it is kind of hard to find here in the US at grocery stores
so I will put a link to where you can get it online,
very popular in a lot of the world though, but what was crazy that I learned this week was I actually paid attention
to the bottle and I always thought that it was just a lion on there, but it turns out
it's a dead lion with bees around it, that's their logo. Kind of weird,
and it turns out it comes from the Old Testament story of Samson killing a lion
only to come back to find bees turn the carcass into a hive
which then he harvests honey from and he used that as the base of a riddle that he told to the Philistines,
"And he said unto them, out of the eater came something to eat,
and out of the strong came something sweet."
Interesting and something that I have overlooked for years and just-
kind of a weird thing to have as your as your logo.
Four teaspoons of baking powder, one quart or one liter of whole milk, and one teaspoon of salt.
So like I said this is really, really easy to make. All that you need to do is whisk the two flours together in a large bowl,
then whisk in the baking powder, and the salt. Then mix in the brown sugar and the syrup
and then add the milk just a little at a time. Now you may not need all of the milk but you're going to need more of it than you think because
as you add it it's going to make it really soupy, but once you start mixing it it really works in the rye, just soaks it up,
and you'll end up using most of it if not all of it. What you're looking for
is kind of like a cake batter consistency
but you don't want it so liquid that it's a pancake batter, but like I said it's really foolproof and you really can't screw this up.
Then pour the dough into a well-greased container.
I'm using a large Dutch oven but you can use a bread tin though you'll probably need two for this amount of dough.
In Iceland they often use empty cardboard milk cartons which I was going to use but
I'm not sure what kind of stuff they coat the inside of those with here in the US, so when they get heated in oven
I don't want to poison myself so I ended up using the Dutch oven
but it's just important that you get something that you can seal pretty well. It doesn't need to be completely airtight but pretty well.
For the Dutch oven it's just the lid but for anything else you probably want to wrap it tightly in parchment and tie it.
Then pop it in the oven at 215 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius,
and bake for up to 24 hours. Now usually if you baked bread for 24 hours you would end up with hard tack
*CLACK CLACK
but because this is sealed it keeps the moisture in so it doesn't dry out.
Now depending on your schedule you may not want to leave this in the oven for 24 hours. I would not leave the oven on
while you're sleeping. It's probably not safe especially if you have a gas oven,
so you can bake it for less. You can either leave it on for 24 hours if you have somebody watching it on shifts,
or bake it for less. Don't do under 12 hours, 12 to 14 really is the minimum,
so get started first thing in the morning.
Now this bread is eaten all year round but it is particularly popular during the festival of Thorrablót
probably because it is one of the more palatable dishes of the festival,
and so I'm going to ask you now to Like this video and make sure you are Subscribed just in case
I lose you as I go through what else you might eat during Thorrablót.
Thorrablót is the Icelandic midwinter festival and just like many holidays its history is murky.
Originally it's named after Thorri a legendary king of Kvenland or Denmark depending on which of the sagas you're reading.
They also name him as either the son or the brother of the personifications of frost and snow.
In one 12th century "history"of Norway it claims that Thorrablót or Thorri's sacrifice
was given by the inhabitants of Kvenland to Thorri every mid-winter.
Though in the 13th century the Icelandic Orkneyinga Saga says that it was Thorri giving the sacrifice.
"Thorri was a great sacrificer, he had a sacrifice every year at midwinter;
that they called Thorrablót; from that the month took its name."
And that month also called Thorri is the fourth winter month in the Icelandic calendar
that was made in the 10th century which was during the height of the Viking Age.
Now since it's a lunar calendar it's always kind of shifting in relation to our calendar but generally it falls
from mid-January to mid-February so being celebrated right now.
Now we don't really know much about the original Thorrablót. It doesn't really tell what it was for exactly or
how the sacrifice worked or what else was entailed, the sagas really don't mention it.
But what we do know is that during the christianization of Iceland it disappeared it would be back though
it would just take quite a while and would be very different when it did get back.
In 1262 during a period of civil strife known as the Age of the Sturlungs,
Icelanders signed the old covenant relinquishing sovereignty to Hakon IV, King of Norway.
And the island eventually changed hands to belong to Denmark who controlled Iceland for centuries.
Well by the 19th century Iceland had been settled for about a thousand years and they were thinking okay well we're old enough to rule ourselves
and this led to a rise in Icelandic nationalism which put a spotlight on Iceland's history and their culture
particularly on their early history, the pre-Christian history, and then the sagas.
So in 1873 an association of Icelandic students living in Denmark
organized the first recorded modern celebration of Thorrablót.
The celebration idealized Iceland during the Viking Age as Golden Age Iceland,
and the event featured a dinner where poems and speeches were given and a lot of readings from the old Icelandic sagas.
Though by this time Thor the god of thunder was a name far more recognizable than Thorri,
and the names kind of sound alike so most of the the things that were talked about ended up being more about Thor than of Thorri.
An account of the early celebration says "I've heard it said that Dr. Bjorn Olsen presented the best performance with his poem 'The Cup of Thor.'
In 1880, the Archaeological Society of Reykjavik held Thorrablót...
We drank remembrance to the gods, of Odin allfather, of Thor, of Freyr and Njord for the year-blessing."
As the holiday evolved it began to include a lot of food that was thought to have been eaten
during the pre-Christian Viking era.
Though really it was more food that was eaten in the countryside of Iceland that had lost popularity
by the 19th and 20th century,
and for good reason.
See, the food when put together is called Thorramatur and it includes some very questionable dishes.
Svid which is boiled sheep's head, Hrútspungar which is ram's testicles pressed into blocks then cured in lactic acid,
lots of head cheese, pickled meats, blood puddings, and of course
Hákarl or fermented shark,
which has quite the reputation not a particularly good one, and I really want to try it
someday when I go visit Iceland just to say that I have tried it.
The other foods though I think I'm okay not trying.
Frankly the whole meal sounds like it was put together as a sort of Fear Factor test to see that if you can keep this stuff down...
you have earned a place in the sagas next to your ancestors.
Though actually in the sagas they don't mention pretty much any of these foods, at least that I could find.
Though there is one food eaten during the festival that is mentioned, hardfiskur.
Hardfiskur is fish, often cod or haddock, that has been left out usually hanging off of cliffs or on racks to be dried
by the icy cold wind of Iceland so that it will become essentially fish jerky,
and hardfiskur gets a shout out in the 12th century Icelandic saga of 'Grettir the Strong'.
"Atli went to Snaefellnes to get dried fish. He drove several horses with him and rode from home to Melar in Hrtafjord
to his brother-in-law, Gamli.... They rode West by way of Haukadalsskard
and the road which leads out to the Ness, where they bought much fish and carried it away on seven horses."
And in 1555 Olaus Mangus gives us an actual description of how this fish was made.
"When you come in toward the shore, such an abundance of fish is to be seen... that you are dumbfounded at the sight.
Some of the fishes, sprinkled with brine from the sea, are commonly spread out over two or three acres of the flat level ground at the foot of the mountain
to be parched and dried by the wind;
some are hoisted on poles or spread out on racks, to be dehydrated by the sun and air."
He says that the smell was so strong that sailors either at night or during a storm
could tell where the shore was simply by the pungency of the odor coming from the dried fish.
Though he does say "It is served with salted butter and is highly appreciated even by kings."
And that is exactly how I am going to eat it because I got some hardfiskur and some Icelandic butter.
Here we go.
x_x
That hits you. Oh that hits you. That smells-
that smells fishy like-
fish food almost. Interesting. I'm guessing you just break off a piece.
It really is like jerky. It is- it is tough. It was hard to get a piece off.
I'm using my bread knife just because I don't want to dirty up two knives,
and gonna try this
hardfiskur with butter.
[struggles]
That is really...
that is rough to eat,
but!
The flavor is not bad, and I think that it would really grow on you.
It's just so unexpected.
So this one is cod.
It's so chewy.
So much-
[rallies]
so much drier than- than like regular beef jerky.
It's really dry. It's really hard,
very difficult to eat but the flavor is not bad.
It's actualy- it smells fishier than it tastes.
Still tastes like fish but it smells fishier than it tastes.
Definitely need that butter though.
Now at Thorrablót with the hardfiskur and the other delicacies shall we say
they finish everything off with copious amounts of Brennivin, a caraway-flavored liquor, in the aquavit family
which are high proof alcohol's usually made of grain or potato and then flavored with some sort of herb similar to gin.
Now I had no luck in finding this in any of my liquor stores but luckily Curiada was able to find it for me.
They got a bottle sent to me
and now they are going to be carrying it on their site so I will put a link in the description.
They're kind of my go-to place for all weird liquors that I can't find anywhere else,
so I'll put a link down there if you want to try Brennivin.
Now from what I hear you're supposed to drink it ice cold and this has been in the freezer so it's kind of thickened. I'm putting it into a
martini glass because that's what I had.
It's also called Black Death. It does make me a little trepidatious but I'm gonna give it a shot.
It smells like-
nothing.
Oh no there is a little caraway there.
[Black Death'd]
That is-
that is dangerous. I mean it it does remind me of like caraway gin.
It's dangerous because it is SUPER strong. I mean-
like super alcoholic
but it has a really nice flavor. It's not like- it's not like bad vodka or something. It has this wonderful caraway
flavor though it's not overpowering and I like caraway seeds. Not everybody does but
this is really nice because it's just a hint of it.
Yeah oh man,
I'm gonna finish this but I need to be need to go slow because I still got 24 hours before my bread is ready.
Dangerous.
24 hours later you're good-
I'm kidding I'm not actually drunk but
once you have let your bread bake for 12 to 24 hours take it out of the oven and immediately turn it out of its container
and then slice it up and serve it with butter,
and here we are Icelandic rúgbraud.
Now I'm eating mine with butter but it can also be served with pickled herring or hard boiled egg and onion.
I've seen lots of different ways but butter sounds best to me so that's what I'm doing.
Here we go.
Hmm!
Hmmmmm.
So it's super dense, like super dense but not stodgy at all.
It's dense and yet light at the same time if that if that makes sense at all. Really,
really great. What it reminds me of flavor wise because it's kind of sweet because of the
brown sugar and the syrup
if you've ever been to Cheesecake Factory and had the brown bread
when you go it tastes very, very similar to that but dense and almost more like
gingerbread, like a dense gingerbread.
This is fantastic, it's super easy. It takes a little while but it's super easy to make.
The flavor is wonderful,
everyone should make this if you like bread.
It's fantastic!
So hardfiskur I'd say C+.
Brennivin A-,
and this bread A+, fantastic even if you don't have a nearby hot spring or volcano.
Your oven it works pretty darn well. So make sure to follow me on Instagram
@tastinghistorywithmaxmiller and I will see you next time on Tasting History.
CHOMP