Bláberjagrautr — Barley porridge with wild blueberries
A thick barley porridge cooked in milk, melted with butter, with a handful of wild blueberries and a trickle of honey crushed in at the end. Tart from the berries, sweet from the honey, comforting to the utmost.
A thick barley porridge cooked in milk, melted with butter, with a handful of wild blueberries and a trickle of honey crushed in at the end. Tart from the berries, sweet from the honey, comforting to the utmost.
Before the day dawns on Jötunheimr, we eat this, simple and warm. Pour your barley into the milk, stir without ceasing over the fire until the spoon stands upright in it. At the last moment, throw in the blue berries of the underwood — those that children pick with stained fingers — and a thread of honey stolen from the wild bees. Eat it before work, daughter: even a giantess needs her belly settled to face what comes.
- •Hulled barley — a good measure (base cereal)
- •Milk — twice the barley (cooking liquid)
- •Butter — a knob (richness)
- •Wild blueberries — a handful (tart fruit)
- •Wild honey — a dash (sweetness)
Bláberjagrautr — Barley porridge with wild blueberries
A thick barley porridge cooked in milk, melted with butter, with a handful of wild blueberries and a trickle of honey crushed in at the end. Tart from the berries, sweet from the honey, comforting to the utmost.
Why this dish? The anchor text says that Angrboða feeds on 'berries and roots of the forest'. Barley porridge, everyday food in the Norse world, enlivened with blueberries gathered in the undergrowth of Járnviðr and a drizzle of wild honey, is the ordinary dish that keeps the body steady before work.
Before the day dawns on Jötunheimr, we eat this, simple and warm. Pour your barley into the milk, stir without ceasing over the fire until the spoon stands upright in it. At the last moment, throw in the blue berries of the underwood — those that children pick with stained fingers — and a thread of honey stolen from the wild bees. Eat it before work, daughter: even a giantess needs her belly settled to face what comes.
Ingredients (period version)
- Hulled barley — a good measure (base cereal)
- Milk — twice the barley (cooking liquid)
- Butter — a knob (richness)
- Wild blueberries — a handful (tart fruit)
- Wild honey — a dash (sweetness)
Ingredients
- Hulled barley (or barley flakes) — 150 g (base cereal)
- Milk — 500 ml (cooking)
- Water — 200 ml (adjust texture)
- Butter — 20 g (richness)
- Blueberries — 150 g (tart fruit)
- Honey — 2 tbsp (sweetness)
- Salt — 1 pinch (balance)
Method
- Rinse the barley. Cover with milk and water, add a pinch of salt.
- Cook over low heat 40 to 50 minutes, stirring often, until thick (add a little water if needed).
- Off the heat, stir in the butter.
- Roughly mash half the blueberries into the porridge; keep the rest whole.
- Serve very hot, drizzled with honey and scattered with whole blueberries.
How it was made : Barley was the dominant cereal in the North, most often eaten as porridge (grautr) rather than bread, because it rises poorly. It was enriched according to the season with milk, butter, forest berries (blueberries, lingonberries, Arctic brambles) and honey, the only sweetener available before the arrival of sugar.
The contemporary twist : Serve in a bowl with a spoonful of plain skyr on top and a sprinkle of toasted hazelnuts, 'Nordic porridge' style of today's cafés.
Sources : Daniel Serra & Hanna Tunberg, An Early Meal: A Viking Age Cookbook (ChronoCopia, 2013) · Regia Anglorum — Food and Diet in the Viking Age
Angrboða · Charactorium