In Árni's Iceland, meals were not thought of as starter-main-dessert but according to what the *búr* (the farm's larder) held. Everything revolved around three piles: *mjólkurmatur* (dairy — skyr, butter, whey), *fiskmatur* (dried fish), and *kjötmatur* (smoked or sour-whey preserved meat). Lacking abundant salt and wood, preservation relied mostly on wind-drying, dung-smoking, and souring in *sýra* (fermented whey). A single meal freely mixed these stores, accompanied by a drink of whey cut with water.

The acidic whey recovered from making skyr is the pivot of all old Icelandic cuisine: meat is plunged into it to keep for months, it is drunk diluted with water, and it is poured over dried fish. It is the sour soul of the *búr*, what most distinguishes the Icelandic table from that of Copenhagen.