Skyr with heath bilberries and honey
A fresh, tangy dairy product, thick as soft cheese, drizzled with honey and scattered with wild bilberries — set out as an offering or shared at nightfall.
A fresh, tangy dairy product, thick as soft cheese, drizzled with honey and scattered with wild bilberries — set out as an offering or shared at nightfall.
Milk, my child, is never wasted in my home: what the day gives in abundance, I keep for lean days. Curdle the milk with a little of yesterday's skyr, let it drain in a cloth all night, and you will have that firm, fresh cream that I offer to the spirits of the threshold. Pour over it the honey of the moors and the blue bilberries gathered on the heath — sweetness that this stingy climate grants me so rarely. It is my gift to her who watches the house as I watch it: feed first, and you will be fed in return.
- •Skimmed milk — a large pot (dairy base)
- •Rennet (or a bit of existing skyr) — a trace (ferment)
- •Wild bilberries — a handful (heath fruit)
- •Honey — to drizzle (sweetness)
Skyr with heath bilberries and honey
A fresh, tangy dairy product, thick as soft cheese, drizzled with honey and scattered with wild bilberries — set out as an offering or shared at nightfall.
Why this dish? Frigg, goddess of motherhood, is the nourisher par excellence; her figure comes to us from Icelandic sources, and skyr is the dairy soul of Iceland. A sweet dairy offering to the household spirits and protective gods, it honours the goddess who watches over child and home.
Milk, my child, is never wasted in my home: what the day gives in abundance, I keep for lean days. Curdle the milk with a little of yesterday's skyr, let it drain in a cloth all night, and you will have that firm, fresh cream that I offer to the spirits of the threshold. Pour over it the honey of the moors and the blue bilberries gathered on the heath — sweetness that this stingy climate grants me so rarely. It is my gift to her who watches the house as I watch it: feed first, and you will be fed in return.
Ingredients (period version)
- Skimmed milk — a large pot (dairy base)
- Rennet (or a bit of existing skyr) — a trace (ferment)
- Wild bilberries — a handful (heath fruit)
- Honey — to drizzle (sweetness)
Ingredients
- Skimmed milk — 1 L (base)
- Plain skyr (as starter) — 2 tbsp (lactic culture)
- Rennet — 2 drops (coagulation)
- Bilberries or blueberries — 150 g (fruit)
- Honey — 2 tbsp (sweetness)
Method
- Heat the milk to 85°C then let it cool to 38°C.
- Dissolve the skyr starter and rennet in a little warm milk, stir into the rest.
- Cover and keep warm (turned-off oven, light on) for 6–8 hours until set.
- Pour into a fine cloth and let drain in a cool place overnight to thicken.
- Serve the skyr drizzled with honey and topped with fresh bilberries.
How it was made : Skyr, attested as early as the saga age, is a drained dairy product that allowed milk to be preserved in an Iceland without abundant grain. A little skyr was always reserved to seed the next batch — a gesture passed from mother to daughter. Honey and wild berries (bilberries, lingonberries) made it a festive dish.
The contemporary twist : Served in verrines with a thin layer of honey-toasted oat granola — the Icelandic skyr bowl, straight from Frigg's hearth.
Sources : Saga of Egill Skallagrímsson (mentions of skyr) · Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir, Icelandic Food and Cookery (2002)
Frigg · Charactorium
