An Early Meal - a Viking Age Cookbook & Culinary Odyssey

A cookbook and culinary factbook
A cookbook and culinary factbook based on what we know today about the Viking Age food culture. Both the recipes and the factbook part are based on finds, literary sources, other contemporary sources and experimental archaeology.

In the first part of the book the authors presents the food of the Viking Age. They describe what one may have eaten during the Viking Age, how the food was prepared and the practices that surrounded eating the food. This chapter is based on the yet to be finished doctoral thesis by Daniel Serra, archaeological finds from the period across Scandinavia and a range of various other sources.

The second part is a cookbook presented as a journey through Viking Age Scandinavia with 42 different recipes divided into seven geographical areas. The recipes are based upon archaeological finds and experimental archaeology bound together by the combined archaeological and culinary expertise of Daniel Serra and Hanna Tunberg. Almost all dishes can be cooked just as easily in the kitchen as out in a re-enactors camp.

In addition to the background material and the actual cookbook, there are some very interesting appendixes. Not only do we include an Encyclopedic part, which act as a quick reference guide to both food and cooking equipment, there will also be a list of plant finds and a reference for translation of plants, fish birds and other ingredients between English, Latin, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and German.