Archaeological Finds of Ninth- and Tenth-Century Viking Foodstuffs

Jorvík [York], Danelaw [England]

Meat -- red deer, beef, mutton/lamb, goat, pork
Poultry -- chicken, geese, duck, golden plover, grey plover, black grouse, wood pigeon, lapwing
Freshwater fish -- pike, roach, rudd, bream, perch
Saltwater fish -- herring, cod, haddock, flat-fish, ling, horse mackerel, smelt
Estuarine fish -- oysters, cockles, mussels, winkles, smelt, eels, salmon
Dairy products -- butter, milk, eggs
Grains -- Oats (Avena sativa L.), wheat, rye, barley
Legumes -- fava (Vicia faba L.)
Vegetables -- carrots, parsnips, turnips (?), celery, spinach, brassicas (cabbage?)
Fruits -- sloes, plums, apples, bilberries, blackberries, raspberries, elderberries (Sambuca nigra)
Nuts -- hazelnuts, walnuts
Herbs/spices/medicinals -- dill, coriander, hops, henbane, agrimony
Cooking aids -- linseed oil, hempseed oil, honey
Beverages -- Rhine wine
Birka, Sweden

Ingredients found in breads -- rye, wheat, spelt, oats, barley, emmer wheat; linseed;
sprouted pea [?=Erbsenkeimblatt], unidentified Vicia legume (mix of barley plus one of
the wheats seems to have been most common)
Fruits -- sloe (Prunus spinosa); hawthorn (Crataegus calycina), plum (Prunus insititia)
Nuts -- hazelnut
Hedeby, Denmark

Meat -- pork, beef, mutton/goat
Poultry -- chicken, duck, goose
Fish -- herring
Fruits -- plum (Prunus domestica L. ssp institia C.K. Schneider), sloe (Prunus spinosa L.)
cherries, elderberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries
Oseberg, Norway

Meat -- beef
Grains -- oats, wheat
Fruit -- crabapple
Nuts -- hazelnuts, walnuts
Herbs -- watercress, cumin, mustard, horseradish
Jarlshof, Shetland Islands

Meat -- beef, lamb/mutton, pork, possibly venison and whale
Fish -- ling, saithe, cod
Dublin, Ireland

Meat -- pork, beef, mutton/lamb, hare
Poultry -- chicken, wild goose
Saltwater fish -- cod, ling
Estuarine fish -- cockles, mussels, oysters, scallops
Grains -- wheat, oats, barley, rye, Chenopodium album, Polygonum spp.
Legumes -- fava (Vicia faba L.), peas
Vegetables -- wild celery, wild carrot (Daucus carota), cabbage, turnips, radishes
Fruits -- cherries, sloes, blackberries, hawthorn, apples, rose hips, elderberries
rowanberries, strawberries, Vaccinium myrtillus
Nuts -- hazelnuts
Herbs/spices/medicinals -- poppyseeds, black mustard, fennel
Cooking aids -- rapeseed oil (Brassica campestris)
Some Suggestions

Vikings did not rely on the same set of dried fruits and nuts as did later Europeans.
One really basic way to readjust a feast (or a camp kitchen) toward a Viking food
aesthetic is to replace your other dried fruits with prunes and cherries, your
almonds with hazelnuts and walnuts. Plums and prunes especially seem to have been
very popular; both domestic and imported varieties are found at Viking sites,
suggesting that domestic supply was insufficient to sate the appetite for these
goodies. But be careful: developing a Viking palate can transform your daily habits.
Before long you may be insisting that all your peanut butter sandwiches be eaten
with imported plum preserves!

Viking Age cooking gear included large pots for boiling, hooks and spits for
 roasting, and ovens for baking. Frying pans and warming griddles were also known.
 Eating utensils were the knife and spoon. Some Viking Age spoons had fairly
 flat bowls, making them more shovel-like than modern soupspoons; presumably
 these were used to eat foods with a texture somewhere between roasted flesh
 (to be eaten with the help of a knife) and the broth resulting from seething
 flesh (to be drunk or eaten with a soupspoon).

 
Although there are no extant "Viking recipes," there are a few books that might
 be helpful. One is Mark Grant's translation of Anthimus' De observatione ciborum,
 which is a West Roman's-eye view of sixth-century Frankish cuisine. It makes
 recommendations for preparation methods involving most of the basic foodstuffs
 that Vikings were likely to have cooked. Another helpful set of books is Ann
 Hagen's pair on Anglo-Saxon food and drink, although there are no recipes.


Viking Barley Bagels, an attempt to develop an unleavened barley-wheat breadstuff
Hearths in the Viking World, a compilation of archaeological finds of hearths