Fishy fare

THINK Vikings and food, and an image comes to mind of a bearded warrior tearing into a hunk of beef with his teeth before chucking the bone over his shoulder.

They come across as a red meat sort of bunch really.

But there was more to Viking cuisine than that. Dr Andrew "Bone" Jones, of the York Archaeological Trust, knows as much as anyone about their diet, after studying Jorvik rubbish preserved underneath the modern city (including many deposits recovered from a Viking cesspit). And he says their cooking was reasonably sophisticated.

"If you look at the level of technical expertise in boat-building and in metalwork, it's impossible to think that such skilled people would have a grey-gruel-mush approach to food," he said.

They did love their meat, certainly. There were many cattle bones recovered, and they liked old mutton rather than young lamb judging by the long-in-the-tooth sheep jaws left over. They kept chicken and geese, for both meat and eggs.

The Vikings were fish-ophiles, too. Late in the period, they started fishing expeditions in the North Sea, bringing back cod and haddock. Lots of oysters, as well as some cockles and mussels, were imported into Jorvik and scoffed.

Evidence of lean times can be seen in the bones of tiny, scrappy fish and birds. "There were times when if it moved, they ate it," said Dr Jones.

But along with flesh, they ate plenty of bread, fruit and vegetables. Archaeologists discovered cereal fragments as well as wheat and possibly rye flour ground on "quern stones" to make wholemeal loaves.

"Mixed in with these deposits were a lot of other plant foods that people were eating," Dr Jones said. "Fruit stones, apple pips - there were a lot of sloe stones, a fruit which would be very bitter to us."

The Vikings also ate walnuts, raspberries, plums - and even a peach stone was discovered.

So how do you go about a Viking-themed dinner party?

"There are golden rules of things to avoid," he said. "No potatoes, no tomatoes, no peppers."

Roast meat with bread, cabbage and leaks would be a good main course - the Vikings ate a version of both vegetables. Watercress, too, was popular. But no big carrots, and forget green beans and broccoli.

A fish course could be a tasty treat. "Herring were abundant. They ate a lot of eels.

"You could cover fish in a bread dough and bake it on the fire. That keeps the juices in and is delicious."

And you can add some flavourings. Wild herbs, such as yarrow, were used in Viking cookery, as were coriander, summer savoury and possibly carrot seeds.

What about pudding? "You could have some sort of raspberry apple crumble, but no sugar: use honey to sweeten it.

"It probably wasn't very sweet. Honey was a very rare commodity. People then didn't have as sweet a tooth as we do."

And with that recipe advice, Dr Jones took his bread, mackerel and other Jorvik-style treats off to prepare a Viking feast of his own.

Updated: 09:30 Saturday, February 07, 2004