Þorrablót (Thorrablot) Food and Traditions

Every winter, Icelanders sit down to a wooden tray of food that looks nothing like a normal dinner: dark slices of blood pudding, cubes of fermented shark, a sheep's head, dried fish and smoked lamb. The tray is þorramatur, and the feast it belongs to is Þorrablót, also spelled Thorrablot.

The name comes from Þorri, the fourth month of the old Icelandic winter, which runs from mid-January to mid-February. The food is old-fashioned by design: it dates from the days before refrigeration, when meat and fish were smoked, dried or soured to last the winter.

What is Þorrablót?

The name combines Þorri with blót, which means sacrifice. The modern festival grew out of 19th-century romantic nationalism, and the first known celebration was organised by an association of Icelandic students in Copenhagen in 1873.

The evening traditionally includes speeches and poems, originally in honour of the Norse god Thor. The festival looked back to pre-Christian Norse traditions, which 19th-century nationalists saw as a golden age of Icelandic history.

Today it ranges from a dinner with friends to a large organised event with speeches, songs and a dance afterwards. Icelanders hold them abroad too.

In Icelandic, Þ is pronounced like the th in "thing", so Þorrablót sounds roughly like THOR-ah-bloat.

What is þorramatur?

Þorramatur is the food served at Þorrablót. The word is younger than the food: its first known mention in Icelandic texts dates to 1958, when the Reykjavík restaurant Naustið began advertising it, an effort to bring traditional rural food to city diners.

It is served on wooden platters called trog, or on plastic trays today, and brennivín, Icelandic schnapps, is often poured alongside.

What's on the platter

Hákarl: Greenland shark, fermented for weeks and dried for months because the fresh meat is toxic, served in small cubes.
Svið: singed and boiled sheep's head, sometimes cured in lactic acid, often served with mashed potatoes and turnips.
Sviðasulta: head cheese, or brawn, made from svið.
Súrsaðir hrútspungar: ram's testicles, pressed in blocks, boiled and cured in lactic acid.
Lundabaggi: sheep loins wrapped in the meat from the sides, pressed and cured in lactic acid.
Blóðmör and lifrarpylsa: a blood-and-suet pudding and a liver-and-suet pudding, both kneaded with rye flour and oats.
Hangikjöt: smoked and boiled lamb or mutton.
Harðfiskur: wind-dried fish, eaten with butter.
Súr hvalur: whale blubber pickled in sour milk, a regional specialty.
Rófustappa, mashed turnips, plus rúgbrauð and flatbrauð on the side.

Why so much of it is sour

Many of the platter items are cured in lactic acid, which is where the sourness comes from. The technique has roots in the old practice of keeping meat in fermented whey instead of salt, which became scarce after the 14th century.

How to eat it

Start with the familiar: sliced hangikjöt on rúgbrauð or flatbread, and harðfiskur with butter. Move on to svið, eaten by hand with mashed swede and potato, then to hákarl, with a cold shot of brennivín ready.

Don't skip the sides. The rye bread, butter, mashed turnips and potatoes are there to balance the salty and sour dishes.

Trying it as a visitor

Þorrablót is a mix of private dinners and large organised events, and restaurants and event organisers around Iceland serve platters during the season. For a visitor's view of the tray, and of the foods you might skip, see this guide to Iceland's stranger foods, which covers hákarl and the rest of the þorramatur.

A mild Þorrablót tray at home

Rófustappa is the easy one to make. Peel and cube a rutabaga, boil it in salted water until tender, drain, and mash it with a knob of butter and a little salt.

Put it on a board with sliced hangikjöt, harðfiskur with butter, and rúgbrauð and flatbread, and you have a gentle version of the tray. Add brennivín if you like, and leave the fermented and pickled dishes to the experts.

Cooking some at home

You don't need the whole tray. Hangikjöt, harðfiskur, rúgbrauð and flatbrauð are easy places to begin, and the guide to traditional Icelandic food covers the everyday dishes that fill the rest of the year.

Þorramatur is a reminder of how Icelanders ate through the winter before supermarkets. It is an acquired taste, and the point is less the flavour than the occasion.

Þorrablót questions

When is Þorrablót?

During Þorri, from mid-January to mid-February. Þorramatur is eaten more widely from January to March.

What does þorramatur mean?

Roughly, the food of Þorri: the traditional platter served during the month.