Icelandic food starts from a short list of ingredients: lamb, fish, dairy and rye. Salt and firewood were limited for much of the country's history, so cooks smoked, dried and soured what they had.
That history explains most of what's on the plate: smoked lamb, wind-dried fish, meat kept in sour whey, and a rye bread that was once baked in the ground. It also explains the softer side of the cooking, the fish stews, the lamb soup, the skyr and the butter on everything.
The national dish depends on who you ask. Kjötsúpa, hangikjöt and plokkfiskur are all strong candidates, and English-language guides often name hákarl, although that is a midwinter tradition more than an everyday food.
How Icelandic food came to taste this way
Before refrigeration the options were smoke, wind and acid. Meat was smoked, fish was dried into harðfiskur, and after the 14th century meat was often kept in fermented whey rather than salt, which had become scarce.
Denmark left its mark later. The first cookbooks published in Icelandic were collections of Danish recipes from the 18th century, and Danish bakers who settled in Reykjavík and Akureyri around 1900 shaped Icelandic baking.
Soups and stews
Cold-weather food, cooked in one pot and eaten with bread.
- Kjötsúpa: bone-in lamb simmered with rutabaga, potatoes, carrots, cabbage and rice or oats.
- Plokkfiskur: flaked white fish and potatoes in a creamy onion sauce, traditionally eaten with buttered rye bread.
- Fiskisúpa: a creamy, curry-scented fish soup that takes under 30 minutes.
- Humarsúpa: langoustine soup built from the shells, with cognac and cream, often kept for celebrations.
Fish and seafood
Fish is everyday food, cooked simply and served with potatoes and butter.
- Saltfiskur með kartöflum: salt cod, poached gently, with potatoes and melted butter.
- Steiktur fiskur í raspi: breadcrumb-coated haddock fried in butter, usually with caramelised potatoes.
- Gratíneraður fiskur: cod or haddock baked under mustard béchamel and melted cheese.
- Fiskibollur: soft pan-fried fish balls, usually with boiled potatoes and a pink sauce.
- Rækusalat: cold-water shrimp in a dill mayonnaise, often used on open sandwiches.
- Harðfiskur: wind-dried fish, eaten as a snack with butter.
Lamb and meat
Lamb is the other pillar. It is smoked for Christmas, simmered into soup and, less obviously, ground into the hot dog.
- Hangikjöt með uppstúf: smoked lamb with a white sauce, the traditional Christmas centrepiece.
- Svið: singed, simmered sheep's head, eaten with mashed swede and potato.
- Slátur (lifrarpylsa): liver and oat pudding from the autumn sheep slaughter.
- Icelandic hot dog: a lamb-based sausage in a steamed bun with fried and raw onion, ketchup, sweet mustard and remoulade.
Bread
Rye is the grain that grows in the cold, and most Icelandic bread is built around it.
- Rúgbrauð: dense, lightly sweet rye bread baked for hours at low heat.
- Flatbrauð: thin, unleavened rye flatbread, eaten with butter, hangikjöt or smoked salmon.
- Laufabrauð: paper-thin fried bread cut with patterns, a Christmas tradition.
Sweets and baking
Coffee and cake are a big part of Icelandic eating, and the baking owes a lot to Denmark.
- Kleinur: cardamom-scented twisted doughnuts.
- Pönnukökur: thin, crepe-like pancakes rolled with sugar or filled with jam and cream.
- Snúðar: cinnamon buns with a hard chocolate glaze.
- Vínarterta: layered cardamom cake with a spiced prune filling.
- Skyrterta: a no-bake cheesecake made with skyr.
- Hjónabandssæla: an oat tart with rhubarb jam.
- Marengsterta: a layered meringue cake with cream and strawberries.
- Skúffukaka: a chocolate sheet cake with coconut icing.
- Ástarpungar: fried dough balls flavoured with cardamom and studded with raisins.
- Kókoskúlur: no-bake oat and cocoa balls rolled in coconut.
The stranger end of the menu
Hákarl gets the headlines: Greenland shark, fermented for weeks and dried for months because the fresh meat is toxic. It belongs to þorramatur, the midwinter platter that also holds svið, pickled ram's testicles and blood pudding.
Our Þorrablót food guide goes through the whole tray, item by item.
Where to start
If you're cooking your way in, begin with plokkfiskur and buttered rúgbrauð for dinner, then kleinur with coffee. For breakfast, skyr with cream and berries is the traditional bowl.
Trying it in Iceland
In Reykjavík, bakeries, hot dog stands and restaurants cover most of this list.
A guided walk saves guessing. NordExplore lists a four-hour Reykjavík food tour that stops for traditional Icelandic food, local pastries with coffee or tea, the famous hot dog stand, and local fish with beer (sponsored link).
For more on food, culture and city life across the country, browse the Culture, Food & City Life section on nrf.is.
More Icelandic food guides
- What Icelanders eat for breakfast
- Skyr recipes: nine ways to cook with skyr
- Icelandic Christmas food and traditions
- Þorrablót food and traditions
Questions about Icelandic food
What is the national dish of Iceland?
There isn't one agreed answer. Kjötsúpa, hangikjöt and plokkfiskur are the strongest candidates for an everyday dish, and hákarl is often called the national dish in English-language sources even though it is mostly eaten at midwinter.
Is Icelandic food only lamb and fish?
Those two dominate, along with dairy, skyr above all, and rye. The baking tradition is large too, shaped by Danish influence.
What should I try first?
Plokkfiskur with buttered rúgbrauð, an Icelandic hot dog, and skyr with cream and berries cover three very different sides of the cooking.
Most Icelandic dishes make more sense once you know what they were up against: a short growing season, a long winter and not much to spare. What survived is simple, filling, and better with butter.
Sources
About Icelandic MAT Kitchen
Traditional Icelandic recipes tested in home kitchens — from lamb soup to kleinur.