Ever tried head cheese?
Yeah, didn't think so.
What about sheep's testicles preserved in whey?
Neither? But why on earth not?
I have, along with some other foods that might appear odd to the standard western European palate. I pride myself to be fairly adventurous when it comes to culinary experiments and have always made a point to try everything that is put before me, no matter how little I might fancy that particular ingredient/flavour/etc. Because of this and in the course of Frankenspouse's and my Cooking Around the World project, during which we eat recipes from a particular country for a week at a time, I have tried a lot of things that were actually not that bad, even though the notion of eating them was not particularly appetising at the time.
What we deem appetising/edible/ethical is largely based on our sociocultural upbringing. If you, your family and your neighbours ate beef and pork when you were young, then chances are you will find this acceptable later in life. On the other hand, your family might not have eaten dog meat, so eating dog is likely to be completely out of the picture for you; you might even consider it barbaric. The thing with sociocultural differences is that there might be a person halfway across the globe, who feels just as strongly about the opposite. To them, eating beef and pork might feel repulsive, whereas eating dog might be natural. Are they less healthy? Are they less happy? Do dogs have a more justified claim to being kept alive because in our culture, they are companions, not food?
The cuteness scale also plays an important role in what we will and what we won't eat. To me, that feels unjust. Surely less cute creatures love life just as much as cute ones? It's almost like saying attractive people should be treated more nicely than less attractive ones. So I try not to discriminate and eat cute and uncute alike. But I digress, I wanted to introduce some Icelandic dishes that would seem unusual to the European palate.
So today, I'm proud to present you
1) Svið
In the spirit of not wasting any thing that could provide sustenance, this dish is boiled sheep's head. You'd be surprised at the amount of meat on a sheep's head, not all of it is visible from the outside. You prepare the head by cutting it in half, removing the brain and cooking the whole thing for about 90 minutes. If you'd rather not do the messy part yourself, you can buy them frozen, halved, brains removed and all. While you boil it, the smell of sheep is quite strong, so traditionally, while cooking the Svið, you boil some Hangikjöt (smoked meat, often lamb) in a different pot to eat another day. This smell is much nicer and overpowers the sheep smell. Once your Svið is cooked, you are ready to dig in. In my case, that meant taking the outer skin off, as it was quite slimy and then examining what I was left with, which is basically the skull and a bit of meat on it. I was quite tentative at first and carefully peeled some meat off the bone, all the while watching what my flatmate was doing. Watching him, I found out that there was more to that head than met the eye (speaking of which, we'll get to that in a bit), such as the gums, which are actually the nicest part of the whole adventure, firm, yet tender and tasty meat. Just don't think about it too much. Going back to the eye, my housemate didn't eat his, but explained that some people do. Since at that point, I was already grossed out to the max, I thought I might as well give it a try. And I did. It was actually quite nice and a lot less horrible than anticipated. The same applies to the whole sheep's head affair, by the way. To conclude, the Svið was quite an experience, one I had been waiting to make, though maybe not exactly looking forward to. It wasn't an easy thing to eat and unless I practise more often, it will probably remain so. If you are not used to it, eating something that is looking at you takes some determination and effort. However, the taste was surprisingly nice.
This was just one of many culinary adventures Iceland has put me through. You'll be able to read about the other ones in upcoming posts, but let's say that, in comparison to some other dishes, the sheep's head was fairly harmless.
Yeah, didn't think so.
What about sheep's testicles preserved in whey?
Neither? But why on earth not?
I have, along with some other foods that might appear odd to the standard western European palate. I pride myself to be fairly adventurous when it comes to culinary experiments and have always made a point to try everything that is put before me, no matter how little I might fancy that particular ingredient/flavour/etc. Because of this and in the course of Frankenspouse's and my Cooking Around the World project, during which we eat recipes from a particular country for a week at a time, I have tried a lot of things that were actually not that bad, even though the notion of eating them was not particularly appetising at the time.
What we deem appetising/edible/ethical is largely based on our sociocultural upbringing. If you, your family and your neighbours ate beef and pork when you were young, then chances are you will find this acceptable later in life. On the other hand, your family might not have eaten dog meat, so eating dog is likely to be completely out of the picture for you; you might even consider it barbaric. The thing with sociocultural differences is that there might be a person halfway across the globe, who feels just as strongly about the opposite. To them, eating beef and pork might feel repulsive, whereas eating dog might be natural. Are they less healthy? Are they less happy? Do dogs have a more justified claim to being kept alive because in our culture, they are companions, not food?
The cuteness scale also plays an important role in what we will and what we won't eat. To me, that feels unjust. Surely less cute creatures love life just as much as cute ones? It's almost like saying attractive people should be treated more nicely than less attractive ones. So I try not to discriminate and eat cute and uncute alike. But I digress, I wanted to introduce some Icelandic dishes that would seem unusual to the European palate.
So today, I'm proud to present you
1) Svið
In the spirit of not wasting any thing that could provide sustenance, this dish is boiled sheep's head. You'd be surprised at the amount of meat on a sheep's head, not all of it is visible from the outside. You prepare the head by cutting it in half, removing the brain and cooking the whole thing for about 90 minutes. If you'd rather not do the messy part yourself, you can buy them frozen, halved, brains removed and all. While you boil it, the smell of sheep is quite strong, so traditionally, while cooking the Svið, you boil some Hangikjöt (smoked meat, often lamb) in a different pot to eat another day. This smell is much nicer and overpowers the sheep smell. Once your Svið is cooked, you are ready to dig in. In my case, that meant taking the outer skin off, as it was quite slimy and then examining what I was left with, which is basically the skull and a bit of meat on it. I was quite tentative at first and carefully peeled some meat off the bone, all the while watching what my flatmate was doing. Watching him, I found out that there was more to that head than met the eye (speaking of which, we'll get to that in a bit), such as the gums, which are actually the nicest part of the whole adventure, firm, yet tender and tasty meat. Just don't think about it too much. Going back to the eye, my housemate didn't eat his, but explained that some people do. Since at that point, I was already grossed out to the max, I thought I might as well give it a try. And I did. It was actually quite nice and a lot less horrible than anticipated. The same applies to the whole sheep's head affair, by the way. To conclude, the Svið was quite an experience, one I had been waiting to make, though maybe not exactly looking forward to. It wasn't an easy thing to eat and unless I practise more often, it will probably remain so. If you are not used to it, eating something that is looking at you takes some determination and effort. However, the taste was surprisingly nice.
This was just one of many culinary adventures Iceland has put me through. You'll be able to read about the other ones in upcoming posts, but let's say that, in comparison to some other dishes, the sheep's head was fairly harmless.
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