Viking Funeral Bread
Multigrain flatbread strung on a metal ring in the style of findings at Viking funeral sites
City/Region: Various Viking Sites
Time Period: 9th-11th Centuries
While there is evidence of bread being laid beside the dead during Viking funerals, we have no written recipe. Analysis of the ingredients of fragments from various Viking funeral sites shows that there was no one way of making funeral bread, so you can either follow my recipe or make up your own using a combination of barley, oat, wheat, rye, peas, flaxseeds, water, milk, butter, whey, and blood. Any version is just as likely as being accurate as another.
In my version, the mix of rye, whole wheat, and oat flour bring more complexity and depth to an otherwise very pita-like flatbread. You could cook the bread longer to get a drier, more cracker-like bread, and I think that they would be great with butter (a period-accurate accompaniment).
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (120 g) rye flour
- 1 cup (120 g) whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup (80 g) oat flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons whole flaxseeds
- 3/4 cup (175 ml) buttermilk
*Archaeologists have found funeral breads made from all kinds of different grains, so feel free to mix it up with what you like.
Instructions:
- Whisk together the flours, salt, and flaxseeds.
- Add the buttermilk and mix it in with your hands until it forms a dough.
- When the dough comes together (it will be fairly dry), turn it out onto an unfloured work surface and knead it until it becomes smooth. The flours I chose have a low gluten content, so it took me about 25 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and form them into balls. Roll each ball out into a round about the size of your palm. You want them to be thin, but not as thin as a tortilla.
- Place a dry pan (I used cast iron) over medium-high heat. Place one of the dough rounds in the pan and cook for about 45 seconds to 1 minute on one side, then flip. There should be some color and charred spots on the cooked side. Cook on the other side until the bread starts to puff up (this won’t take long). Take the bread out and let it cool for a bit, just until you can handle it, and poke a hole through the center with a skewer or chopstick.
- String the bread onto a metal ring and serve them forth.