Bacon

With a lack of refrigeration, salting would have been a preferred method of preservation and storage for the Vikings and Saxons. Though with salt being expensive, brining would have been more commonly used.

Bacon seems to have been produced in large quantities, at least by the Saxons. This recipe, while being a modern variation, makes use of ingredients that where available at the time and is based loosely on an old Yorkshire bacon cure.

Ingredients:

For the cure;

• 300g salt

• A few bay leaves

• 2 teaspoons juniper berries (crushed)

• 2 teaspoons black pepper (freshly cracked)

For the bacon:

• 1kg Pork belly

• 1 tablespoon honey

• Vinegar

Method:

The quantities given here are approximates, don’t worry too much about them being exact.

Mix together the cure ingredients.

Rub the pork belly with honey.

Add 1 handful of the cure to a food safe container, large enough to fit the pork belly.

Add the pork belly and rub the cure into the meat. Place in the fridge or somewhere cool for 24 hours.

Drain off any liquid that forms in the container and sprinkle another handful of cure over the pork. Repeat this process for 5 days.

After 5 days, rinse the pork with clean, cold water and pat dry. It should be feeling quite firm at this stage.

Rub the pork with a little vinegar and either hang somewhere cool or put it back in the fridge. Wait for a minimum of 5 days before eating.

Pig Blood Soup

Ingredients:

• 3 spoons dried blood

• 600ml cold water

• 1 tablespoon vinegar

• 400ml fish stock

• 300g Pork belly

• 1 onion

• A small bunch of Wild Garlic

• 2 bay leaves

• 2 tsp black pepper

• 1 tsp salt

Method:

Mix together the dried blood and water, until smooth. Stir in the vinegar (this will prevent coagulation when cooking).

Cut the pork belly into chunks and fry in a little butter or oil, for around 10 minutes, until browning on all sides. Peel & thinly slice the onion and add to the pan, frying for a few minutes to soften.

Roughly chop the garlic and add to the pan, along with the blood, fish stock, bay, salt & pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for around 15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and serve.

Gammon Cooked In Mead

Ingredients:

• Gammon

• Teaspoon of mustard seeds

• Teaspoon of black pepper

• Bottle of mead (or 2)

Method:

Place the gammon in a pan with the mustard and pepper.

Cover with mead and bring to the boil and simmer for an hour and a half. Top up the liquid with More mead or water, if necessary, to keep the gammon fully covered.

Pour away the liquid (or use it as a base for making gravy) and let the gammon rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Pig tail soup

A favourite of the Anglo Saxons.

Pork was know as ‘swin’ or modern ‘swine’. With no secondary uses a pig would have been used solely for its meat.

A Saxon swineherd who looked after his lords pigs was entitled to one pig and its entrails, presumably for making sausage casings.

Ingredients:

• 3 pig tails (cut into 1-1.5’’ chunks)

• 1.5L chicken stock

• 1 onion (finely chopped)

• 3 white or purple carrots (quartered and diced)

• 3 handfuls of split peas

• 3 celery (finely chopped)

• Handful of wild garlic (roughly chopped)

• 2 bay leaves

• Butter

Method:

Stick the pig tails in a pan or cauldron. Add the stock.

Bring to a boil & simmer for 40 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and remove the tails from the soup.

Heat some butter in a pan and fry the tails for 10-20 minutes, until crispy. Return the tails to the soup and serve.

Taken from my book ‘Eat like a Viking!’ Available now on Amazon