Today we’re going to take a good look at a delicious Viking treat: skyr! Pronounced “skeer”, this is a soft cheese produced from skimmed milk, a starter culture and rennet. Vikings brought skyr from Norway to Iceland in the late ninth century. Iceland was uninhabited when the first Vikings arrived there, was covered in forests, and had no indigenous wildlife larger than a fox. The people supported themselves by fishing and farming, and raising the livestock they imported. Cattle were the main livestock, but it takes a lot of hay to support a cow in winter, and the forests needed to be clearcut to make room for the hay crops. Iceland is far north, at the same latitude as Alaska, where the summers are short and the winters are long. Given the brief growing season and the amount of hay needed to feed a cow during nine months of winter, approximately four acres of hay were needed per cow, and archeological evidence suggests some farms had as many as 40 head of cattle. As the human and livestock population grew, Iceland’s ecology began to falter. Overgrazing and the Little Ice Age changed Iceland… Farmers began to rely more on imported grain, and sheep replaced cows as the main source of dairy. Sheep provided not only milk and meat, but also wool, and required much less land for hay. Sheep are also much more efficient grazers and could be left outdoors longer in the winter to browse. Preserving the sheep’s (and cow’s) dairy products for winter consumption made perfect sense to the resourceful Vikings. Skyr became a staple food in Iceland, but meanwhile, back in Norway, grain production was on the rise and the need to scrimp and save was not so great, and skyr’s popularity there began to wane.
The early Icelandic housewife would have begun her skyr each spring, by skimming the valuable cream from the top of fresh milk and using it to make butter, which was easy to preserve and kept fresh for a long time. The resulting skimmed milk was made into skyr. The housewife would have allowed some of the milk to sit out and gather bacteria from the air, and then incubated the milk in a warm place until the milk became sour. When it had soured to her liking, she had her starter culture ready. She obtained her rennet from the preserved, salted stomach of a calf that had been butchered before it had eaten anything but milk. Skyr starters were (and still are) passed down in families from mother to daughter, much like sourdough starter is passed down. Skyr is mentioned in several of the Icelandic sagas, and Viking-era jars containing skyr residue are on display at the National Museum in Iceland.
The thread of a common food throughout history is a wonderful way to feel a connection to the people who lived before us. I read it somewhere, and I can’t find it now to quote it, but I read that the best way to understand a people is to partake of their food.
To make skyr, you will need a starter. Skyr is a true cheese rather than a yogurt, and while skyr does contain some of the same cultures as yogurt, skyr cultures are more complex. If you live in the United States like I do, your best bet will be to find a brand of skyr called Siggi’s or Skyr.is at your local grocery store. It will be in the dairy department near the yogurts. I got my Siggi’s at Fred Meyer. Whole Foods carries Skyr.is. If your nearby store doesn’t carry skyr regularly, ask if they can order some for you, and be sure to buy the plain variety. Skyr contains different bacteria than yogurt, so don’t interchange yogurt culture for skyr. Yogurt culture will work and it will make a soft cheese, but it will not be skyr.
Gather up these supplies:
- A large stainless-steel pot with a lid
- A spoon and a thermometer
- 2 tablespoons of plain skyr for starter
- 1 gallon of skim milk
- 4 drops of liquid rennet
- A new, clean white handkerchief or large square of muslin
- Large colander
Heat one gallon of skim milk to just before the boil, or around 200 degrees. Some recipes say to boil the milk briefly but stopping just short of a proper boil works out well. Then you’ll need to let it cool down again to body temperature, or about 100 degrees. When the milk has cooled sufficiently, take two tablespoons of skyr and thin it with a little of the warm milk. Stir the thinned skyr into the milk thoroughly and let it sit for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Dilute four drops of rennet in about a tablespoon of cool, non-chlorinated water, and add it to the milk, stirring it very well from top to bottom and side to side. Then put the lid on the pot and let it sit undisturbed for about 5 hours. The curds and whey should separate like you see in the photo. When you’ve got a good separation, you can strain the curds through the cloth-lined colander. Don’t use cheesecloth, as the soft curd tends to stick to the cheesecloth’s open weave. Be sure to have a big bowl underneath to catch the whey! (We’ll talk more about that later.) Gather the corners of the cloth and tie them in a knot, and hang the bundle over a pot or large bowl to drain for several hours, or as long as overnight.
It’s interesting to note that the third batch I made didn’t separate out like previous batches had. The curd was definitely solid but there wasn’t a distinct separation of curds and whey such as I’d seen in the other batches. So, I thought it through…. Why was this batch different? My milk was fresh, my starter was good, the amount of rennet was right, my equipment was clean… Oh, I know! A storm front had moved in that morning, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. I know that the pot of milk needs to be kept warm so that it can cool sloooowly, but I didn’t think about that when the storm front dropped the temperature. Ideally, I should have wrapped the pot in a thick towel to help it maintain its temperature for a longer period of time than it would have if left un-swaddled in a cool room (remember that hot tip for the next time you are making cheese in the winter). Because I knew all was well with my ingredients and equipment, I left the curd to solidify a little more and then strained the curd as usual. The batch of skyr tasted fine, although a little milder than other batches, and a little less smooth in texture. This wouldn’t have stopped the Vikings from eating it and it didn’t stop me either.
This is a batch of skyr that’s been allowed to drain overnight, and as you can see, it doesn’t look like the yogurt-consistency skyr you bought to use as starter. Traditional homemade skyr would have been more solid like this, but modern-day people would have thinned it for their breakfast anyway, so manufacturers began to sell it already smooth and creamy. If you prefer yours to have that yogurt-like feel, don’t let it drain as long as this, or whip some milk back into it afterward.
Skyr becomes stronger in flavor the longer it ages, so you’ll probably want to eat it within 5 days or perhaps as long as a week, depending on how you prefer your skyr to taste. Be sure to save some as starter for your next batch!
Now that you’ve got your yummy batch of skyr, what do you do with it? Well, it’s delicious on its own. If you like thick Greek yogurt you’re going to love skyr. Add some fruit and crumbles of granola or graham crackers, some honey or a sprinkle of sugar if you like, and you’ve got a healthy, delicious breakfast. Or dessert. It works both ways. The Vikings would have eaten it the way it is, or whisked it together with some milk or cream to a yogurt-like consistency. Modern Icelanders enjoy skyr with cream poured over it, with fresh berries and crumbled cookies on top.
My favorite way to eat skyr is this simple skyrterta. This is basically a no-bake cheesecake, and if you want to make it but don’t have skyr on hand, substitute two 8-ounce blocks of cream cheese for the skyr. I like it plain, just the way it is, but my husband likes his topped with jam or berries.
Dissolve 1/2 cup of sugar and one .25oz packet of unflavored gelatin in one cup of boiling water. Stir for 5 minutes until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Beat 1 pound of skyr and 1 teaspoon of vanilla together until smooth and blended. Slowly add the gelatin mixture and continue to beat until well incorporated. Refrigerate the filling for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Pour into a graham cracker crust, and refrigerate 3 hours or until firm.
This is a blueberry skyrterta made with the addition of wild blueberries and a tablespoon of honey.
I’ve also made a veggie dip using skyr and ranch seasonings. You can use whatever seasonings you like, and be bold with them. I find that skyr dip is a bit mild for my preferences and needs to be heavily seasoned, and the flavors allowed to blend overnight in the fridge.
Now let’s look at mysa…
Mysa is the greenish whey left over from making skyr. Mysa has a somewhat different appearance from the whey I usually get from making other cheeses. See below the whole milk on the left, whey from chevre in the center, and mysa on the right. Our modern tastebuds are used to different things than the Vikings had, but mysa bridges the gap a bit as far as beverages go. It tastes vaguely like Gatorade and can be used in making sodas. Vikings would have enjoyed mysa as a beverage, and also for the preserving and/or marinating of meat.
Mysa is a good post-workout refreshment (think of all those whey powders on the market today!) and can be flavored with any kind of fruit juice that you like. Before I put my mysa in the fridge, I run it through the same strainer I use when I’m milking, and keep it for about a week, although mysa keeps a very long time in the fridge. By about a week, though, if I didn’t drink it yet, I’m probably not going to, and I’m likely about to make a new batch anyway. Mysa, like any type of whey, can be used in place of water in making lemonade, and I made a tasty fruity punch using mysa, peach sparkling water, and rhubarb concentrate.
For more information on skyr and mysa, I highly recommend The Compleat Anachronist Issue 143 – Skyr and Mysa: Viking Curds and Whey by Mary Ellen Reitz, M.D., without which this post would not be anywhere near as informative or interesting, and I heartily thank her for her extensive research! The booklet is available for purchase here.
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The blueberry pie didn’t last long.