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The Norse Diet


While the people of Scandinavia certainly ate meat, it was not a central part of their diet as they seem to have relied more on dairy products, fruits, and vegetables. The Norse diet, including those known as Vikings, was far more diverse than how it is represented in modern-day media and included a wide range of food types.

The most common foods were:

  • Dairy products (milk, cheese, curds, whey)
  • Grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats)
  • Fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, crabapples, apples)
  • Nuts (hazelnuts and imported walnuts)
  • Vegetables (peas, beans, onions, cabbage, leeks, turnips)
  • Fish (as well as eels, squid, seals, and whales)
  • Meat (cows, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, chickens, ducks, seabirds)

Salt was expensive to make as the usual method would be to boil down salt water, which required a significant amount of timber for the fire as well as the time it took to complete the process. Salt was more often imported, making it a luxury not everyone could afford. Meat, therefore, had to be consumed shortly after the animal was killed because, for most people, there was no means of preserving it. 

The foods most commonly stored were dairy products sealed in barrels or ceramic jars (especially skyr, a kind of yogurt), dried fruit and vegetables, and grains. Cows were kept for their milk; and the cheese, curds, and whey that could be made from that milk. The most common Scandinavian dish included or was solely skyr, a kind of yogurt which is still produced and consumed, especially in Iceland, in the present day. Skyr would be flavored with berries, apples, or other fruits as well as with grains which were also easily preserved.

Skyr may have been popular but does not seem to have been one's preferred meal if there were other options and was thought a paltry offering to a guest.

The most common drink was ale – for men, women, and children – and an alcoholic dairy-based beverage known as syra, a by-product of making skyr. Mead (a honey-based drink) and wine from grapes (imported from places like Germania or Francia) were both expensive and out of reach of most people. Scandinavian wines were fruit-based (apple wine, strawberry wine) and, like ale, syra, and mead, were initially made by women.

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