While the other recipe books I have for the Viking age tend to play a bit fast and loose with the accuracy of the food this book is all about being as authentic as can be The introduction is excellent and gives great insights into what and how the Vikings ate as well as how we know The recipe part so far is interesting and some of it I even want to try to eat The book is well written though a bit repetitive if you read the introduction to a site and then the explanation of a dish they do tend to go over the same stuff twice But I am not sure the book are meant to be read cover to cover as I just did There are a lot of really good information and it is definitely a book I will use as a reference book in the future. Read my full review Hardcover A cookbook and culinary factbookA cookbook and culinary factbook based on what we know today about the Viking Age food culture Both the recipes and the factbook part are based on finds literary sources other contemporary sources and experimental archaeology. In the first part of the book the authors presents the food of the Viking Age They describe what one may have eaten during the Viking Age how the food was prepared and the practices that surrounded eating the food This chapter is based on the yet to be finished doctoral thesis by Daniel Serra archaeological finds from the period across Scandinavia and a range of various other sources. The second part is a cookbook presented as a journey through Viking Age Scandinavia with 42 different recipes divided into seven geographical areas The recipes are based upon archaeological finds and experimental archaeology bound together by the combined archaeological and culinary expertise of Daniel Serra and Hanna Tunberg Almost all dishes can be cooked just as easily in the kitchen as out in a re enactors camp. In addition to the background material and the actual cookbook there are some very interesting appendixes Not only do we include an Encyclopedic part which act as a quick reference guide to both food and cooking equipment there will also be a list of plant finds and a reference for translation of plants fish birds and other ingredients between English Latin Swedish Danish Norwegian and German An Early Meal a Viking Age Cookbook Culinary OdysseyI have a rather esoteric interest in food history so I found this book really interesting It is as much a history book as it is a cookbook though it mostly covers food history with the relevant bits of actual history for context It s well written and organized and offers helpful appendices in the back complete with conversion charts for those who want to attempt the recipes The recipes themselves are not actual recipes from the viking age as those don t exist but they are the authors best guesses at what kind of recipes would have been used back then based on archeological context and other knowledge As such they are not fancy recipes that are very involved many are quite plain I personally feel they would not be all that tasty You d probably use these recipes only when you want as close to historically accurate food as possible for re enactments parties curiosity etc To their credit they do give directions for cooking both in conventional ovens and in the field Anyway the book itself is very well made and the pages are thick and high quality Hardcover This book is deftly presented as a voyage inspired by two 9th century interviews with traders The reader is taken along on the travels of a trading expedition to seven known Viking era trading centres Each of the destinations is presented at the beginning of it s chapter and the authors use this introduction to the locations to present regional and seasonal food variations as well as exploring the local archaeological sites the finds and what they imply about the ways different communities must have dealt with food supply issues. This book is the result of the many years practical period cooking and food preparation by two authors The first thirty two pages present the background to the early meal what they ate how they prepared it feasting occasions and so forth Neatly presented with lovely illustrations one can read this first section quite swiftly So unless one has ever tried to research such things themselves one might overlook the vast amount of research and knowledge that has gone into the writing of these modestly presented matter of fact pages I have been trying to re create and research the cooking of the era for a couple of years now and am sure that anyone with any interest in the historical period will find this section invaluable. The bulk of the book is course recipes They have been developed through the authors involvement in experimental cooking which utilised old written sources and archaeological finds to make practical recipes for feasts and demonstrations As such these recipes are very practical they often also give different cooking instructions to cover both modern kitchens and living history cooking conditions. Some of the recipes will not be attractive to most modern tastebuds but everyone should be able to find at least one meal to bond with I have only tried one recipe so far and it worked well titbits of information are scattered through all the recipes making them great fun to read even if you are not intending to attempt all the recipes therein To be honest I am not sure how I would go with such a delicacy as Pickled Kale Lamb however the Rose Hip Mead has me salivating every time I read it and one day I would really like to attempt the Spit Roasted Heart Hardcover An early meal is a cookbook detailing recipes by findplace York Hereby etc adapted for the modern times The book starts by sketching a context in which to read the recipes It also explains why some recipes are included and why others are not e. g due to some fish becoming extinct The recipes include instructions on how to recreate a dish when you don t have that spit handy There are some conventional dishes but also some what exotic ones heart on a spit or novel to me such as peas in a bag The photographs are gorgeous yet clean This book really tempts me to run to the nearest grocery market and to go and buy the ingredients and start cooking Hardcover This is a great great book. It successfully combines an archaeological review of food related finds at Norse sites with experimental archaeology and a cook book and it blends those together very well Sure there are lots of recipes presumably why most people would buy this book since it is marked as a cookbook but it also contains an excellent survey of viking era cooking methods foodstuffs and sometimes even ritual preparations all based on archaeological finds at each of the sites mentioned which are in fact even cited at the back My single quibble is the lack of a single Icelandic site as one of the ones they selected we get one in England two in Norway two in Denmark and two in Sweden Given the ecological and sociological conditions in Iceland and how they differed from most of the rest of the Norse world it would probably be an interesting comparison to the other sites as opposed to say two in Sweden that are just a couple hundred kilometers apart But that s the barest of quibbles an impressive book with impressive research well distilled into useful recipes mostly some of us don t have cauldrons Hardcover squeeeeeee Hardcover