Reindeer suovas is a traditional meat product. It is prepared by dry-salting reindeer meat, then smoking it over an open fire in a peaked hut for 8 hours. The meat can be consumed raw or cut into pieces, then grilled. These semi-wild reindeers are slaughtered every autumn and winter, but the salting, smoking, and curing are done throughout the year.
Flavorful, yet delicate, suovas is often accompanied by pickled mushrooms and lingonberries or lingonberry jam. It is prepared by the Sámi indigenous people living in an area called Sápmi. When Sámi venture on long trips, they traditionally pack suovas and unleavened bread to eat on the trail.
Falukorv is a traditionally made sausage that originally stems from the city of Falun, but is nowadays made by several meat companies in Sweden. The sausage is made with a mixture of pork and beef or veal meat that has been ground and combined with potato starch, water, and a selection of mild spices.
The meat content in the sausage must be at least 40%. Its flavor is smoky and salty, while the color of falukorv, once sliced, is brownish-pink. The sausage can be eaten on its own, fried, used in sandwiches or in Beef Stroganoff where it stands as a substitute for beef.
This classic Danish meat roll is traditionally prepared with flat pork belly that is filled with a combination of herbs and spices before it is rolled, cooked, and left to cure in a seasoned brine. When placed in brine, the roll is pressed to attain its characteristic rectangular shape.
It is usually sliced and enjoyed as a cold cut on the popular smørrebrød sandwiches, or as a part of a buffet meal.
Hangikjöt is a smoked lamb specialty hailing from Iceland, where it has long been an integral part of local food culture. A cut of leg or shoulder is dry-salted or brined, then dried and cold-smoked over a fire for a couple of weeks. Traditionally, the fire for the smoking process uses dried sheep dung for fuel, which is said to be the secret behind the meat’s distinctive flavor and aroma.
The meat is usually smoked according to individual preferences, and these days, it may or may not be smoked with sheep dung. The period of drying is also typically shorter than it was in the past. In Iceland, hangikjöt has been traditionally enjoyed during Christmas, either hot or chilled, and it is usually accompanied by a side of potatoes, green peas, white sauce, and pickled red cabbage.
Morrpølse is a traditional sausage. It is believed that this sausage is one of the oldest processed foods in the country, dating back to the Viking era. Traditionally, it was made with a combination of sheep tripe and offal meat such as kidneys, lungs, heart, tongue, colon, stomach, and esophagus, which were finely chopped or ground, seasoned with spices, then stuffed into the gut of the animal and hung in a cold place for a few months.
Due to the fact that the chambers needed to be heated by burning wood from time to time, the sausages were also cold-smoked. Nowadays, the sausage is usually made from pork, goat, sheep, or wild game, with a proportion of 70% lean meat and 30% fat.
Once ground, the meat is seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, caraway, and dried and crushed juniper berries.
Fenalår fra Norge is a smoked leg of mutton traditionally produced in Norway and believed to have been around since the Viking era. The meat comes from lambs living in the mountains of Norway that are slaughtered in autumn. The meat is salted and left to dry for 3-6 months (traditional variety) or 5-9 months (matured variety) in a controlled environment.
There are two types of Fenalår fra Norge found on the market, the traditional one with bone, and the riper, less salted and boneless one. The production method used today is based on Norway’s long history of hanging mutton legs to dry in the fresh mountain air to preserve the meat to use during the cold winter.
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