The Cold Table: Real Viking Grog

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Real Viking Grog

I recently found an interesting report of archaeological research suggesting that Viking age Scandinavians consumed an alcoholic grog made with locally available substances, "including honey, bog cranberry, lingonberry, bog myrtle, yarrow, juniper, birch tree resin, and cereals including wheat, barley and/or rye" but that also often included imported grape wine. Clearly, the Vikings were as interested in exploring ways to give their booze an interesting taste as any culture has been.

As my readers may deduce, Patrick McGovern is behind this research. You can find a news report on the research, as well as a link to download the researchers' full article, at http://phys.org/news/2014-01-evidence-nordic-grog-scandinavia.html. I'm looking forward to reading it.

1 comment:

JohnFebruary 28, 2014 at 2:39 PM
As I may have mentioned, Dr. McGovern was my landlord, back in West Philly in the '80's. First-rate person, deserves the kudus he's getting.

BTW, your email is bouncing :-(
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Mission Statement

Welcome to "The Cold Table" (formerly called "Table Scraps" and, less recently, "Food Through Time")! This is a blog about the history of food worldwide. It's about the origins of foodstuffs; recreating period foods, cooking techniques, and cooking utensils; historic ideas about food and nutrition; eating customs; and tableware. I will also do reviews of books discussing any of the above topics. I hope you enjoy this blog, and find it worth reading and commenting upon.

Because we are also part of history, modern food and cuisine are part of the story, and fair topics for this blog (though my preferred area of interest is historic food, particularly food before 1600 CE). Non-food issues are off-topic, and I reserve the right to remove off-topic comments without notice.