A new series that I would like to occasionally do on here is something practical that anyone can hopefully take ideas from for their various parties that they may be having. These are some ideas that I have used for various Blóts and feasts that people have seemed to enjoy. I am by no means a well-experienced heathen, but I have planned a few events that seemed to have done fairly well (or maybe people complained in ssecret! lol). I noticed that looking online for “pagan party ideas” and such usually comes up with little to no results, or simply lists of rituals that veer more heavily over towards Wiccan festivals. Maybe I can help!

This summer, the kindred that I was previously a member of had a Blót for the Midsommar holiday in honor of the Goddess Freija; and being the more ambitious hosts, my girlfriend and I decided to take on an purportedly ancient recipe that was allegedly something similar to one that the vikings may have eaten. I had to substitute some items, and may have not cooked it properly due to the instructions being VEEERY vague, but everyone simply LOVED it. people were requesting “take home” containers after we got done, so it really made me feel good, especially after I warned everyone that we may be eating gross food and that Pizza would be the back-up if that happened.

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Note: Like a moron, I did not take any pictures of this meal, if I make this again, I will attempt to chronicle this better. Here is a royalty-free stock photo that you can pretend was me:

Recipe: the chieftain’s soup

Modified (in italics and bold) from a recipe found on Ribe Viking Center

• Shoulder of lamb, diced
• Smoked pork, diced
• 5 chopped onions
• 5 chopped garlic cloves
• Diced parsnips
• Diced parsley roots
• Mushrooms
• added carrots and a turnip
• Horsebeans (AKA Fava Beans)
• Chopped Angelica stems (I used Tarragon)
• Spring onions
• Salt
• Water
• 2 cups cream

Dice the smoked pork and brown it in the cooking pot over the fire. Add the diced lamb, chopped onions and garlic. Next, add the water, parsnips and parsley roots.

Mix in the horsebeans, mushrooms and Angelica stems. Leave to simmer over low heat. Stir frequently and add more water if necessary. When the meat is tender, it’s time to season with salt and cream. Sprinkle with chopped spring onions and serve with bread.

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So that was the old-school recipe – I mentioned above that I substituted angelica stems as I was unable to acquire any due to the legality of them in the United States. While, I have never tasted them, a number of websites suggested that tarragon would be a fitting replacement, which definitely put an interesting twist on the stew – it has notes of both licorice and vanilla that gave everything a nice counter to the sometimes gamey nature of lamb meat.

In addition to the parsnips and parsley root, which were insanely hard to get ahold of in my local grocery store, I added some heirloom carrots (the kind that come in 3 colors and look more hipster-y than regular carrots) and a turnip, since I figured this would end up similar to potato soup going by the ingredient list. I would assume that one could even use potatoes to make this more hardy.

Lamb was also sort of hard to get, but can be found rather easily in bigger cities that have halaal grocery stores. Since lamb can be somewhat prohibitively expensive, using pork ONLY honestly would not change the flavor too much. I boiled the soup on a lower heat for a few hours and everything turned out well.

If recreating ancient food is something you think might “spice up” your next party, there are a multitude of books on historical Scandinavian cuisine out there as well as online recipes such as this one – Grimfrost, for instance, has one called An Early Meal that is very well regarded. People love this sort of thing, and as long as you aren’t serving something completely adverse to our modern palate, everyone should be pretty excited for the adventure of a new food, and the educational value of learning about the past.

If you try this out or have any questions, feel free to drop me a line in the comments!