This does not look that much different from knäckebröd, the (cheap) cracker bread you can still in the modern day buy in literally every supermarket of Sweden and Finland. The only difference I can see is that knäckebröd is always made with rye flour. The more artisanal / traditional varieties even come with the funny hole in the middle, that was in The Olden Times used to hang the breads on a pole in the roof above the stove.

The Wikipedia article even has in illustration of this storage method: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispbread#Origins

You can buy Swedish knäckebröd in many US grocery stores. Look in the aisle with the cheese & crackers style crackers, it's labeled "Wasa crispbread" (google those words for pictures). The multigrain is good.

Trader Joe's carries Norwegian dried flat bread of some sort, but it's different. More seeds and way more dense.

However, you absolutely cannot get good rye bread anywhere in the western US. I've never spent time on East coast, maybe one of the immigrant-heavy areas might have it. Whatever is labeled as rye bread here (Jewish rye, Russian rye, ...) is different from the rye bread in the Nordics.

> ½ cup buttermilk (or blood [...]

Of course, it wouldn't be a viking bread without blood

You can buy this stuff in the supermarket (in Viking countries), look for paltbröd.

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paltbr%C3%B6d

You can buy blood pudding in any supermarket in Sweden. It reminds you a bit of blood sausage. It's quite different from this kind of hard bread though.

Just thinking of the flavor of blood sausages makes me nostalgic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sausage#Germany_and_Aust...

Time to update my home cook substitution chart.

This will be handy the next time I want to make pancakes, but I'm out of buttermilk.

your family & friends should not be around when you get into shortage of buttermilk :-)

Slaughter season is coming up, and the stores will start offering buckets of blood for sale. Blood sausage is still traditionally made in many homes here in Iceland.

The Maasai people in Kenya also consume blood (cow’s blood) every now and then.

bloodermilk

1550 words until the actual recipe begins, about on par for the internet :)

"Making this bread really takes me back to growing up with the funerary pyres at Grandma's house"

If you're curious about ancient cuisines and want to see what the food may have looked like, check out the YouTube channel "Tasting History"[1]. The host re-creates recipes from original sources, which is often difficult given the lack of clear instructions and vastly different ingredients. He has a few Viking recipes, although not as many as the ones for Roman food.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/c/tastinghistory

Looks like Icelandic 'Flatkökur'.

We eat them weekly with dung smoked lamb and plenty of butter.

Remind me of the Bible "No meal offering that you offer to God shall be made with leaven" (Leviticus 2 11)

Knäckebröd?

Huh...guess we have all the stuff for it (minus the blood, tragically) so why not. Boyfriend has been wanting something for a few days but we haven't figured out what that something would be yet. I'll edit or add to this a bit later when we make it tonight.