Rúgbrauð

Rúgbrauð is Iceland’s rye bread: dark, dense, moist and slightly sweet, almost like a cake. The dough contains rye flour, milk or buttermilk and golden syrup, and it is not kneaded; it is placed in a closed pan and cooked for many hours at low, humid heat, which caramelizes the sugars.

Food historian Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir explains that for a long time Iceland had no ovens, and the first bakery only opened in 1834. Bread was almost always flat or slowly baked under an upturned pot over the fire. With little firewood available, using a natural heat source to bake in a closed container was a practical solution.

That is where hverabrauð, the “geothermal bread,” comes from: the pan with the dough is buried in the hot ground of geothermal areas and dug up the next day. The practice continues in places such as Laugarvatn, on the Golden Circle, and around Lake Mývatn in the north. According to the same historian, it is an old custom, but its exact origins are unknown.

Rúgbrauð is served with plokkfiskur, smoked fish, herring and þorramatur, always with plenty of butter. At home and in bakeries, most is made in an oven at low heat.