Cooking Bonfire Food

Writer: Mads Wolter Nielsen

14.12.22

Mads is cooking food over a bonfire at Yggdrasil

Dear reader, welcome to this post about bonfire food. This month we will be focusing on the advantages of preparing and cooking one or multiple meals over an open fire. I will end the month with a nice recipe for an easy-to-cook meal over a fireplace, that is great for both beginners and experienced outdoor-people to try out.

This week however, we will begin by looking at what bonfires meant to our Scandinavian ancestors, the vikings. 

Bonfire in History

In Denmark or the rest of Scandinavia, a part of our cultural heritage is tied around the infamous Vikings and with good reason. From approx. 793-1100 A.C. they conquered and gained significant power, wealth and land in Europe. The Vikings were one of the most powerful societies in Europe for around 400 years.

But why at all mention the Vikings in an article about food. I believe that we can assign many of our cultural traditions and tendencies to our Viking heritage. Sitting around and enjoying a meal cooked over a central fire, drinking mead (later beer) and the myths of the aesir were all cultivated in Scandinavia around the time of the Vikings.

How can it be that sitting around a fire can be so meditative and have mind healing properties. If we look again at the life of the Vikings. The life of an average Viking had numerous challenges, some of them tied to the seasonal shift in the weather, temperature and daylight in the north. Fire was essential to be able to survive the winter. With fire you could: prepare food, keep warm, see in the darkness, keep away mulch and more. Through archeological discoveries we can see that the fireplace has always been essential to our ancestors located in the center of a campsite and later in the center of houses. In the saga land in Lejre, Denmark, people have reconstructed a huge authentic kings-hall and when you enter this architectural wonder you can really feel how it must have been in the old days, having feast and sitting side by side of each other around the “langild” which is the centrally placed huge bonfire. Not only the Vikings used bonfires, they have been elemental in all human tribe societies since the early stone-age, back when all humans still lived as hunter-gatherer tribes. I believe the Danish word “hygge” is fundamentally connected with sitting around the fire with your closest family, brothers-in-arms or tribesmen through the winter, eating, drinking and telling stories. In Denmark we keep our friends very close and it can seem a bit hard at times, to get under the skin of new people, I think this is a product of sticking close together through the years to survive a harsh climate.

We have used the making of food on a fire, in Denmark and the north as a crucial element to surviving together during our most prominent historical and cultural period. Therefore it can be a very healthy way for us to prepare food and connect with each other in an otherwise stressful workday. Making food over a fire just a day or two a week can have important, stress-reducing and meditative qualities.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this. If you have any cool stories about what cooking food over a bonfire means to you please share them by writing to our email or DM on social media. Also, feel free to join our tribe and sign up for our newsletter to keep updated and follow our journey!

Cheers,

Mads