Þorramatur Classic · Singed Sheep's Head

Svið

Photo: Schneelocke / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

The head is singed over an open flame first to burn off the wool, then split in half and boiled — nothing about it is disguised on the plate.

A sheep's head is singed to remove the wool, split lengthwise, and boiled until the meat, tongue, and cheek turn tender, then served with mashed potatoes or turnip and eaten right down to the skull. It's a fixture of the midwinter Þorrablót feast, especially in South Iceland's sheep-farming districts.

Why it's made this way: South Iceland's farms have run on sheep for over a thousand years, and svið reflects the old rule of wasting nothing from the slaughter — a practice that midwinter Þorrablót gatherings deliberately keep alive today.