Iceland

Iceland's cuisine is forged by a harsh North Atlantic, lamb, skyr (thick cultured dairy), and abundant fish, historically preserved by drying, smoking, and fermenting. Rye bread baked in geothermal heat is a local marvel.

Skyr is a fresh cheese rather than a yoghurt: strained, traditionally set with rennet as well as culture, and so thick that it holds a spoon upright. It has been made on Icelandic farms for centuries as a way of keeping milk through the dark half of the year, and the whey drained off it was itself used as a preservative.

The old preservation methods are still visible. Hardfiskur is wind-dried fish torn into strips and eaten with butter; hakarl is Greenland shark, cured for months because it cannot be eaten fresh; and rugbraud is baked as hverabraud, buried in the ground near a hot spring and left overnight to steam itself dark and sweet. Plokkfiskur, by contrast, uses fresh boiled fish.

Creamy stovetop oat porridge simmered with a pinch of salt, served the Icelandic way with a spoon of skyr, brown sugar, and butter.