🥔 SIDE
Flatkaka (Icelandic Rye Flatbread)
Thin, soft rounds of rye and wholemeal dough made with boiling water, charred on a scorching dry pan, dipped in water and stacked, then buttered and eaten with smoked lamb.
Icelandic · medium · serves 8
prep 25 min · cook 30 min
~182 cal · 5g protein · 38g carbs · 1g fat · 1g fiber · 0g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Flatkaka is Iceland's oldest kind of bread, a thin, dark, unleavened round that goes back to the settlement centuries, when grain was scarce on the island and cooks stretched their flour with Iceland moss. Rye flour later took the moss's place, and the flatbread you buy in any Icelandic supermarket today is the direct descendant: soft, flexible and speckled with black scorch marks.
It is made by pouring boiling water over rye and wholemeal flour, which scalds the flour and makes the dough easy to roll very thin. Each round is pricked and cooked on a bare, scorching-hot surface, once directly on the embers of the fire and now on a hot plate or a heavy pan, preferably outdoors because of the smoke. As each one comes off it is dipped briefly in water to stop it cooking and stacked under a cloth, so they steam each other soft.
The classic way to eat it is spread with butter and topped with slices of hangikjöt, Iceland's smoked lamb, whose smokiness suits the rye perfectly. It is also eaten with cheese or with lamb pâté.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
- 250 g rye flour
- 150 g wholemeal wheat flour, plus plain flour for rolling
- 1 tsp salt
- 300 to 350 ml boiling water
- plenty butter, to serve
Instructions
- 1Mix the rye flour, wholemeal flour and salt in a bowl. Pour in 300 ml of the boiling water and stir hard with a wooden spoon until it comes together, adding a little more water if it is dry.
- 2When it is cool enough to handle, knead it briefly on a surface dusted with plain flour into a smooth dough. Keep it covered as you work so it does not dry out.
- 3Divide into 8 pieces. Roll each out very thin, about 2 mm, and trim into a neat round around a plate, about 20 cm across. Prick all over with a fork.
- 4Heat a heavy dry frying pan, griddle or electric hot plate until it is very hot, and open a window or turn on the extractor. Cook each round for 1 to 2 minutes a side, pressing it flat, until it is patched with black scorch marks and cooked through.✎ Chef’s noteThe pan needs to be far hotter than for pancakes. The dark spots are the flavour, so do not be shy of them.
- 5As each round comes off, dip it quickly in a bowl of cold water, shake it off and stack it under a clean tea towel so the breads steam each other soft.
- 6Serve spread with butter and topped with smoked lamb (hangikjöt), or with cheese.
Icelandic home tradition since the settlement era.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Reykjavík. The rye bread is baked by geology. Hverabraud is a dark, sweet, dense loaf sealed into a container and buried near a hot spring, where ground heat cooks it slowly for the best part of a day. The lamb comes off the same landscape, grazing loose on wild herbs through the short summer.
🗺️
Iceland. 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.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Iceland
PlokkfiskurIceland’s "plucked fish": cod and potatoes folded into a warm, oniony white sauce, served with dark rye and butter.
Hafragrautur (Icelandic Oat Porridge)Creamy stovetop oat porridge simmered with a pinch of salt, served the Icelandic way with a spoon of skyr, brown sugar, and butter.
PylsurIceland's lamb-based hot dog with crispy and raw onions, remoulade, and a sweet-brown mustard, a Reykjavik institution.
Browse all Iceland recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Skillet or frying pan, Griddle or flat pan, Steamer.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Flatkaka (Icelandic Rye Flatbread)?
Thin, soft rounds of rye and wholemeal dough made with boiling water, charred on a scorching dry pan, dipped in water and stacked, then buttered and eaten with smoked lamb.
Where does Flatkaka (Icelandic Rye Flatbread) come from?
Flatkaka (Icelandic Rye Flatbread) is an Icelandic dish from Reykjavík, Iceland.
Can Flatkaka (Icelandic Rye Flatbread) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Flatkaka (Icelandic Rye Flatbread) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Flatkaka (Icelandic Rye Flatbread) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Flatkaka (Icelandic Rye Flatbread) take to make?
About 55 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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