Skyr: an Origin Story

I love the little heart-shaped divot in this picture.

What is skyr?

Skyr is a soured milk cheese that hails from Iceland. It’s been made for over a thousand years that we know of. It is believed that some version of skyr predates Viking settlement of Iceland (874 CE, though evidence of habitation exists from around 800 CE), as Norway used to have a tradition of skyr-making as well. The primary difference between skyr and other yogurts or soured milks is that it is traditionally made with skimmed milk that has rennet added at the same time the culture is. Rennet is also what makes skyr a technical cheese rather than a yogurt or similar.

Historical skyr

Because the main value of milk to early Icelanders was to make butter, cheese, and skyr, milk could have been clabbered or otherwise soured, the soured cream skimmed and used to make butter, and then the remaining milk used for skyr or cheese-making (in the usual way). One also could skim the milk before it soured to make butter, but we can extrapolate that the Icelanders didn’t do that back when. Because they lacked sufficient salt to salt their butter to the level needed for long-term preservation, they made cultured butter instead. Be aware that butter that’s been salted to preserve it has way more salt in it than you find in grocery store salted butters. Like, in many instances you would need to wash it before it could be consumed to remove excess salt.

The following video represents methodologies from a different century and geographical area, but this all works pretty similarly no matter where or when you were, it’s fine as an example of butter making and preservation.

The resultant whey from making cheese and skyr, plus the buttermilk from butter-making, could be used in myriad ways. There’s evidence that whey was sometimes made into a fermented drink, was also drunk as in its standard form, and also that whey specifically was used to ferment and preserve meats. Buttermilk likely would have been drunk, and possibly used in bread baking.

Vats for storing meats preserved in whey. The meat never looks particularly appetizing to me, so I’ll let y’all find your own pictures of that.

We know that rennet would often have come from animal sources, but also that butterwort or sundew was used, which those are excellent plant sources of rennet. In the Westfjords, people also may have used stinging nettle to make rennet, in a pinch, since it does grow in that part of Iceland. Icelanders got to the Westfjords sometime in the 9th-century, but we don’t know exactly what year.

Common butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) grows in Iceland.

Common sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) also grows in Iceland.

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) AKA common nettle also grows in Iceland!

Skyr originally probably really was just clabber that was made into cheese with rennet. Many people still choose to make their skyr exactly that way in the home: by clabbering the milk and then undergoing the cheese-making process. People at some point would have begun to save some of the last batch, and this would ultimately result in myriad localized skyrs wherever it was consumed. Since the sharing of soured milk cultures was and still sometimes is performed in Scandinavian and Nordic nations by dipping a cloth in the culture and letting that dry (or not) before using it for your own culture, I personally assume this also happened with early skyrs. Lots of extrapolation going on here, because the records really are sparse. We know they consumed a lot of skyr, though, because archaeologists have yielded some massive vats.

Skyr and whey vats from Glaumbær museum village.

Originally, skyr was made with sheeps milk and cows milk, sometimes mixed and sometimes not. There are some older Scandinavian cookbooks that use “soured sheep milk” and “skyr” interchangeably, so I assume it wasn’t always mixed with cow’s milk when sheep’s milk was used. It should be noted here that Iceland is a Nordic, not Scandinavian, nation, but there is evidence that some medieval Scandinavians also consumed skyr during certain portions of that period, which is why I bring up those cookbooks even though skyr more properly belongs to Iceland. Either way, early versions were drinkable skyrs, as we see in Egil’s Saga, where it referred to as curd but consumed as a beverage:

There was a man named Aulvir, a house-carle of Thorir's, who was manager and bailiff over his estate. He had the getting in of debts, and was treasurer. Aulvir was past his youth, but was still quite a hale man. It so happened that Aulvir had to leave home to get in some rents of Thorir's that had stood over from the spring. He had a row-boat, on board which went twelve of Thorir's house-carles. Just then Egil began to recover, and rose from his bed. He thought it was dull work at home when everybody was gone away. So he spoke with Aulvir, and said he would like to go with him. But Aulvir thought one good comrade would not overload them, as there was enough ship-room. So Egil prepared to go. He had his weapons, sword, halberd, and buckler.

They went their way when they were ready. They had the wind blowing hard against them, and sharp gale and troublesome; but they pursued their journey vigorously, taking to their oars. And their progress was such, that on the evening of a day they came to Atla-isle, and there put in to land. In this island, not far up from the shore, was a large farm belonging to king Eric. The overlooker thereof was a man named Bard. He was called Bard of Atla-isle, and was a good business man and worker; not of high birth, but much prized by the king and Gunnhilda.

Aulvir and his men drew up their ship beyond flood-tide mark. They then went to the farm buildings, and found Bard outside, and told him of their journey, and withal that they would fain be there for the night. Bard saw that they were very wet, and led them to a fire-hall that stood apart from the other buildings. There he had a large fire made for them, at which their clothes were dried. When they had put them on again, Bard came in. 'Now will we,' said he, 'set you a table here. I know you will be glad to sleep; you are weary from your wetting.'

Aulvir liked that well. Soon the table was set, and food given them, bread and butter and large bowls of curds set forth. Bard said: 'Right sorry am I that there is no ale in the house, that I might receive you as I would; you will have to make out with what there is.'

Aulvir and his folk were very thirsty, and drank up the curds. Then Bard had oat-drink brought in, and they drank that. 'I should like,' said Bard, 'to give you better drink if I had any.'

There was no lack of straw in the room. Then he bade them lie down to sleep.

Icelandic sheep are really cool. This heritage breed of sheep has been maintained since Iceland was settled, and their wool makes for some very cool yarns. Generally speaking, these days, Icelandic sheep are used for meat and fibre rather than for milk production. Although these sheep are dual-coated; where there’s a long, stiff, and scratchy outer coat (tog) and a fine inner coat (þel, which is pronounced “thel,” where it’s the hard “th” like in “think” instead of the soft one like in “this;” the “e” and “l” are pronounced the same as in English). These two fibres can (and are) separated and used for different applications, but Icelanders also make a fantastic style of yarn called “lopi” that uses both. This stiff outer layer is water-resistant and keeps you dry, and the fine, inner layer keeps you warm and helps to regulate temperatures. This is perfectly suited to their climate! This style of yarn is really lovely to work with, also, but is primarily used for outerwear because it’s scratchy. It also makes excellent dish rags!

I have also read that you can use whey with your dyes as a mordant and ferment the wool in there to dye it. This is a skill I expect to never learn, but am interested in learning nonetheless.

Contemporary skyr

Skyr making today is a pretty straight-forward process, similar to that of any other modern-day thermophilic yogurt making. The skimmed milk (here’s a difference!) is heated almost to boiling, cooled to blood temperature (37C/98.6), inoculated with skyr culture and rennet (other difference, though not all manufacturers still use it!), then inoculated for around 5 hours. After that, it’s cooled and strained. In some cases, it will also be pasteurized, in which case live, active cultures will be added back into it before it’s packaged and sold.

This is a snarky video made by MS Iceland Dairies to critique the inauthenticity of Arla brand skyr. Arla, for reference, is not allowed to be sold in Finland under the name “skyr” anymore, because it violates MS Iceland Dairies’ trademark. This was an actual court battle that was decided in 2015.

Lastly, there are a number of things you can do with skyr, in addition to eating it the usual way. It can be used in baked goods like cheesecake, bowls, salads, appetizers, or pretty much whatever you’d do with your other yogurts and soured milks. Here is a video on how to make labneh with it, which is yogurt cheese! So in this case, you’re making cheese-cheese? I guess it all depends on whether you skip the rennet or not!