Recipe For Asterix’s Drink Discovered

If you have ever seen „Asterix and the Vikings” I am sure you will remember Olaf Timandahaf and its Viking tribe, celebrating and drinking from skull- made mugs. However, the nature of this drink was never revealed. The scope a new study conducted by McGovern et al. was to discover what exactly the beverage inside these mugs was.

The composition of the grog, the beverage consumed by Scandinavians between 1500 BC and the first century AD, was up to now unknown because relevant Roman and Greek sources appear biased and unlikely. Just to give you an example, Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his Roman Antiquities stated that the barbarians were used to drink barley rotten in water, which sounds disgusting, doesn’t it?

Different drinking vessels were recovered from archaeological excavations of tombs and hoards in Scandinavia. More precisely, these archaeological discoveries are from the period between the fifteenth century BC and the first century AD and they come from four sites between Denmark and Sweden.

The researchers decided to analyze the drink residues within the vessels to determine the main components of the beverage and reveal the secret recipe of Grandma Vikéa’s grog. McGovern and his team characterized the residues by means of chemical and archaeobotanical analyses and they were able to determine the ingredients of the Nordic grog. If you are keen to try it, the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

Honey

Lingonberries and Bog cranberries

Wheat, rye, barley (depends on your own taste)

Grape wine (for the posh version)

Herbs:

– Juniper

– Birch

– Pine (for the posh version)

– Myrtle

– Yarrow

Procedure

Mix the berries, the cereals and the wine all together and let the mixture ferment for some days.

Add the herbs to the mixture and continue with the fermentation.

Pour the liquid in suitable mugs and add further honey or flavourants, depending on your own taste. Enjoy!

All you cooks and barmen that prepared the grog, I’m curious about your recipes and your tricks!

References:

Photo: Flickr, mararie

#drankies #asterix #herbs #honey