Ingredients
Meat
- 1smoked lamb leg or shoulder, about 2 kg
- water, to cover
Uppstúfur
- 50 gbutter
- 50 gplain flour
- 600 mlmilk
- salt
- white pepper
To serve
- 400 ggreen peas
- boiled potatoes
- pickled red cabbage
- laufabrauð
Directions
- Sit the joint in a large pot and cover it with cold water.
- Bring it slowly to the boil, then drop it to a bare simmer. Never let it boil hard.
- Simmer for about 30 minutes per kilogram, so roughly an hour for a 2 kg leg.
- Turn the heat off and leave the meat in its water to cool completely, ideally overnight. The meat draws moisture back as it cools and then slices thin without crumbling; lifted out hot, it dries and falls apart.
- Lift it out, take off the skin and the fat cap, and refrigerate it.
- Carve it cold, in slices as thin as you can manage. Thin slices.
- Serve the cold sliced lamb with the hot béchamel poured over, green peas, boiled potatoes and pickled red cabbage. Cold meat under hot sauce sounds wrong to everyone outside Iceland and is exactly how it is served at Christmas.
Technique
- Taðreykt, smoked over dried sheep dung, is the traditional cure and is still made and sold; it tastes markedly different from birch alone.
- It is Christmas Eve and Christmas Day food above all else.
- Some is sold ready-cooked and sliced, which most Icelandic households buy at least once over the holiday.
Substitutions
- Any cold-smoked lamb or mutton.
- Smoked ham, which is not Icelandic but works under the same sauce.
Variations
- Served hot straight from the pot rather than cold.
- On flatkaka with butter as an everyday sandwich.
- With a mustard sauce in place of the béchamel.
History
Lamb smoked over birch and dried sheep dung, the traditional Christmas main; the name simply means hung meat.
Frequently asked questions
What is Hangikjöt?
Hangikjöt is a main from Iceland: birch-smoked lamb sliced with white sauce, peas; Christmas. Lamb smoked over birch and dried sheep dung, the traditional Christmas main; the name simply means hung meat.
How long does Hangikjöt take to make?
Hangikjöt takes 10 min of preparation and 1 hr, plus overnight cooling of cooking. The recipe makes 8 servings. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Hangikjöt?
Yes, within limits. Any cold-smoked lamb or mutton. Smoked ham, which is not Icelandic but works under the same sauce.
What is the most important thing to get right in Hangikjöt?
Bring it slowly to the boil, then drop it to a bare simmer. Never let it boil hard.
