Fermented mutton in the Faroe Islands: the survival of a local artisanship and food heritage

Dried and fermented mutton has been an essential storable protein source in an economy where weather conditions
and seasonal fuctuations afect the availability of food. For generations, the Faroe islanders have prepared ræstkjøt
(fermented and semidried mutton) and skerpikjøt (dried mutton) as an efcient and valuable cultural strategy for
preserving meat. The data for this study have been collected through anthropological and ethnobiological feldwork
as an embedded participant observer, supplemented with studies from written sources. Data were selected and
qualitatively analysed. Our fndings show that this traditional cuisine, so far rarely noticed by researchers as a food
heritage, requires that the islanders have access to sheep, master the technique of properly treating the slaughtered
carcases, and that the necessary ecological conditions, in relation to wind and temperature, prevail for the meat to
ferment and dry. They must also have access to the necessary equipment and skills, and be able to assess when the
dried meat is cured. The relationship that exists between humans and the active microorganisms in this specifc
context is also discussed. Appreciating and consuming local fermented food is also an important way of expressing
Faroese cultural identity. Once a staple for rural people, fermented mutton is nowadays a rather exclusive delicacy. The
study provides insights into a complex activity that includes local artisanship and food heritage based on the triangle
of human–sheep-microbiota.