Viking Age Food Experimental Archaeology Progress Report 1

So the first step in Experimental Archaeology is research. In the past couple of trimesters, in our Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture Graduate Certificate through University College Dublin, I've been working towards doing an Experiment in Viking Age Food. I've read loads of papers about soapstone vessels, a common cooking vessel in Viking Age Norway. I've also read about Torksey ceramic pots found in York England. I wrote papers on these topics. (I got excellent grades too!) Along with these two major types, Viking Age cooks also used iron pots.

So far, I've acquired some pots (soapstone, ceramic and copper), a quern, used to grind grain, and some wooden utensils. None of these cooking tools are reproductions, but what is easily, but expensively available on Amazon. For recipe suggestions, I've got An Early Meal, by Daniel Serra and Hanna Tunberg. I also have Eat Like a Viking, volumes one and two, by Craig Brooks. I also have Tastes of Anglo-Saxon England by Mary Savelli. 

Why is this Experimental Archaeology? Experimental Archaeology's goal is to understand how people lived in the past. Maybe understand how the tools (material culture the archaeologist found) were made and used. In my case, I'd like to understand the cooking process. To that end my primary goal is to compare the three cooking vessels types. The major flaw with this is that the vessels I have are not reproductions. A second goal is to examine residues from cooking left in the vessels. Yes, I will wash them after I record that.

The thing I didn't really research is the foods available. An Early Meal has done some of that research of availability based on several Viking Age archaeological locations. So I will make some assumptions. People during that time were "locavores" or ate what was available in that area. They would also eat seasonally. I haven't read anything about preservation methods. I have read, but couldn't say when or where, that whey can be used as a preservative. Drying has been known in other cultures. So, I have to look at this and think about availability during in different places, certain times of the year, and how they might have eaten over the winter.