Shetland Produce

Origins

People have lived in Shetland for at least 5,000 years and, for most of that time, families would generally have caught or grown their own food. Archaeological excavations from the Pictish people, who occupied Shetland before the Vikings arrived, have provided some clues to what they ate. They certainly lived partly on fish and shellfish, which they may have cooked, rather laboriously, in water-filled stone tanks heated by throwing in stones taken from the fire. 

During the Norse period, from around 800AD, fishing and agriculture developed and trade in fish began, particularly with merchants from the Hanseatic League. Sailing from Bergen, Bremen, Hamburg or other Hanseatic ports, they exchanged cash, grain, cloth, beer and other goods for shiploads of salted cod and ling. The ending of the trade, as a consequence of the Act of Union in 1707, was a serious setback. Later in the 18th century, merchant landowners gradually built up fishing businesses, forcing tenants to fish for them, but Shetland’s economy remained fragile. ‘Clearances’ in several parts of Shetland in the 19th century saw the replacement of people by more profitable sheep. However, there were also periods of real prosperity based on fishing. 

Fishing also prospered, despite difficulties, in the later decades of the 20th century and fish and shellfish farming became important too. Ashore, there began to be a new appreciation of the potential value of Shetland’s indigenous agricultural products, in particular lamb flavoured by grazing on heather or the seashore.

Shetland cooking was firmly based on the principle of ‘waste not, want not’; everything was used. Krappin (and many other dishes) used the fish liver. Other old recipes incorporated the fish head or stomach, sheep’s brains or ox’s feet. Necessity was most certainly the mother of invention.

Preserving food for the winter, by drying, salting or pickling, was also an essential task in any household calendar. Mutton might be pickled or ‘reestit’ – salted and slowly dried in the rafters above a peat fire. Cooks had many different ways with such basic ingredients as milk and oatmeal.