Viili, piimä, filmjölk, skyr – all obscure mouthfuls of rolling foreign vowels – that mean but one thing: cultured milk. The Scandinavians, whose ill-tempered northern climate necessitates creative application of food preservation techniques, celebrate soured milks and cultured dairy foods in a manner unparalleled by even the yogurt-loving people of the Caucasus. Indeed, they thrive on all manner of cultured and soured milks which are deeply ingrained into their culinary tradition and heritage, and from their undying love for wholesome, naturally soured milks we can all learn a lesson.
Scandinavia, though offering a remarkable plethora of cold-weathered vegetables, berries and other nourishing, suffers from severe, cold and dark winters characteristic of the north. No other word but harsh seems to better describe the challenges of a Scandinavian winter. Indeed, it ought to for the word harsh itself is of Scandinavian origin, coming to the English language from the Norwegian word harsk.
The peoples of Scandinavia are masters of food preservation – techniques won through difficult and hard winters in which many bellies went hungry. From necessity and practicality, a heritage of cultured, naturally fermented foods was born. They bring us gravlax, pickled herring, cheeses and sourdough breads, inlagda rödbetor (a type of pickled beet) and, of course, a wide variety of yogurts such as viili, piimä, filmjölk and skyr.
A 2008 study of over 82,000 Swedish men and women found that a high intake of cultured milk products seemed to lower the risk of developing bladder cancer.
Their love of cultured dairy foods is only fitting; after all, Sweden and Finland lead the world in milk consumption averaging three to four gallons of milk drunk for every man, woman and child in the country each month1. It’s only natural that such a milk-loving society would find unique and alternative ways to not only preserve, but also enjoy dairy beyond cold, frothy glasses of fresh milk. Their time-honored love of fresh milk, cheeses and cultured dairy foods has undoubtedly benefited their health. Indeed, the mere act of adding a starter culture to milk in effort to produce a yogurt not only increases the amount of beneficial bacteria present in the milk, but also doing so increases the food’s micronutrient profile – improving, in particular, the amount of B vitamins. A 2008 study of over 82,000 Swedish men and women found that a high intake of cultured milk products seemed to lower the risk of developing bladder cancer2. Moreover, a high intake of cultured foods is linked to an increased barrier against microbial infection3.
Viili
Viili, though thought to originate in Sweden, is a Finnish cultured dairy food noted for its viscous, gelatinous and almost ropey consistency. Indeed, the longer the strands produced, the more treasured the viili; indeed, some ropes of viili have been reported to reach upwards of one foot in length. Viili’s characteristic texture is the result of naturally present, beneficial yeasts and lactic-acid producing bacteria. Its is mildly sour, and in many respects faintly sweet by comparison to other cultured dairy foods and yogurt, making it a good option for small children.
Piimä
Where viili is eaten piimä is drunk. A thin fermented beverage, piimä is less sweet than viili and faintly cheese-like in its flavor. Due to its characteristically thin consistency and its sour almost cheese-like flavor it’s a good substitute for buttermilk. When piimä starter is used to culture cream, it produces a slightly thicker version that makes for a beautiful sauce. We serve it with pan-fried brussels sprouts.
Filmjölk
Filmjölk is another treasured cultured dairy food. Its bright and tangy flavor is quite versatile. Filmjölk is not as thin as piimä, and neither as thick as viili. For this reason it’s well-suited to a variety of applications. Filmjölk earns its tangy taste from lactococcus lactis and leuconostoc mesenteroides. These bacteria, like others involved in fermentation, render the milk slightly acid and that its acidic environment coagulates the milk’s natural proteins turning the milk into sour, thick yogurt.
Skyr
Skyr is Icelandic in origin, and traditionally consumed at breakfast. Though technically a soft cheese due to the inclusion of rennet, skyr is cultured with a starter that includes such beneficial bacterial strains as streptococcus thermophilus and lactobacillus bulgaricus. Traditional skyr is quite sour and even bitter – sometimes being used as a substitute for vinegar.
Tette Milk
Even more obscure is Norway’s tette milk, long heralded as a beauty treatment when drunk, which is produced by steeping the leaves of a blue-flowered Scandinavian meadow plant in freshly drawn milk. The milk would then sit at room temperature until clabbered, and this herbaceous clabbered milk could then be used to culture more milk. Milk drawn in the spring, and thus preserved, could be consumed well into winter provided it wasn’t disturbed by stirring which would break the curds and whey.
Culturing Scandinavian Yogurts at Home
You’ll note that these Scandinavian cultured dairy foods are largely produced by adding a starter culture to fresh milk and then allowing the milk to naturally ferment – or clabber – at room temperature which is in slight contrast to the traditional yogurt to which many of us our better accustomed. Room temperature, or mesophilic, yogurts are easy to prepare at home. Simply combine two tablespoons of starter culture (see sources) with up to one quart fresh milk and allow it to culture at room temperature for up to three days, or until the yogurt solidifies and separates easily from the side of the glass jar when tilted to one side.
1. Milk history, consumption, production and composition. University of Guelph. Accessed 11 March 2010. 2. Cultured milk, yogurt and dairy intake in relation to bladder cancer risk in a prospective study of Swedish men and women. Larsson et al. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. October 2008. 3. Probiotics and their fermented food products are beneficial for health. Parvez et al. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 2006. June.
I’ve never heard of traditional skyr being bitter or used as a substitute for vinegar. I am curious about that. Mysa, or whey, was used to pickle just about everything in Iceland, and they just finished the month of Thorri, where there is a festival called Thorrablot that celebrates the old sour whey-pickled food (probably because in the old days, that was about all you had to eat this time of year).
Does Cultures For Health offer a skyr culture or recipe? There are a few kinds of commercial skyr that you can get, so you could probably culture from that, but I have successfully made skyr with buttermilk culture. There is a great article and recipe here:
http://icecook.blogspot.com/2006/02/skyr-recipe-and-instructions.html
She also has some other great recipes for traditional Icelandic foods, pickled and not.
I love this blog!!
This really made me smile… my dh’s great-grandparents immigrated from Finland, I love to learn things about their culture! Also it makes me feel like I’m on track with encouraging my dh and our children to drink raw milk (my background is Swiss-German, so dairy consumption is coming through on both sides there.) I haven’t tried culturing my dairy yet though I think it’d be a hit with my girls… my 3 yo especially BEGS for sour cream “dip” for veggies or just about anything. They both love real yogurt and actually turn their noses up at “character yogurt” with artificial flavors and too much sweetness, but love plain yogurt sweetened with a bit of maple syrup and some frozen blueberries mixed in.
The more ways we have to ferment dairy the better. Raw fresh milk from the cow is delicious BUT the lactose IS sugar and it is best for all of us to reduce the amounts of sugar in the diet. Sugar is truly the scourge of civilization. Sugars are the engery source for the cancer cells in our bodies (we all have them). This provides them means to grow and spread. Health cells in our bodies can and do use Ketones from FAT as energy. Cancer cells can not utilize ketones. So theoretically if we eliminate sugar from our diets. INCLUDING all the foods that metabolizes into sugar. This includes unfermented milk, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and GRAINS. By adherring to a high fat diet that emphasizes lots of healthy fats like butter, ghee and coconut oil, grass-fed meats and organ meats, wild seafood, fermented raw dairy products, low-starch vegetables, some fruit, bone broths and cod liver oil (think hunter-gatherer) we can literally starve to death any cancer cells in our bodies while enabling healthy cells to flourish! The more ways we have to enjoy fermented milk prodcuts, the better. Thanks for the article.
My question is how to make yogurt WITHOUT the pasteurizing! THAT is one reason I want to make my own is to avoid that! I have raw milk and wanna keep it as raw and enzyme packed as possible! Thanks for any help/suggestions in advance!
Thanks for all your info and time encouraging us to eat healthy. Your blog is great. I bought the viili culture from Cultures for Health and I’m getting ready to try it. I need time where I’m not using my oven and getting the temp. right for culturing it(we turn our heat down at night and during the day when we’re gone. I’ve done thermophillic before never this kind. I’m hoping we like it. I want to maintain the benefits as much as possible from the raw milk. I got raw goat’s milk instead of cow’s. Do you think that will make any difference? Thanks again for all your help. Blessings!
Which type of yogurt is depicted in your photograph? Looks like a lovely texture.
This is awesome! I used to live in Norway, and it is true, that dairy is really an art form there. In fact all of Northern Europe has a long history with dairy and cultured dairy, which is why those of 100% Northern European decent are never lactose intolerant. Fascinating! I have always wanted to try making these items at home, but last year when I looked for the cultures, they were all out of season/stock. So this is a great reminder!
I grew up in Germany and we would go to Denmark on vacation and put Ymer on our granola. It was like yogurt but with a unique tart flavor. Anyone know anything about Ymer?
Tanja-
Ymer looks intriguing! I’ll have to look into it some more.
- Jenny
Great article! The description of Filmjolk would definitely benefit from adding the word sweet to more precisely describe the taste. It’s nowhere near being as tangy as yoghurt. I grew up eating it on a daily basis, but now I only use it for baked goods (like scones) because I find I do better with a slightly more acidic culture, like the Mild Yoghurt they sell in the stores now.
Villi does have its counterpart here in Sweden as well, it’s called Fjallfil (the first A with two dots; ‘fjall’ is the word for mountains such as those seperating Norway and Sweden). So yes, it very well could have Swedish roots. There are to my knowledge at least two different brands of it and even small corner stores seem to sell it. Perhaps it’s popular with older people (or kids as you say), not sure, I only know I can’t stand neither the taste nor texture;). But my 4 year-old nephew loves it!
We also have the Tatte Milk you described from Norway, however it’s not sold in stores, and I’ve never met anyone who makes it still, but I found a recipe in a book I just got from the library called ‘Our Swedish Food Roots’. I think it’s so cool to use a plant for the culture base, and this summer I hope I get to try out making some.
About pure-blooded Scandinavians never being lactose-intolerant, I’m interested where you got that info. I see a lot of lactose-free products in the stores. Of course everyone drinks pasteurized milk which can cause intolerance. So perhaps it’s true. As for me, I’m lactose-intolerant, but I’m half Portuguese. Although they have a long tradition of milk consumption there as well (especially cheeses). Lactose-intolerance like gluten intolerance may arise just from poor health since those substances require a strong digestive tract.
Catherine,
I do not pasteurize my raw milk. I do heat it up to about 100 degrees F, then mix in my yogurt starter. Pour it into glass jars, lid tight, and keep them in a warm place for 8 to 24 hours. Hope this helps!