Making skyr: Is it really worth the trouble?

I like skyr (pron. skeer). It's that Icelandic cheese that looks, tastes and feels like really thick yogurt, and comes in various different flavors. It's easily found at Whole Foods, but not many other places outside of Iceland.

The new episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern has him exploring the culinary delights of Iceland. Among these is homemade skyr, which he says trumps the store brand easily, even though it's all organic and stuff. And it's not easy to make. But I thought, "What the hell, why not investigate?"

So I did. You need three ingredients to make skyr: lots and lots of skim milk (not whole), a small bit of rennet, and, strangely enough, skyr (or buttermilk if none is around). An authentic substitute for skyr is something called þéttir (þ, or "thorn", sounds like the th as in, well, thorn), but I'm really not sure what that is.

Apparently it takes an entire day to make skyr, including bringing skim milk to a boil, letting it cool gradually for two hours, then letting it sit for 5 hours. Not 4 1/2. Not 5 1/2. 5. But you have to seal the pot by wrapping it in a towel, and so on. And that's before the cheesecloth even comes into the equation, after which you wit another 12 to 24 hours. After all that, you have 20 servings that last 5 days in your fridge.

Damn!

I don't know how much free time the Vikings had to stop and make this stuff, what with raping and pillaging and all. I mean it sure is time consuming. I just have no patience for this sort of thing. So forgive me, but even though it's not nearly as good as móðir* used to make, I'm just going to buy my skyr at Whole Foods.

*That is in fact pronounced mother, with ð (eth) pronounced like th as in mother.

Do Icelanders Eat This, or Just the Folks at Icelandair

I got this as part of dinner on my flight from Boston to Reykjavik, in whose beautiful airport I transferred to a three/hour flight to Amsterdam. The food was your average airplane food, the only difference being that there was some in the first place.

It looks like strawberry ice cream but tastes vaguely like krab with a K, and smells very fishy. It was not good.

So what is this exactly?

Just booked the tickets...

It's official: I am now the proud owner of a $528 round trip plane ticket from Baltimore to Amsterdam via Icelandair during Spring Break (I have to plan these things ahead, of course, but I only waited four months this time). It was so cheap because it stops over in Reykjavik, Iceland - the others were at least $600 via United (their website says it costs $500. They lie. They lie through their faces.) I know nothing of Icelandic cuisine, except the skyr that Whole Foods sells. I only know a little more about Dutch cuisine (more a mix of Dutch, Indonesian and Surinamese cuisine). I almost flew Icelandair to London last December, but found a cheaper fare on British Airways (believe it or not). Now I just have to hope for a big tax refund next year. And I am not doing much traveling otherwise anyway - just a road trip to Jamestown, VA (yes, it is FINALLY happening), on Thanksgiving weekend, and probably a trip to NYC to see the new Young Frankenstein musical in January (much cheaper than in December, and the white sales will still be going on).