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Often farmers, these people had to rely on their own harvest for food to last them through the year, even in the severe winter when they had to keep the farm animals as well as themselves alive. Pork was popular as pigs were quick to raise

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They could afford better quality food and liberally ate meat. They could employ people to hunt for them or train hawks to catch their dinner.

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Rich citizens had vastly different diets compared to the poor. Interestingly, even a poor Viking ate much better than an English peasant during the Middle Ages and almost all citizens had access to meat everyday served with costly spices.

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you would smoke the meat by hanging it over a fire so that the heat dried it and the wood smoke preserve and flavour it. Smoked meat usually also had to be salted however.

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this would prevent the meat from rotting, however salt was expensive and scarce. The salt would keep the bacteria from getting into the meat and allowed for it to be kept for longer.

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could be pickled in sour milk, sour whey or vinegar. This suited fattier meats such as pork. Meat preserved in acidic liquids would have to be first cooked however.

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was suitable for the sunny and cold conditions that they lived in. It also required very few resources and can be kept for long periods of time without moisture.

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There are four main ways used for preservation: drying, pickling, salting and smoking.

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Fish such herring, garfish, salmon, flatfish and cod (approximately 25% of their diet), pork, goat meat, horse kebabs - the meat was often made into a stew with vegetables. The Vikings mainly ate food grown on their own farms such as meat from cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, goats, and poultry. They also ate game such as deer, hare, seals, whales, wild fowl, and reindeer.

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The majority of the Viking population farmed and hunted not for selling, but rather for the subsistence of their own families. The Vikings would preserve meat so that they could keep it fresh for long periods of time when the conditions may not be suitable for farming. Food preservation allowed them to survive the winter.