Rugbraud appears as a signature dish in 1 Iceland cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Rugbraud (geothermal rye bread) · Reykjavik
Rugbraud is a dense, dark and slightly sweet Icelandic rye bread, traditionally steam-baked for many hours. In some places it is still buried in geothermal ground to cook, earning the nickname thunder bread.
Rye grew where wheat could not, so dark rye bread became the everyday loaf of Iceland. The most famous version, hverabraud, is baked by burying a covered pot in hot geothermal soil near hot springs and leaving it for up to 24 hours, producing a moist, almost cake-like loaf. It is served sliced thin with butter, smoked lamb or pickled herring. In Reykjavik you find it at Cafe Loki and the old bakeries, and even as a rye-bread ice cream.
Where to eat in Reykjavik:
- Cafe Loki
- Sandholt
- Bernhoftsbakari