Reinsdyrstek

Name: Reinsdyrstek
Total time: 1 h 50 min
Cuisine: Norwegian
Ingredients: 1.5 kg reindeer roast, leg or loin; 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper; 3 tbsp butter; 2 carrots and 1 onion, roughly chopped; 500 ml game stock; For the sauce: 300 ml pan drippings, 150 g sour cream, 3 slices brown cheese

Roast saddle of reindeer with a juniper-and-thyme crust, served pink with a glossy game sauce.

1 hr 50 minAdvanced

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Cultural Context & History

The roast reindeer that crowns a northern Christmas table is a study in restraint: lean, dark meat cooked barely past rare, its wild-herb sweetness carried by a sauce reduced from bones and forest berries.

Ingredients

1.5 kg reindeer roast, leg or loin393 kcal · 3.6 g protein · 7.1 g fat · 75 g carbs per 100 g
2 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper0 kcal · 0 g protein · 0 g fat · 1330 g carbs per 100 g
3 tbsp butter714 kcal · 0 g protein · 78.6 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g
2 carrots and 1 onion, roughly chopped
500 ml game stock114 kcal · 22.4 g protein · 2 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g
For the sauce: 300 ml pan drippings, 150 g sour cream, 3 slices brown cheese

Per-100 g values shown for ingredients verified against Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central (snapshot 2026-09-11). Ingredients not yet verified show no nutrition line.

Recommended Tools

Leave-in meat thermometerGuides the lean roast to a precise medium-rare.
Heavy roasting dishHolds the stock and vegetables through the slow roast.
Balloon whiskMelts the brown cheese smoothly into the sauce.

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Step-by-Step Instructions

1
Rub the reindeer roast all over with the salt and pepper, then sear in the butter in a hot pan until deeply browned on every side.
2
Transfer to a baking dish with the chopped carrots and onion, pour in the game stock, and insert a probe thermometer into the centre of the meat.
3
Roast at 125°C (255°F) until the internal temperature reaches 60°C (140°F) for medium-rare.
4
Wrap the roast loosely in foil and let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes so the juices settle.
5
Whisk the pan drippings with the sour cream and brown cheese and simmer for 5 minutes, then slice the roast and serve with the gravy.

Chef's Tip

Reindeer is exceptionally lean, so pull it at 58°C and let carryover heat carry it to 60°C — a few minutes beyond that and the meat turns dry and livery.

Chef's Tip

Grate or thinly shave the brown cheese before it goes in; it melts into the cream evenly instead of catching in the pan.

How this page was made

Written by: The Norcook editorial archive. No individual author is named yet — see the editorial and food-safety policy for what that means and what has to happen before a byline appears.
Content last checked: 2026-07-21 — “checked” records an editorial check, not a qualified review. Where one exists, the recipe-specific review record appears in the food-safety callout.
Regional context: Sápmi — the hub carries the wider background, the ingredient glossary and its own sources.
Sources: No page-level sources are recorded for this recipe yet. The cultural background above is written as general context, not as a sourced historical claim.

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