h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In sweden whya have our one bad tasting fish. It´s called Surströmming which in enghlish is Fermented Baltic herring du to my dictionary, directly translated i means sour Baltic herring. But the procedure is mostly the same thing, nobody really likes it but after some drinking you could most things.

The social purpose of the surströming is almost the same as lute-fish, but
the difference is that Swedes are bright enough to not make it a matter of
country pride to eat half-rotten fish. Instead we send it to our all our foreign
friends, and say it is a Swedish tradition which they must try. The Swedes who
insists eating and liking this kind of fish have most probably been drinking
to much aqvavit already.

Some people just refer to surströmming as "pickled herring". Which kind of gets right to the point. It tastes like pickles with fish. This delicacy Swedes eat twice a year, Midsummer and Christmas.
Swedes also ingest lutefisk, or lutfisk (important e). However only once a year, at Christmas when we can swallow it down with other vile tasting food and brännvin*.

*Brännvin is aquavit without spices.

Here in Norway we have something called "rakfisk" wich I believe is aproximatly the same thing as the Swedish "Surströming".

As far as I've understood it, rakfisk and surströming is made by leaving herring in a barrel of salted water for a _very_ long time...

Lutefisk is not decomposed though it looks and smells like it.

The only thing 'lutefisk' and 'rakfisk' have in common is that it's made of fish and that it smells awful.

--PISCUS

Surströmming and "pickled herring" is not the same thing.
'Surströmming' is made by leaving herring in basrrels of salted water as piscus quite rightly pointed out. In those big barrels, the herring is fermented (goes sour) and that is why it gets its name.
Pickled herring, on the other hand, is made by leaving herring in jars of vinegar so that the herring aquires the vinegar taste, which is much more pleasant than the sour taste of the 'surströmming'.
Many Swedes wouldn't eat surströmming even if someone threatened them to bodily harm, but a lot of people eats pickled herring.

The Surströmming has a traditional date in late August where people who like it brings out lots and lots of it and eat it together with other people who like it, usually in a secluded place where innocent passers by will not get exposed by the ferocious smell. After this fest of devouring the fermented fish, it usually fades in interest and people stop eating it til next August.

The pickled herring is a part of the Christmas smorgasbord, but people eat them most of the year. There are lots of variations of the pickled herring. There's the plainly pickled herring, then there's "Onion herring", "Garlic herring", "Mustard herring" and "Dill herring". As you might have already guessed, these are basically pickled herring with the extra spice of the onion/dill/garlic/mustard.

For midsummer there is another variety of herring available, called "matjesill" that is kind of a mixture between the surströmming and the pickled herring as it's conserved in salted water but not as for as long as the surströmming and it doesn't smell.

I'll stop my ranting now. Just wanted to set the record a bit straighter, although I probably have included lots of errors and inconsistencies.

Lost.

This story is supposed to be true ...:

At a midsummer party years ago my father-in-law wanted to delight his guest with this notorious swedish import (It can´t be legal). But after years of maturing in the cellar the can was so ... mature! ... that it was all rounded, like a ball.
Q: How shall we open this ... THING!
The clever people at this party found out that the only safe way of releasing the pressure was to SHOOT the can with a small ´22 rifle.
From a distance, I must say.
So far, so good.
A safe shooting range was improvised in the far end of the garden, the rifle aimed ... a good shot, and the can was hit at first shot. Nice!
Except for one thing: Everyone forgot the cat. The poor thing was hit, not by the bullet, but by the 20 ft long, thin, high-pressure stream of fermented who-knows-what that came out of the tin.
The cat disappeared and stayed away from home a LONG time.

Still: The herring was reported as beeing "the best ever".

Jan
Norway

*LOL*

Poor cat. *LOL* I bet that he stayed away for quite a while.

What they should have thought of was that the very best way to open a "mature" can of 'surströmming' is in a bucket/barrel of fresh water. The waterpressure in the bucket/barrel makes the pressure in the can even out a bit better, and you don't get really smelly.
The best way to have fun with someone inexperienced at a 'surströmming' party, is to have them open the can without telling them about the high-pressure dispursment of the fluid. This gives everyone but the person subjected to the surprise of suddenly being covered in the fluid a good laugh.

If you have a good reason (a really, really good reason) to pull a devilish trick on someone, you could open a can of surströming, and smear some on some air inlet on the poor victim's car, his front door, or in a ventilation system.

Note: This is a very cruel trick indeed, and not a joke (maybe a bad one). It shouldn't be pulled on someone unless they badly deserve it. Remember, the smell doesn't go away for a long time, so if you want to keep the person as a friend, then don't do it.
And if you do it, it's on your own risk.

Stories tell that the school I attended as a kid, once was shut down for several days because someone opened a can and hid it under the stairs.

That is in deed a very cruel joke to play on someone, and I have to agree with you that if you are to do it to anyone, they really have to have done something bad to deserve it.

I am not surprised that a school could have been closed down due to "Surströmming" contamination.

When speaking of strange nordic treats, why not try the "gravlaks", or GraveSalmon... I do not know the precise timing, but the concept is simply to take a Salmon, preferably a large one, and dump it in a large hole in the ground. You cover the hole with dirt and wait. I belive it will only take about a week or so until the Salmon is perfectly rotten (not rotten right through, only, uhm, matured...) Dig it up, eat it.

Maybe some of you out there can be more precise about the way one makes a meal out of the Grave Salmon. If so, perhaps we could make an article out of it?

Just Another Researcher - Because I am...

all of this sounds like my august activity. in Iowa USA, in august the temperature is in the 90's during the day and the 60's at night. the river that runs through our town has dropped to a level it can be waded. this river empties some 60 miles down stream into a bigger river, and that river empties some 180 miles down stream from the confluence of my river, into the mississippi. a friend of mine who I have spent years of my life fishing with on our river have come up with a method of catching fish when in august all the local fish have been caught and the river is to low to encourge the down stream fish population to migrate up our way. I and most of my freinds were taught chumming which is the poluting of the river with suabstances that attract the down stream fish. at first we would gather up road kill put it in a burlap sack and sink it in a hole in the river the smellier the better. we also experimented with blood and cheese but our climax product turned out to be clams. the river being low it was easy to gather them out of the river. we would fill a gallon jar and submerge it in a shallow pool of backwater we put enough mud or sand on it like a shallow grave because the water in the shallow pool would get to at least 100 degrees during the day. with the jar being sealed tight and anchored by a strong chord to a big rock in about 5 to 7 days we came back one night with a 22 rifle and a flashlight, the jar would be bobing on top the water bouyed by the gas generated by the fermented clams. I think you can imagine how good the fishing was for the next few days. I have gone as far as to brag that we were fishing for and catching mississippi catfish. I do not think I could eat rotten fish or clams but catfish love it.

Are you suggesting that Norwegians are Catfish? Hmm.... Well, maybe we are..

You're fishing methods really are unique! Perhaps you could make a handbook : 1,2,3 Fish (using other dead, fermented, rotting, awfully smelling animals).

Fish on!

Just Another Researcher (looking for new name)

it is amazing the threads that we weave our apparel from. if you are what you eat maybe that is why a catfish is a catfish. being a hitchhiker can be a feast. taste and see if it is good.