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

I remember lutefisk .. December in Trondheim.

It's like eating a bar of soap. I had to have a second plate.

Drink was a bottle of moonshine. It must have been a really agressive moon.

They haven't changed the soaking water often enough if it is soapy...
Fist lye (on december 10th) and then fresh water, change often, until christmas!

*First* soak in lye on december 10th...

Pardon, Milla? do you mean to say that you let a fish soak in .. lye? and eat it afterwards? no matter the rinsing?

all of a sudden I understand these viking raids some thousand years ago.. they were just desperate to get normal food ..

Lut *is the word for lye...

But let's step back... The fish are caught and gutted. They are flattened out, and thin splinters of wood are used to keep them spread out and flat. They are then dried, until thin as parchment. This allows you to store the fish indefinitely. For example until the ice is too thick to get enough catch to feed the household...

Well before you intend to eat it, you soak it in lye, and then rinse in fresh water.

No, the raids were just pleasure trips, didn't you know?

but but but but .. lye is surely damaging .. well, not only the fish but probably anyone eating it as well? Rinsing is fine, but .. doesn't it burn your throat? stomach?

I assumed they were pleasure trips, yes.. the fishy meals gave me some doubt

No, it's not burning or anything... It might be baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) lye, not sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner stuff) I'm not sure... I've only ever bought the ready soaked stuff in the store...

I googled for old recipies (the wonders of internet...) and it seems it was Sodium carbonate and calcium hydroxide in a mixture. Stilly pretty dangerous! But with lots of fresh water (changed twice daily for 15 days...) it's fine.

well.. what can I say .. I tried it, ate two plates (hey, I couldn't offend the cook!! Call me what you want to; mad, strange, silly, xenophobic, anything, but NOT suicidal). I'm not sure if I could have eaten two plates without the wicked moonshine.

Wikipedia btw says "it is made with caustic soda or potash lye." Caustic soda sounds .. too caustic for me. Well, if it clears the drains it'll probably clear my throat as well..

Well, I´d say that lutfisk is nothing compared to surströmminghttp://www.sweden.se/templates/cs/CommonPage____11372.aspx

...talking about fishy food and strange ways of preserving it...

Izzybelle

is lutfisk a brother nilfisk?

I'll certainly not try surströmming.

no way..

for nobody

My nonscandanavian bias is clearly at play here, but lutfisk and surstomming both sound like a good way to ruin a holiday.

a way ruin a holiday? well, only if you try to eat it. Just see it as local culture, folklore if you like, something that's for foreigners to wonder about, but not to join. Like morris dancing??

That sounds as a good idea.

what? morris dancing?

Not joining.

Morris dancing: A618581

I wasn't that fond of fish anyway

keep the fish in a pound!