{"id":131,"date":"2009-08-12T08:06:19","date_gmt":"2009-08-12T12:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=131"},"modified":"2009-08-12T08:06:19","modified_gmt":"2009-08-12T12:06:19","slug":"lutefisk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/lutefisk\/","title":{"rendered":"lutefisk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Literally “lye fish”-the first word that comes to my mind is yuck.\u00a0 Lutefisk <\/strong>is a traditional dish of the Nordic countries (namely Norway, Sweden, and the Swedish-speaking part of Finland) made from dried or salted whitefish (klippfisk) <\/strong>or stockfish (air-dried whitefish) that goes through various treatments soaked in lye (lut<\/strong>).\u00a0For those of you who don’t know what\u00a0lut <\/strong>is, it is\u00a0sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, a metallic base that forms a strong alkaline solution when dissolved in certain solvents-water, for example.\u00a0 Lut<\/strong> is commonly used\u00a0in the production of pulp, paper, textiles, soap, and best yet, detergent and drain cleaner.\u00a0 Knowing that this chemical base is involved in such tasks as producing\u00a0household cleaning products\u00a0makes me not want to eat it.<\/p>\n

Fear not, it is not harmful to your health.\u00a0 In fact, many other kinds of foods go through a treatment process with lut <\/strong>as well.\u00a0 These include fruits and vegetables (through a chemical peel process), poultry scalding, thickening ice cream, soda production, German pretzels, Chinese noodles, and more.\u00a0 The Scandinavians aren’t the only ones who use lut <\/strong>to treat food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is unknown how Scandinavians discovered the use of lut <\/strong>for fish treatment.\u00a0 There are several theories on the origin of lutefisk.\u00a0 <\/strong>One thought is that fish accidentally fell into a bowl of lut <\/strong>and because the family was so poor, they simply had to eat it, and discovered it was edible, perhaps tasty.\u00a0 Another theory is that fires would have created ashes of wood\u00a0that mixed with the water to create lut.\u00a0 <\/strong>Yet another theory is that a rack of stockfish was out drying and got caught on fire, then it rained for several days, and again due to poverty, the fish was cleaned and eaten.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who knows how lutefisk <\/strong>was discovered.\u00a0 All we know is that it remains extremely popular.\u00a0 It may come as a surprise to you, but more Norwegian-Americans and Canadians of Norwegian descent eat lutefisk <\/strong>today than native Scandinavians do.\u00a0 Madison, MN is the ‘lutefisk capital of the world.’\u00a0 However, that’s not to say that in Norway, for example, lutefisk <\/strong>goes uneaten.\u00a0 In 2001, 2,055 tons of the jellylike fish were consumed in homes and 560 tons in restaurants (wikipedia).\u00a0 It is more common for Norwegian-Americans to eat lutefisk <\/strong>on Christmas, whereas over half of Norwegian families dine on pork ribs (svineribber<\/strong>) on Christmas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lutefisk <\/strong>is usually served with dishes such as green peas, potatoes, rutabaga, bacon, and lefse.\u00a0 The sauce used can vary from white sauce to gravy to geitost <\/strong>to clarified butter or syrup.\u00a0 Here is a very descriptive quote from Garrison Keillor\u00a0(Wikipedia) concerning lutefisk:\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n