Let me get this straight. You dry fish and then soak it in chemicals until it's about to turn into soap and then cook it?
Good job my decade at Nokia means that nothing Scandinavians do shocks me any more
More or less
Served at Christmas and made from klippfisk or tørrfisk. Both are dried cod but the klippfisk is salt cured before its dried, while tørrfisk is unprocessed. Its just filleted fish hung up on racks outside... fully accessible to natures creatures... and their waste products.
While 8-12 weeks of drying outside helps, its a lazy way of preserving food.
First time I heard of lutfisk, I diddnt believe it to be real lut (NaOH), IE. lye or sodium hydroxide.
I figured that If once upon a time some mushroom tripping viking decided that mixing fish and drain cleaner was a good idea he probably wouldn't have lived to tell the tale. Tho it might have solved the seagull problem near the drying racks.
Learning that the fish is in fact made with the real thing, I naturally assumed it was only in small amounts. I was wrong, again.
When this dried smelly fish is done with the Tyler Durden chemical treatment, it has a pH value of 12-13 ...But after 4-5 days in cold water, its not only considered edible but a delicacy. This only proves that norwegians drink way to much alcohol during the holidays. This should not be considered food at all.
Lye has the same nasty effect on all organic tissue. It dissolves Edward Nortons skin/tissue in the unforgettable scene from Fight club and it dissolves the smelly fish just the same. The texture alone is enough to turn ppl away from it.
The gelatinous fish meat that remains might remind you of chocolate pudding, but tell me, how does smelly fish pudding fit in on the menu?
A delicacy worthy of a michelen star or two?
Since the nutritional composition no longer matches that of fish and much less a protein rich healthy cod, I vote that lutefisk is reclassified as "not for human consumption."
Denaturation and various chemical processes renders most of the proteins, sugars, fatty acids etc useless to the body.
It seems formaldehyde is one of the many new organic compounds formed during the process. OFC. none of them reason for concern when eaten once per year, but probably not healthy.
One of the newly formed amino acids, has proven to be toxic to rodents only, but some still sees it as potentially harmful to humans.
While preservation and preparation of food also includes keeping rodents away, there are smarter ways to achieve this. Personally I prefer that my X-mas dinner comes from fresh or frozen land living animals, and are easily distinguishable from my pest control poisons.
To any lutefisk fans who might disagree, some light reading:
New Amino Acid Formed on Alkaline Treatment of Proteins
HSDB: L-LYSINE
Human exposure studie .. they even tested it on 1-5-month old infants. Thats wat I call world class parenting!
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