This evening, the 21st traditional Swedish Christmas Eve Lutefisk dinner will occur. For those of you unsure of what this delicious feast is:"A common food dish of Sweden, made from whitefish, usually cod, soaked in water and lye (caustic soda) prior to cooking, using a process referred to a "luting" which served to dry the filet so it could be preserved. During earlier times, potash was used instead of lye. The whole or cut pieces of the cod were placed in a tub filled with cold water changed daily and allowed to remain in a cold area for approximately a week. After a week, lye was added to the water and again the fish was kept in the solution for 4 days, during which time it began to swell in size as half the protein in the fish is removed. At this point the meat of the fish is poisonous and cannot be eaten, so it is then washed with cold water and placed in a bath containing only water for another 4 to 5 days to remove the lye. The steeping and bathing of the fish fillets as well as the loss of protein, which continues as the fillets are washed prior to preparing, results in a clear, gelatin-like appearance and texture to the cod meat. It is the lye which contains an alkali solution that causes the reaction to occur so the meat of the fish takes on a clear, translucent, Jell-O consistency.
If delicious comes to mind, you might be a Swede! I'll save leftovers (if I don't eat it all) for anyone interested...
1 comment:
I've got this stubborn policy of not eating things that were at one point in time poisonious.
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