[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/ck/ - Food & Cooking

View post   
File: 68 KB, 600x600, lutefisk-600x600.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10958229 No.10958229 [Reply] [Original]

Lutefisk

Anyone fan of lutefisk or even eaten it? It is a seasonal food here in Nordic countries (atleast in Finland) and I devour kilos of this stuff every Christmas.

Extremely jelly-like texture, mild taste of fish, and horrible, horrible smell. The smell is pungent, but the taste is surprisingly mild and resembles calamari a bit.

I like the stuff plain with salt, but pepper and butter are optional.

>> No.10958343

Anything that can stay in the freezer for longer than a week, big no. Unhealthy.
No never tried this, but fish has certain fats which when frozen get separated from the fibers, and when you melt it the fats melt too leaving you with useless fibers...

>> No.10958352

>>10958343
It is dried whitefish soaked in lye to break down the protein: after that you wash off the lye and boil it in hot water. Lutefisk has only trace amounts of fat

>> No.10958358

>>10958343
>anything
You can store chicken and beef in the freezer for 1.5 and 3 years respectively

Also, someone cooked frozen beef he found in his storage that's 17 years old and never got sick from it and descibed the taste as "as if frozen for a week".

>> No.10958362

>>10958343
What a pussy
Scared to leave something in the freezer longer than a week

>> No.10958386

>>10958362
Maybe i simply appreciate the goods nature has to offer me. Im not scared of bacteria or getting sick, i just want my meat to be fresh from the farm. Actually now that you mention, freezing kills a lot of bacterias, which means if i eat it fresh, ill get bacterias?wow. Much brave.

>> No.10960525

"The first step is soaking the stockfish in cold water for five to six days (with the water changed daily). The saturated stockfish is then soaked in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye for an additional two days. The fish swells during this soaking, and its protein content decreases by more than 50 percent, producing a jelly-like consistency.

When this treatment is finished, the fish (saturated with lye) is caustic, with a pH of 11–12. To make the fish edible, a final treatment of yet another four to six days of soaking in cold water (also changed daily) is needed. Eventually, the lutefisk is ready to be cooked."

Look, I get that this dish became a thing out of necessity...but couldn't they have just salted and dried the fish like literally every other primitive culture on the planet? Especially since only cold as fuck Nordic countries ate this shit so preserving foods would be even less of an issue. How the hell did someone come up with the idea of curing this shit in a super toxic chemical that can seriously kill/fuck you up if it's not properly diluted?

>> No.10960535

>>10960525
> the fish (saturated with lye) is caustic, with a pH of 11–12
I really want to know what it would be like if you ate it at that stage.

>> No.10960542

>>10960535
I wonder how many tries it took for them to figure out the proper process of un-fucking the fish.

>> No.10960551

It's delicious, sort of like a mix of fish and boiled egg white. It's also very low in calories.

>> No.10961044

My grandma was from Norway - we had lutefisk at Christmas Eve dinner. The old people liked to watch the kids eat it as a kind of entertainment.

I hated eating it, I hated having a table of full of weird adults staring at me while I ate. I started hoarding candy ahead of Christmas and when Christmas Eve dinner came around I would hide in a closet just stuffing my face with peanut butter M&Ms.

>> No.10962960

>>10960525
>super toxic chemical

Birch ash was used back in the day to make the alkaline solution. Some still make it the traditional way, but lye is of course, more effective of breaking down the protein.

>> No.10962975

>>10960535
Probably like pain.

>> No.10962977

i'll stick with salt cod

>> No.10962980
File: 38 KB, 245x280, 1364935530169[2].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10962980

>>10958386
>Actually now that you mention, freezing kills a lot of bacterias, which means if i eat it fresh, ill get bacterias?wow. Much brave.

>> No.10962993

What’s weird is lutefisk is more popular in parts of the US than parts of Northern Europe.

>> No.10963206
File: 22 KB, 200x200, d10a69352aa2f7e5c7b0051ecd0f7b1f4204dc2f.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10963206

>>10958229
I'm from North Dakota and we have it here all the fucking time. It's disgusting.

>> No.10963253

>>10958343
>Anything that can stay in the freezer for longer than a week, big no. Unhealthy.
Bread and meat is DEFS unhealthy you GF vegan

>> No.10963697

>>10958229
>horrible, horrible smell
I've never noticed this. Is my nose fucked?

>> No.10964071

>>10963697
To be honest with you: I like the smell, because I associate the smell to the actual food: but universally speaking it probably is a bad smell: rotten/rotting fish

Same way the smell of blue cheese is not that good, but you do not maybe find it that repugnant if you like the actual taste of it. But you still can agree on that it does smell... expired

>> No.10965073

>>10960535
>>10962975
>>10960542
>Substances with a PH of 12 include... ammonia

Yeah that has a decent chance of killing you if you ate it.

>> No.10965094

>>10960535
pretty much the taste of soap, but it burns your mouth

>> No.10965100

>>10960525
>>10960525
>Especially since only cold as fuck Nordic countries ate this shit so preserving foods would be even less of an issue
Preserving food is even more of an issue when you have long winters...

>> No.10965124

>>10960542
I'm more impressed by the fact they didn't just say fuck it.