It’s a robust promote for what’s supposed to be a festive meal: a pile of translucent jelly with a questionable aroma.
But, as I ready to have fun Christmas in my native Norway for the primary time in no less than twenty years, I discovered myself as soon as once more going through the meals that plagued my childhood December 24s: lutefisk.
Pronounced loo-tah-fissk, the standard Norwegian festive dish made out of dried whitefish has a odor that means that the fish has been via one thing traumatic.
And that’s undoubtedly the way it begins — lutefisk interprets as lye-fish due to the publicity to sodium hydroxide, generally often known as caustic soda or lye.
The corrosive, additionally used as a drain unblocker, is utilized to stockfish, on this case dried cod, and rinsed away earlier than serving. It’s a completely protected culinary approach, if a little alarming.
Besides you’ll be able to’t argue with custom. I grew up in Trøndelag, a area the place many Norwegians nonetheless select lutefisk as their foremost Christmas meal.
“Why do we have to eat this?” the youthful me would whine, turning my nostril up on the fish, and filling my lefse — Norwegian potato flatbread — with potato, butter and the bacon bits that my dad, who’s from Norway’s Westland, had negotiated into the meal as a compromise.
But now, in spite of everything these years, I used to be enthusiastic about a return to lutefisk. Tastes change, proper?
Reassurance got here from my mom, Magni Ree, for whom lutefisk is as essential a a part of festive nostalgia as tomtebrygg, a home made fermented malt drink.
“When I was a child I didn’t like lutefisk either, but now I love it,” she stated. “It’s about the mood, the tomtebrygg and the tradition. Lutefisk belongs to Christmas.”
It is true that Lutefisk as soon as dominated Christmas tables in Norway. Swedes, Norwegians and residents of some components of Finland have additionally historically invited rehydrated fish into their houses throughout the holidays, as have many descendants of Scandinavians in America.
But occasions are altering. Nowadays, Norwegians are much less inclined to add such quaint meals to their plates for his or her foremost Christmas meal — and the fragile fish dish has been steadily vanishing.
Today, the nationwide festive dish of alternative on Christmas Eve, the day Norwegians usually have fun Christmas, is normally pinnekjøtt — boiled ribs of lamb — or pork stomach, with only 1% nonetheless selecting lutefisk.
But as Norwegians develop extra all for their meals traditions, lutefisk has been experiencing one thing of a revival.
Visitors to Norway within the months earlier than Christmas shouldn’t be shocked to discover lutefisk on the menu in lots of conventional eating places.
“It’s becoming trendy among young people to arrange lutefisk evenings,” says Annechen Bahr Bugge, a researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO), who has noticed a lutefisk comeback up to now decade. “Norwegians have become a lot more proud and curious about our own food history.”
And plainly lutefisk’s difficult consistency, taste and odor might turn into its saving grace.
“Food trends are about pushing the boundaries of the edible,” provides Bahr Bugge. “You have to shock your palate a little by eating unusual things.”
So how did this “peculiar” dish come to be? No-one is aware of for positive how lutefisk was invented. The story is that a rack of stockfish caught fireplace someplace within the north of Norway some 500 years in the past, leaving the fish coated in ashes.
Then the rain got here — primarily replicating the lye bathtub course of that may later be adopted — and to keep away from squandering precious meals, somebody determined to discover out if it might nonetheless be eaten.
“In the 1800s, lutefisk went from an everyday food to becoming more of a Christmas food,” says Bahr Bugge, explaining that the dish has a “real foothold as a Christmas ritual.”
Norwegian meals traditions can typically be linked again to robust financial occasions and a easy need to make good use of what was obtainable.
Fish was mandated as a Christmas dish in Norway’s Catholic period, which spanned from across the ninth the sixteenth Century, however we merely don’t know if lutefisk grew to become a festive dish for the dearth of one thing higher, or as a result of folks genuinely cherished it.
“It’s a modest dish, for sure,” says Jostein Medhus, meals and drinks adviser at Norwegian Culinary Academy in Oslo.
Even if it’s unlikely to be their many celebratory meal on Christmas Eve, many individuals nonetheless eat lutefisk in some unspecified time in the future throughout the vacation season at present.
Norwegians have been getting extra adventurous with lutefisk for the reason that 1800s, says Bahr Bugge: “That’s when they started adding toppings, and the dish becomes a feast.”
Today, the lutefisk accompaniments span a complete universe — everybody desires various things.
“A proper lutefisk plate with all the trimmings is far from sparse — it’s a major feast. There are so many colors, flavors and variations,” says Oddvar Hemsøe, the top of Lutefiskfestivalen, an annual pageant that celebrates the distinctive dish.
“We like bacon lardons, stewed peas and potatoes, specifically almond potatoes. There’s plenty of completely different mustards, and a few folks like shredded brown cheese.
“Some even want a little golden syrup, for sweetness. It’s not unusual to have two helpings of lutefisk, and no-one has room for dessert.”
Lutefiskfestivalen, which has been held within the south of Norway since 2013, sees lutefisk meals served at a sequence of occasions within the run up to Christmas, in a lot the identical manner that many Norwegians encounter the fish as of late. An outpost of the pageant is additionally held in Minnesota, residence to a giant Norwegian American inhabitants.
Hemsøe, who says he eats up to 10 plates of lutefisk throughout the season, explains that the kitchens are fastidiously assessed to guarantee they will ship the standard lutefisk that retains folks coming again for extra.
Exposure to “jelly-like fish you practically have to eat with a straw” is why many individuals keep away from it as of late, he provides.
But Hemsøe is no purist — he’s all for including new parts, resembling serving the dish with glowing wine and cider slightly than simply beer and akevitt, a potato-based spirit.
“This is how we can recruit more people to lutefisk,” he says.
While no-one actually desires to battle in regards to the accompaniments, stress inevitably arises on the subject of what constitutes good lutefisk.
“You’d be hard pressed to find a more peculiar dish. How do I put it — there are big differences in quality,” says Medhus, the food and drinks adviser.
“Simply put, some want to lye the fish quite hard, which results in a more jelly-like consistency. And if you lye the fish less, the result is closer to a fresher cod with whiter meat.”
The latter is actually simpler to love, however my mom gained’t hear of it. “That’s not lutefisk for me,” she says. If you’re going to do it, it is best to do it correctly.
The lutefisk meal I grew up with was on the extra austere finish of the spectrum, served with simply butter and lefse, like it could’ve been again within the day.
My aunt, Turid Ree Bjørnerud, nonetheless likes to eat it that manner. “I want to really experience the taste, and recall the feeling of childhood Christmas,” she says. “And I want that feeling of simplicity in a time of excess.”
Still, my mom bakes her lutefisk within the oven now, which is the tactic really useful by Medhus, who’s additionally a chef.
“Salt the fish at least 20 minutes before baking, so it releases more water and firms up a little,” he says.
Medhus likes mustard and bacon together with his lutefisk. For one thing a little completely different, he suggests serving it with toasted garlic and browned butter, or possibly chilli, ginger and soy sauce.
Although he’s all for protecting “one foot in with tradition,” Medhus says Norwegians can’t be too cussed in regards to the elements if they need to persuade extra youthful folks to attempt lutefisk.
“If these traditions are to survive, we have to be open to reinvention, to get the next generation in on it,” he says.
My return to lutefisk in 2023 turned out to be my grandma’s final Christmas at residence earlier than shifting into assisted residing — I’m so grateful we obtained to have that have collectively yet another time.
But whereas my now-adult palate loved this lutefisk encounter, aided by a very fashionable unfold of toppings, the most effective a part of the expertise was making ready the dish with my mom, whereas my grandma supervised from her chair. This is a cultural heritage that’s been handed down to me, and that goes far past taste.
Like my mom stated once I requested how she feels about our lutefisk custom: “This is the way that it is.”