Is anyone eating Lutefisk tonight?

[TheMightyFavog]

You have my sympathies.

:scared:

[flamingyouth]

1. No

We do all of the other Swedish trimmings, though.

You couldn't pay me to eat that crap. :puke:

[Fenris]

10. Pickled fish!

:D

[flamingyouth]

14. That's pickled HERRING, buddy

And next Christmas YOU'LL be eating it. ;)

[TK421]

2. What exactly is Lutefisk? I've seen other posts referring to it

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. fish in lye

it's like a combination of Flipper and CSI

[TK421]

6. That sounds....um, tasty?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

21. Oh, it's wonderful.

Not. It's more or less like fish Jell-O.

[Wapsie B]

4. It's a Norwegian delicacy.

It's part of this Lutheran daily repentance thing. ;-)

[TK421]

7. What are they repenting for, murder?

[Wapsie B]

11. Garrison Keillor explains it as

every day is Lent for us. What are we repenting for? The original sin in the Garden of Eden.

[TK421]

12. The author of Lake Wobegon Days? Okay, I respect that

[tuvor]

16. The piece of cod which passeth all understanding.

I'm gonna milk that joke for all it's worth.

[RevCheesehead]

23. ROFL

I'm gonna use that one! :rofl:

[tuvor]

24. Finally!

Someone got it! :)

[RevCheesehead]

5. Good God, no!

But I will be eating raw ground beef.
It ain't my favorite, but it's one of the things served at tonight's Christmas party after church. One pinch ought to do.

[xmas74]

8. Cannibal sandwich?

I haven't touched one in years.

[Wapsie B]

13. Steak de tar tar?

No thanks. I'll have what the Italians are having today. Smelt and seafood sound good.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Christ, no.

Thank God my ancestors were English, Irish, Scots and German, and NOT Norwegian. (Not that you could get me to eat it if they WERE Norwegian...)

[supernova]

15. No thanks,

I always look forward to trying international foods. But lutefisk is not something I'm dying to eat. x(

I'm going to my sisters' family house, so I'm not sure what I'll be eating tonight. Maybe ham? Turkey? I don't know, but it most definitely won't be lutefisk. :P

[tuvor]

17. We gave you ABBA and Ann-Margret to make up for it.

Forgiven?

[TK421]

18. All of a sudden, I'm craving some Lutefisk

[Blue-Jay]

22. Those offerings make the situation even worse!

Well....except for Ann Margret. wowza!

[Omphaloskepsis]

26. Ann-Margret??

Was she in a movie called "Swingers?" If she was... HAWT..

--edit-- Looks like it was "The Swinger"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061052/
still HAWT

[XemaSab]

19. Half Swedish

Never had it.

Duunno if it's bad that I'm ignorant of my cultural heritage or good that I'm ignorant of my cultural heritage.

:dilemma:

[ismnotwasm]

25. I'm a little over half Swedish

And you haven't missed a thing. Trust me.

[Beausoir]

20. Thankfully, not this year.

I grew up on it. Gads. I can still smell it.

Now that I am married and have kids of my own...we do a spicy Mexican feast on Christmas Eve. It's the Anti-Lutefisk!

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

27. what IS Lutefisk??

:scared:

Anyway, I don't eat fish so yeah, good luck to all those eating it. :D

[TheMightyFavog]

28. This is lutefisk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk

Lutefisk is made from air-dried whitefish (normally cod), prepared with lye, in a sequence of particular treatments. The first treatment is to soak the stockfish in cold water for five to six days (changed daily). The saturated stockfish is then soaked in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye for an additional two days. The fish will swell during this soaking, regaining a size even bigger than the original (undried) fish, but the protein content paradoxically decreases by more than 50 percent, causing its famous jelly-like consistency. When this treatment is finished, the fish is full of lye, has a pH value of 11-12 and is poisonous. To make the fish edible, a final treatment of yet another four to six days (and nights) of soaking in cold water (also changed daily) is needed. Eventually, the lutefisk is ready to be used for cooking.


Cooking

After the preparation, the Lutefisk is saturated with water and must therefore be cooked carefully so it doesn't fall into pieces. It doesn't need any additional water for the cooking, it is enough to place it in a pan, salt it, seal the lid tightly and let it steam cook under a very low heat for 20-25 minutes. It is also possible to do this in the oven, the fish is then put in a ovenproof dish, covered with aluminium foil and cooked at 225°C for 40-50 minutes.


Eating

In Scandinavia, the "season" for lutefisk starts early in November and is typically served throughout Christmas. Lutefisk is also very popular in Scandinavian-American areas of the United States, such as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Lutefisk is usually served with a variety of side dishes, including, but not limited to, bacon, green pea stew, potatoes, meatballs, gravy, mashed rutabaga, white sauce, syrup, geitost (goat cheese) or "old" cheese (gammelost). Especially in the U.S., it is usually eaten with lefse. Even if the common denominator is lutefisk, side dishes vary greatly from family to family and region to region, and is a theme of recurring controversy when different "traditions" of lutefisk-eaters meet and eat together.

[TheMightyFavog]

29. Lutefisk

- Lutefisk is not food, it is a weapon of mass destruction. It is currently the only exception for the man who ate everything. Otherwise, I am fairly liberal, I gladly eat worms and insects, but I draw the line on lutefisk.

- What is special with lutefisk?

- Lutefisk is the Norwegians' attempt at conquering the world. When they discovered that viking raids didn't give world supremacy, they invented a meal so terrifying, so cruel, that they could scare people to become one's subordinates. And if I'm not terribly wrong, you will be able to do it as well.

- But some people say that they like lutefisk. Do you think they tell the truth?

- I do not know. Of all food, lutefisk is the only one that I don't take any stand on. I simply cannot decide whether it is nice or disgusting, if the taste is interesting or commonplace. The only thing I know, is that I like bacon, mustard and lefse. Lutefisk is an example of food that doesn't taste anything, but is so full of emotions that the taste buds get knocked out. --Jeffrey Steingarten

[gizmo1979]

31. Dam Hollanders!

[hippiechick]

30. I thought Lutefisk was for New Year's Eve ...

... as a sort of Norse good luck charm ?



:hi:

[DrDan]

32. sure - a whole lot of Norwegians