Love it or loathe it, lutefisk still a popular holiday meal

Country Today ^ | 11-26-03 | Heidi Clausen

[HairOfTheDog]

We will be making some lefse next couple weeks or so! Will be fun!

[Ramius]

Roger that. My grandpa and his whole generation and part of the next loved the stuff, or at least they said they did. I had an uncle that married into the family who also loved it, but I'm secretly suspicious that it was only to get on Grandpa's good side.

My grandma used to make it, but after she passed, the tradition went with her.

The lefse tradition lives on. I still have my lefse frying pan, and all the other tools. My grandpa seems to have singlehandedly made most of the lefse rolling pins in the western hemisphere.

[cibco]

"Norwegians spell it, lutefisk. We Swedes spell it, lutfisk."

Us Danes just eat the hell out of it! Mmmmmmmmm...

[LibKill]

In Texas, do they have Lutearmadillo? Break out the crab-cracking tool.

Not neccesary. We don't soak them in anything other than barbeque sauce. When they are done they are served belly-up and the meat is SO tender that you don't have to peel it away, it just jumps on your fork! :)

[dalereed]

"My grandpa seems to have singlehandedly made most of the lefse rolling pins in the western hemisphere."

There's 6 he didn't make, I made them for everyone in the family about 50 years ago.

[Yeti]

This lutefisk stuff sounds like the Scandinavian equivalent of chit'lins.

Rotten fish aspic. Yum.

[Ramius]

it just jumps on your fork! :)

Unlike Lutefisk. That, you gotta chase around the plate a little before it settles down and you can sneak up on it.

I remain in the camp of those who think fish should be cooked *before* it goes rancid, not after. :-)

[babylucas]

Hillary's underwear.

I'm going to ralph.

[tubebender]

There was a live one hour radio show in the 50s and 60s with music and stories from Scandinavia. The host was Sy Bendorf and his sponsor was Sig Sanders Store where you could always get your Lutefisk. The timber industry attracted many Scandinavians here...

[brianl703]

How do the Danes spell it, or do they not partake in this delight?

[clamper1797]

My buddy from Minnesoda just came to visit ... he says it tastes and smells like 3 month old Swedish sushi

[brianl703]

That answers that question.....

[Ramius]

here's 6 he didn't make, I made them for everyone in the family about 50 years ago. A fine skill that is, making lefse rolling pins. Perhaps "western hemisphere" was something of an exaggeration. My grandpa was a carpenter, and made many of them too. He made one for grandma, then it became the family that wanted one... then friends... then the church... and it spooled on from there.

[ChemistCat]

I believe it's lye they soak it in.

Which is caustic base, not acid.

But please, if you're considering eating this, make sure you have a durable power of attorney and a living will first.

Because frankly, it scares me that anybody anywhere considers lutefisk food.

[Charles Henrickson]

The Danes spell it, ludefisk, I think.

[radiohead]

lutefisk! just the thought makes my stomach churn. one of the first things my late husband (finnish-swedish on his mother's side) wanted me to learn how to make was that godawful lutefisk.

i refused. i don't eat no chitlins, he wasn't eating no lutefisk.

[F.J. Mitchell]

"Chicken."

LOL! Why not, everything else tastes just like chicken.

[brianl703]

That's interesting. The reason I asked: My great-grandmother on my dad's mother's side was from Denmark. Surname of Lynge. The Yahoo people search finds 57 telephone listings nationwide for Lynge--it's a rare name. My great-grandfather on that side was from Sweden with the surname of Andersen/Anderson.

They met in Chicago--I guess Chicago was a popular destination for Scandinavians in the early 1900s.

[Charles Henrickson]

I guess Chicago was a popular destination for Scandinavians in the early 1900s.

Yes, it was. At that time, Chicago had more Swedes than any city in the world next to Stockholm, I think.

My grandfather, Karl Henriksson, came over as a young man in 1902, his name was changed to Charles Henrickson (I'm named after him), and he settled in Chicago. He was a house painter. They say that the Swedes built Chicago.

When I go up to Chicago, I like to stop in Andersonville (the Swedish shopping district on the north side) and get some Swedish food to take back to St. Louis (a Swede-deficient city).

Everyone thinks of Minneapolis as the Swedish capital of America, but there are just as many (if not more) Swedes in the Chicago area.

[dalereed]

Don't knock it if you haven't tried it!

I'm 66 and have eaten it at Christmas all my life and the last time I was sick was when I had the German measles when I was 8.