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

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

[ChemistCat]

Note to self: lutefisk causes German measles in children....

[dalereed]

Attending school causes German measles in children!

Especially the ones that went to school before they invented vaccine!

[ChemistCat]

Oh man.

I knew there had to be a connection to vaccines and public schools. I just knew it.

[brianl703]

I somehow thought there are a lot Swedes in the Chicago area. I guess the Germans got to name most of the streets in the Chicago area, though. I was in Hanover, PA a few weeks ago and I would have thought I was in a Chicago suburb from the street names.

[Choose Ye This Day]

some retirees even take the pungent product with them to Florida for the winter

I'm assuming they DRIVE to Florida. In this day and age of heightened national security, I doubt they'd let an unstable substance like lutefisk on board an airplane.

[Salman]

I've tasted it. It's has a fishy soapy taste to it, and a consistency that is somewhat gelatinous.

"Fisk" == fish. It's codfish preserved with lye. The fish has some oil or fat in it. Lye + fat == soap. Soak it real good before cooking or you'll get alkali burns all down your esophagus.

And I thought baccalà (or bacalao) was hard to deal with, but that's just codfish with too much salt to be soaked out. Stewed with vinager and onions it's an A-OK southern Italian treat. Or battered and fried as the Puerto Ricans do it is also good.

Provided it was soaked enough first, of course. Soak, throw out water, repeat. Then cook.

I have this idea of preserving fish by soaking it in paint. I call it "paintfisk". Before you cook it, you have to soak it in turpentine.

[Salman]

From this picture, it's impossible to determine whether the stuff is going into or coming out of the kid's mouth.

[Salman]

Every "ethnic" cuisine has:

• Dishes with wide appeal.

• Dishes which are generally edible.

• Dishes that when you pull a upon face tasting them, folks say "you'll develop a taste for it".

• Dishes which amount to an initiation.

[vetvetdoug]

After reading this thread I have come to the conclusion that if I were to be served lutefisk the first thing I would grab for is the McIlhenny Co. Tabasco Pepper Sauce. Anything is edible with that stuff on it.