SC - fresh lutefish?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> Quick lutefish? I thought the whole idea of making lutefish was to
> preserve it for later use and that the lye taste was just tolerated.
> Does this indicate that some folks *liked* the taste of the preservation
> technique, much as we often still lightly smoke or salt meats and fish
> not as a true preservative but because we like the taste?

Nossir. Lutefisk is a preparation or, if you will, dish, designed to
make a dried fish product known as torsk or stokfisk (known in English
as stockfish), palatable.

The only preservation technique involved is air-drying, which leaves the
fish with a texture somewhat like warped, peeling plywood. You soak it
in a solution of lye to tenderize it, then wash the lye (which is not
only unpleasant tasting, like soap, but potentially toxic in quantity)
outta there. 

The dish itself is made as if one were taking beef jerky and
reconstituting it in water with a powerful meat tenderizer added, before
cooking. You'll notice that the English and French recipes for stockfish
usually call for beating it with a wooden mallet for a while before
soaking: the purpose is to tease the fibers apart somewhat so that the
water can penetrate into the flesh and reconstitute it that much faster,
and to make the finished product more tender. In the case of lutefisk,
the same is accomplished by using a caustic substance to partially
dissolve the collagen-based intramuscular connective tissue, of which
cod and its relatives have a fair amount compared to, say, flounder.

Here's a period German recipe for what seems pretty clearly to be
lutefisk, courtesy of Valoise Armstrong's translation of Das Kochbuch
von Sabina Welserin, 1553 C.E. :

> 33 To prepare dried cod, from the gracious Lord of Lindau, who was Bishop in Constance 
> 
> First take river water and ashes and add caustic lime, which should be rather strong, and soak the dried cod therein. Allow it to soak for a day and a night, afterwards drain it off and pour on it again the previously described caustic lime solution. Let it soak again for a day and a night, put it afterwards in a pot and wash it off two or three times in water, so that the fish no longer tastes like lye. Put it then in a pot and put water therein and let it slowly simmer so that it does not boil over. Allow it to only simmer slowly, otherwise it becomes hard. Let it cook approximately one hour, after which, dress and salt it and pour salted butter over it and serve it. Also put good mustard on the outside in about three places. One must also beat dried cod well before it is soaked.>

Note that you have a preserved product already, take 48 hours to prepare
it for eating, then you eat it, after, as the recipe specifically
states, you remove all traces of lye taste. 
 
Hope this makes the issue less <ahem> fishy for you...

Adamantius  
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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