[Sca-cooks] Icelandic Christmas Eve Dinner

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 29, 2010, at 1:55 PM, H Westerlund-Davis wrote:

> My Sister-in-law lives in Iceland and via Facebook she shared her recent 
> experience regarding Christmas Eve dinner with an Icelandic family.
> 
>  
> Sister-in-law (SNL): Reikna með að borða ekki skötu í ár!
> Translation: Expected to eat skate this year .
> Me: Are you eating skate the fish or roller skate. The roller skate version is 
> going to be a bit rough.
> SNL: the fish. it's very strong and actually not so bad to eat, just not to be 
> cooked at home!
> Me: Curious? How would you prepare skate? We just had a discussion on our List 
> on how to prepare lamprey and eel.
> SNL: the skate has to be prepared by a pro-it's first soaked for a very long 
> time in an ammonia-like solution (in the old days it was peed on. not kidding) I 
> think they do something else to it before it's ready to be cooked, but then it's 
> boiled and the smell of it will clear out your sinuses.
> Friend1 Adds: Skate is very good. 
> Friend2 Adds: Glad to have missed out on this one - it is like an ammonia bomb 
> going off in your mouth and your clothes reek of it even if you weren't the one 
> cooking it! 
> Me: Great discription! I'll have to remember "ammonia bomb." How is skate 
> different from Hákarl? (rotten shark) Is this for Þorrablót?
> SNL: it's not for Þorrablót. Skata is traditionally eaten on december 23, the 
> feast day of St. Þorlákur (not sure why) Hákarl is not quite the same thing, or 
> method of preparation, I think, and hákarl isn't cooked once it's been prepared.
> Friend3 Adds: Why don't you have lutfisk like the rest of Scandinavia?
> End of comments.... My Sister-in-law has recently left to learn how to play 
> drums in Africa. For real.
>  
> Why do they eat Skata? It is an Icelandic Viking thing. They have stubborn 
> issues. 

My own experience with skate has been that the meat is sweet and very tender, but sometimes can have ammonia built up in the muscle, which becomes even more pronounced as the fish becomes less than fresh, so marinating it in milk is a good move. I have never heard of anyone soaking it in an ammonia-like solution, but then I suppose in extreme cases plain water could end up _as_ an ammonia solution. But the intent is to remove the ammonia, not flavor it with ammonia or use it for some other chemical purpose. Maybe skate from warmer waters behave differently.

Haakarl isn't rotten, by the way... it is pickled via a lactic fermentation process which  helps remove and drain away that same intramuscular ammonia often found in some sharks (and skates). It really is not the terrifying thing so many people have described it as; in fact I was a little disappointed when I tried it; it was just fish, more or less, with just the faintest cheesy aroma.

Nanna Rognvaldardottir is an Icelandic food writer who has spent time on this list; she might be someone to ask for details on the skate thing.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls, when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter