Post by barb43 on Dec 24, 2021 3:59:04 GMT
“The Great Lutefisk Mystery,” solved
The nutritional reasoning behind Norway’s most famous (or infamous) food explained
Excerpted from article of this title ^^ written by:
Terje Birkedal
Anchorage, Alaska
Though Norwegian Americans practically define who they are through the eating of lutefisk during the Christmas season, I have found to my surprise that the vast majority of Norwegian Americans know nothing about the practical reasons behind the making and eating of lutefisk. When you ask them why Norwegians prepare and eat this unusual dish, most just stare blankly back at you with silly grins on their faces—it is clear they just eat it because that is what most Norwegian Americans do at Christmastime. Others, slightly more informed, eagerly begin to tell you tall tales and goofy stories about its origins that they heard when they were kids.
Last year, as President of Sons of Norway Bernt Balchen Lodge in Anchorage, Alaska, I thought I would write something about lutefisk in our newsletter in advance of our annual lutefisk dinner at Viking Hall. The existence of lutefisk and the reverence that Norwegian Americans accord it sparked my fascination with (but not taste for) the food.
For a coastal Stavanger boy, lutefisk was mandags mat (Monday’s food), not something you celebrate as verdens beste fisk (the world’s best fish).
Well, we scoured the internet and learned a few things, but came up empty as to the practical benefits of preparing and eating lutefisk.
What we did come up with were repeated stories about the Irish putting lye in the Vikings’ fish barrels to poison them and how the Vikings found that lye-poisoned fish was to their liking. Then there was the common story of the Lofoten fisherman whose fish shed burned down, and he found he liked the ash-covered fish he retrieved after the fire burned out. The amazing thing is that these bogus origin stories are often believed by Norwegian Americans to be true accounts of the origin of lutefisk.
We also learned why lutefisk is so important to Norwegian Americans. Most of the immigrants to America from Norway were from the inner valleys where fresh ocean fish was not easily available. For them re-hydrated stockfish (wind-dried cod) was a delicacy associated with Christmas feasting. Lutefisk was closely tied to happy times with a full stomach and family. When large quantities of stockfish became commercially available to Norwegian immigrants toward the end of the nineteenth century, many of them jumped at the chance to re-connect with their childhood memories and their beloved homeland through the eating of lutefisk, especially during the Christmas season.
___________________________________
The author goes on to explain his search but continues to come up with few facts about the beloved lutefisk. Finally, after searching for well over a year, the author found a professor and a museum curator who independently gave him the same answer as to the practical benefits of making and eating lutefisk.
____________________________________
So here is the answer to what I started calling in my frustration “The Great Lutefisk Mystery”:
First, soaking dried, unsalted stockfish (“tørrfisk”) in a lye solution (traditionally wood ashes mixed in water) is a very efficient way to reconstitute the fish. The Southern European method of re-hydrating dried fish is to beat it first with a hammer and then soak it for days in water, a much more labor-intensive and lengthy process compared to the Norwegian technique of soaking the stockfish in a lye bath.
The reason the fish is dried in the first place is to preserve it; tørrfisk, if kept dry, can be stored for years and yet keep its full nutrition. Before the days of refrigeration and cheap salt, preserving fish required a lot of ingenuity. By drying cod in the cold, windy spring days of Northern Norway the fish loses all the moisture that makes it attractive to bacterial attack. Also, the drying process reduces the fish to one-fifth its original size, which makes it easy to store and transport. Yet, once the stockfish had finished soaking in its lye bath, this hard, dried fish would plump up to a size even greater than the original living fish.
The second reason behind the lye treatment is nutrition. The lye breaks down the protein in the fish into amino acids that are easily absorbed by the small intestine. Usually ingested proteins need to be broken into amino acid molecules in the stomach. It’s because of this protein breakup that lutefisk acquires its characteristic gelatinous, jelly-like texture. It is essentially pre-digested by the lye treatment and transformed into a highly edible, digestible, and nutritious food package that delivers nearly instant energy to the eater. What is remarkable is that no nutrients are lost in this process and all the calories and vitamins are delivered intact and efficiently to the body (about 79 calories per 100 grams [3.5 oz.] of fish).
________________________________________
The author goes into greater detail to answer the question of 'how' Norwegian farmers came upon the idea of preserving fish this way. He admits from his research that,
"The making and consumption of lutefisk is an old practice in Norway, and also in neighboring Sweden and Finland, and this method of preparing stockfish may even date to well before the Viking Age. We know for certain from early writings that the making and consumption of lutefisk was widespread by at least the late Medieval Period and the practice continued to be popular well into the nineteenth century."
The entire article is an interesting and easy read with some humor in it. It's well worth the time to read it at length.
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 16, 2016, issue of The Norwegian American.
www.norwegianamerican.com/the-great-lutefisk-mystery-solved/
The nutritional reasoning behind Norway’s most famous (or infamous) food explained
Excerpted from article of this title ^^ written by:
Terje Birkedal
Anchorage, Alaska
Though Norwegian Americans practically define who they are through the eating of lutefisk during the Christmas season, I have found to my surprise that the vast majority of Norwegian Americans know nothing about the practical reasons behind the making and eating of lutefisk. When you ask them why Norwegians prepare and eat this unusual dish, most just stare blankly back at you with silly grins on their faces—it is clear they just eat it because that is what most Norwegian Americans do at Christmastime. Others, slightly more informed, eagerly begin to tell you tall tales and goofy stories about its origins that they heard when they were kids.
Last year, as President of Sons of Norway Bernt Balchen Lodge in Anchorage, Alaska, I thought I would write something about lutefisk in our newsletter in advance of our annual lutefisk dinner at Viking Hall. The existence of lutefisk and the reverence that Norwegian Americans accord it sparked my fascination with (but not taste for) the food.
For a coastal Stavanger boy, lutefisk was mandags mat (Monday’s food), not something you celebrate as verdens beste fisk (the world’s best fish).
Well, we scoured the internet and learned a few things, but came up empty as to the practical benefits of preparing and eating lutefisk.
What we did come up with were repeated stories about the Irish putting lye in the Vikings’ fish barrels to poison them and how the Vikings found that lye-poisoned fish was to their liking. Then there was the common story of the Lofoten fisherman whose fish shed burned down, and he found he liked the ash-covered fish he retrieved after the fire burned out. The amazing thing is that these bogus origin stories are often believed by Norwegian Americans to be true accounts of the origin of lutefisk.
We also learned why lutefisk is so important to Norwegian Americans. Most of the immigrants to America from Norway were from the inner valleys where fresh ocean fish was not easily available. For them re-hydrated stockfish (wind-dried cod) was a delicacy associated with Christmas feasting. Lutefisk was closely tied to happy times with a full stomach and family. When large quantities of stockfish became commercially available to Norwegian immigrants toward the end of the nineteenth century, many of them jumped at the chance to re-connect with their childhood memories and their beloved homeland through the eating of lutefisk, especially during the Christmas season.
___________________________________
The author goes on to explain his search but continues to come up with few facts about the beloved lutefisk. Finally, after searching for well over a year, the author found a professor and a museum curator who independently gave him the same answer as to the practical benefits of making and eating lutefisk.
____________________________________
So here is the answer to what I started calling in my frustration “The Great Lutefisk Mystery”:
First, soaking dried, unsalted stockfish (“tørrfisk”) in a lye solution (traditionally wood ashes mixed in water) is a very efficient way to reconstitute the fish. The Southern European method of re-hydrating dried fish is to beat it first with a hammer and then soak it for days in water, a much more labor-intensive and lengthy process compared to the Norwegian technique of soaking the stockfish in a lye bath.
The reason the fish is dried in the first place is to preserve it; tørrfisk, if kept dry, can be stored for years and yet keep its full nutrition. Before the days of refrigeration and cheap salt, preserving fish required a lot of ingenuity. By drying cod in the cold, windy spring days of Northern Norway the fish loses all the moisture that makes it attractive to bacterial attack. Also, the drying process reduces the fish to one-fifth its original size, which makes it easy to store and transport. Yet, once the stockfish had finished soaking in its lye bath, this hard, dried fish would plump up to a size even greater than the original living fish.
The second reason behind the lye treatment is nutrition. The lye breaks down the protein in the fish into amino acids that are easily absorbed by the small intestine. Usually ingested proteins need to be broken into amino acid molecules in the stomach. It’s because of this protein breakup that lutefisk acquires its characteristic gelatinous, jelly-like texture. It is essentially pre-digested by the lye treatment and transformed into a highly edible, digestible, and nutritious food package that delivers nearly instant energy to the eater. What is remarkable is that no nutrients are lost in this process and all the calories and vitamins are delivered intact and efficiently to the body (about 79 calories per 100 grams [3.5 oz.] of fish).
________________________________________
The author goes into greater detail to answer the question of 'how' Norwegian farmers came upon the idea of preserving fish this way. He admits from his research that,
"The making and consumption of lutefisk is an old practice in Norway, and also in neighboring Sweden and Finland, and this method of preparing stockfish may even date to well before the Viking Age. We know for certain from early writings that the making and consumption of lutefisk was widespread by at least the late Medieval Period and the practice continued to be popular well into the nineteenth century."
The entire article is an interesting and easy read with some humor in it. It's well worth the time to read it at length.
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 16, 2016, issue of The Norwegian American.
www.norwegianamerican.com/the-great-lutefisk-mystery-solved/
