Lutefisk

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

I was telling a friend of mine the other day about
Lutefisk...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutafisk They thought I was
crazy and had lost my mind. So here is a little about the fish-dish that
my family eats for Christmas (and my grandparents eat all winder)

~~~
Preparation
Lutefisk is made from air-dried whitefish (normally cod, but ling is
also used), prepared with lye, in a sequence of particular treatments.
The first treatment is to soak the stockfish in cold water for five to
six days (with the water changed daily). The saturated stockfish is then
soaked in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye for an additional
two days. The fish will swell during this soaking, attaining an even
larger size than in its original (undried) state, while its protein
content decreases by more than 50 percent, producing its famous
jelly-like consistency. When this treatment is finished, the fish
(saturated with lye) has a pH value of 11-12, and is therefore caustic.
To make the fish edible, a final treatment of yet another four to six
days of soaking in cold water (also changed daily) is needed.
Eventually, the lutefisk is ready to be cooked.

Origins
The origins of lutefisk are a subject of debate. Some accounts mention a
fish accidentally dropped in a washing bowl containing lye, and because
of family poverty, the fish had to be eaten. Other stories discuss fires
of various kinds, because ashes of wood combined with water will create
lye. One possible scenario is that drying racks for stockfish caught
fire, followed by days of rain, and then the fish, being too valuable to
throw away even in this condition, was picked from the ashes, cleaned,
prepared, and eaten. However, the use of softening with lye is actually
a fairly common practice with many kinds of food (such as hominy), so it
may have been a deliberate and not accidental move.