Re: [CH] Off topic Lutfisk
Dave Anderson (Chilehead@tough-love.com)
Tue, 31 Aug 1999 20:53:22 -0700
I grew up in Jamestown New York where all of the Swedes who
couldn't afford the train ticket to Minnesota ended up. There were
grocery stores on every other corner and each year before
Christmas, three barrels on the grocery store porch. One contained
pickled herring (Sill), one contained Lingonberries, and the third,
actually a half barrel contained 3' long gray things which looked like
flattened baseball bats.
This was the Lutfisk. Lut means lye, and fisk means you guessed
it, fish. Lye is used in the process of rehydrating it, I think. My dad,
a first generation American, swore that it wasn't real lutfisk until it
had stood on that porch for at least two weeks and every dog in the
neighborhood had stopped by and annointed it.
This should be a great story for your eighth graders to take home,
but you might want to involve the chemistry teacher before you
break out the lye:-)
> danceswithcarp wrote:
> >
> > I'm teaching a 3 classes of 8th graders about 16th-19th
> > century foods. ChileWoman is coming down to demonstrate
> > the ways to save seeds and dry things, and I'm going to teach
> > drying/smoking and dehydration as well as brining and corning
> > beef in stone jars and jerky making What I need is a recipe
> > for salting pork and fish, as well as bully beef.
> >
> > I seem to remember my grandparents in appalachia salting
>
> Well, I went to SOAR, and found one only recipe for lutefisk, a
> Scandinavian delicacy? most Scandahoovions I know, and I do know a
> bunch, would not touch this stuff with a ten meter pole, which is three
> times longer than a ten ft pole...ya there Chas?? But perhaps it might add
> to the discussion in your school room....WARNING...if you find this stuff,
> do not take it unless you de odorize it first, salt fish stinks!Also. our
> Canadian Newfies eat salt cod(when they can get it) as the Hawaains do,
> when they can get it. Unfortunately, our Canadian east coast cod fisheries
> are a thing of the past, I only hope that our West coast salmon does not
> follow suit...Cheers, Doug in BC
>
Dave Anderson
Tough Love Chile Co.
http://www.Tough-Love.com
Chilehead@Tough-Love.com