It is not too long ago when lack of refrigeration meant that generally, if you wanted a fish dinner, you either bought the fish fresh at dockside, or if you lived too far from the dock, you cooked salt-preserved fish.

My wife's mother taught her this recipe as the very best way to make salted fish.

" Take the fish down to a burbling, running brook or stream. Find a willow or other small sapling growing next to the stream.

Pick one thin enough that the weight of the fish will bend the sapling enough to put the fish into the flowing water and not yank it back out.

Tie the fish by the tail to the sapling and lower it into the water.

Wait until you estimate that enough salt has washed out of the fish (depends on your patience and experience, I'd guess).

Cut the sapling and let the whole schmear float downstream."

No, you nail it to a board and put it over the fire .Then you throw away the fish and eat the board !!

The ancient Vikings has a huge business trading salt cod ,throughout Europe .Salt cod can be soaked for about 24 hours in changes of fresh water .Then you have almost fresh fish to cook as you like.You could even make lutefisk from it ,but that's not for you wimps !!

YEH, I've heard that Mete. I've also heard that the best way to prepare a rabbit (or hare, more likely) when you are out camping is to make a rabbit stew in a spare #10 can or a pail. Add all the stuff you like, let it cook on low heat for 4-7 hours, then throw way the stew and eat the can.

Speaking of Lutefisk, my best friend in grammar school and high school was a "scandehoovian" kid whose grandmother (with whom he and his mother lived) was Norwegian. I ate so many meals at his house I came to love Lutefisk. Once you've got it past your nose, you've got it licked, pardon the pun.

lutefisk is the reason Skandhoovians invaded everywhere else---better to go to war than eat that-

BTW Never call leftsa a tortilla--Granny will Kill you--ask me how I know--

Fish cakes, the kind made from reconstituted Salt Cod, mashed potato (spices) breaded and fried simply don't taste "right"
unless they are made from Salt Cod.

Lutefisk is not made from salted and dried fish (klippfisk/bacalao) but from air-dried fish/stockfish (normally cod).

This facts do not make it taste any different; it really is an aquired taste (and to be honest; if it wasnt for the bacon ad aquavit nobody would eat it..); but hey-its way better than what the swedes got-caned rotten herring or "surstromming" as they call it

I liked lutefisk when I was young, and still do. And when I was first introduced to it, I was too young to get or have alcohol of any kind. I still don't drink alcohol with meals where the entrée is fish...no numb palate required.

quote:

Lutefisk

Salted and dried Caspian roach ("vobla") is the best snack with beer. As it is. To clean roach - is a ritual.
I once tried to explain that the Russian did not drink alcohol without meals. I did not succeed. In the English language does not even have an equivalent concept for such a meal.
By our standards, the one who drinks alone and without snacks - shows an extreme degree of degradation.

quote:

Originally posted by vashper:

quote:

Lutefisk

Salted and dried Caspian roach ("vobla") is the best snack with beer. As it is. To clean roach - is a ritual.
I once tried to explain that the Russian did not drink alcohol without meals. I did not succeed. In the English language does not even have an equivalent concept for such a meal.
By our standards, the one who drinks alone and without snacks - shows an extreme degree of degradation.

I understand what you are saying Vashper, and agree with it.

What I really enjoy is 1 glass of good red wine with beef or pork entrees, and, most of all, a small snifter of brandy after the meal with some sun-dried & sulpher-smoked apricot "slabs" on the side.

Salud!

Did you know the reason the Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s Day is because this is when St. Patrick drove the Norwegians out of Ireland. It seems that some centuries ago, many Norwegians came to Ireland to escape the bitterness of the Norwegian winter. Ireland was having a famine at the time, and food was scarce. The Norwegians were eating almost all the fish caught in the area, leaving the Irish with nothing to eat but potatoes.

St. Patrick,taking matters into his own hands, as most Irishmen do, decided the Norwegians had to go. Secretly, he organized the Irish IRATRION (Irish Republican Army to Rid Ireland of Norwegians) Irish members of IRATRION passed a law in Ireland that prohibited merchants from selling ice boxes or ice to the Norwegians, in hopes that their fish would spoil. This would force the Norwegians to flee to a colder climate where their fish would keep. Well, the fish spoiled, all right, but the Norwegians, as everyone knows today, thrive on spoiled fish.

So, faced with failure, the desperate Irishmen sneaked into the Norwegian fish storage caves in the dead of night and sprinkled the rotten fish with lye, hoping to poison the Norwegian invaders. But, as everyone knows, the Norwegians thought this only added to the flavor of the fish. They liked it so much they decided to call it “lutefisk”, which is Norwegian for “luscious fish”. Matters became even worse for the Irishmen when theNorwegians started taking over the Irish potato crop and making something called “lefse”.

Poor St. Patrick was at his wit’s end, and finally on March 17th, he blew his top and told all the Norwegians to “GO TO HELL”. So they all got in their boats and emigrated to Minnesota or the Dakotas —- the only other paradise on earth where smelly fish, old potatoes and plenty of cold weather can be found in abundance.

The End.