Remember that dried lutefisk that I bought in Cranfills Gap? Well, I finally found a use for it. It’s now a Christmas lutefisk!
This way I get all the nostalgic value of lutefisk without actually having to eat it or go through the long preparation process.
I talked to my Grandfather about making lutefisk and it turns out that I was wrong about the lye. At this point there is no lye, the lutefisk is technically just "stockfish," which is just dried fish flesh. The lye comes later in preparation and is the chemical process that makes the dried fish plump up into something vaguely resembling a re-hydrated fish.
According to my Grandfather, lutefisk is soul food. People don’t eat it because it’s good. Here’s how he recounts the origin story of lutefisk:
"The Vikings would take the lutefisk along with their long sea voyages. They would throw the ‘stockfish’ the dried fish into the bilge under the decking. And it would slosh around down there and be fine. They wouldn’t eat it until they ran out of food. They would leech the lye from their stove ash, and soak the lutefisk. And then they could eat it. Sort of."
When my grandfather was a kid, they would sell the lutefisk in its dried state. They would just leave it stacked up outside the store. The dogs would come along and relieve themselves on it. And nobody would care.
But even if you don’t have any lutefisk to help you celebrate the holidays, Merry Christmas!
