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Using Peat Moss to Preserve Fish
mattbull writes "Some scandinavian scientists have taken a clue from the Vikings and discovered that packing fish with peat moss can keep it fresh for up to two years. They also think they've isolated the sugar in the moss that gives it its preservative properties. What do we have to do to get some of those bogs in the States? I don't have thousands of years to wait." Hey, Kipling knew this a long time ago.
And for those who don't know what lutefisk is all about. It is a traditional scandinavian dish which is eaten at most once a year, but everyone praises like it was the best gourmet food ever.
It consists of fish, that is first dried, then put into lye for a few months, and finally put inside a stream to remove the lye (and any remaining nutricients), and finally boiled. It looks pretty much like jelly, feels pretty much like jelly, and tastes pretty much like jelly, except that it doesn't have strawberry flavour added.
It is usually eaten somewhere in the christmas holiday, and is served with potatoes, bacon, peas, mustard, pepper, and anything else that has some taste. Few people really knows what it tastes like, as they have never really tasted it without all the add-ons and mix-ins. Yet they continue to praise it and still refuse to eat it more than once in a year.
Personally, I'm quite fond of jelly, and don't see what all the fuss people make about this fish is all about. It is neither as bad or as good as some people would have it.
Uh, you know malt whiskey? The good, expensive stuff? Know where the distinctive taste comes from? You know, the warm, earthy, peaty taste? ;)
This segues neatly into an "and finally" story on the Scottish news a while back (no web link, sorry) about a pub that was selling fish pickled in whiskey as a traditional Scottish delicacy. It's nothing of the sort, it was a prank played on some tourists that got out of hand. Interesting to see if it actually becomes a genuine "traditional dish". I wonder how traditions got started before there were rich and gullible foreigners to fleece? ;)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
If you've heard of lutefisk, you have to be suspicious any time a Scandanavian uses "fresh" and "fish" in the same sentence :-)