Dish · scandinavian
Lutefisk
Dried whitefish, usually cod, rehydrated and soaked in a lye solution until gelatinous, rinsed extensively, then cooked soft and served with butter and potatoes.
Where it comes from
It developed as a way to make dried, preserved fish edible again in places far from the coast or in winter, the lye soak softening stockfish that had been dried hard for long storage.
What cooks argue about
Cooking method after the soak is the real argument, since the fish is already delicate: baking or steaming holds it together, while boiling risks breaking it down closer to gelatin than fish.
Nobody has published a lutefisk recipe yet. The page stays out of search until one exists, which is the rule for every thin page here.