Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Lutefisk,share yer memories

The aromatic scent of boiled lutfisk and woodsmoke every Christmas eve when my grand-parents still lived on the farm.Oh and the lefse, stacks of it on the counter

Love the lefse, rolled up, warm, with butter.
Sorry, no good memories of the lutefisk.
Does bring back warm memories of the departed family members, though

Lutefisk, boiling potatoes (to be riced), potato lefse, frozen green peas steaming, raw cranberry sauce w/ oranges and apples mixed in, melted butter......those are the smells of home, Christmas, Mom, Dad; warm and welcoming, all are only memories now. I still enjoy lutefisk and whatever else I can achieve from that list. 'Course there is only one correct way to serve lutefisk; lots of ways to get it wrong - probably why it has a bad rep.

I read the description on Wikepedia, and it sounds like you have to take something edible, soak it lye until it is toxic and caustic and then try your hardest to make it almost edible again, and if you succeed in making it edible, you have failed in making it lutefisk. It was a funny read.

Something I want to sample some time. Granted. I may not care two hoots for it when I do.
It seems if one ate it growing up, you like it, "Mom's cooking".

Grandmother and GreatGrandmother lived together until Nana passed. Swedish/ Norwegian ancestry.....lutefisk boiling on the stove every Xmas eve when we would visit.

Being younger I was never adventurous enough to try it...and the look on my Fathers face was priceless when we walked through the door and smelled it.

This time of year always makes me think of boiled cod.

Threatened my daughter that I'd put a pot on just for the scent...she asks why would anyone associate fish with Xmas...

Now crumbkaka (sp?)........that's a holiday treat....

Making lefsa on a cook stove is a little tricky!
First boil the potatoes on the cookstove


then rice them


Then mix by hand


Roll out



then try not to burn in on the cookstove top!!

Love those lefsa making shots!

Lefsa and lutefisk is stuff that is hard to imagine Christmas being without.

Great pics. Do you have to be Nordic to cook up that stuff?

I recognize a lefse turner when I see one.

Thanks rod44! Grandma used to make the potatkak (lefse) on the cookstove all the time. Grampa would lift the stove lid to spit his snoose out and she'd be kickin butt
I just made a batch of lefse here in the cast fry pan.Not as good as Grandma's... I always threaten to go get the lutefisk and boil it up.We kept up that tradition for years as us kids couldn't imagine Christmas without it. My Dad wouldn't eat it and he grew up in a full blood Norske household!!

Lutefisk = boiled cardboard in my book or at least that is how I felt as a kid!!! Perhaps some tartar sauce or something else might have made it a little more palatable but my Grandfather (very Norwegian, raised in Abercrombie, N.D.) ate it the traditional way every year at Christmas and so did we (a taste or two just to say I was Scandanavian too!) Now the lefse was a whole different matter... we clamored to get at that when my Grandmother made it. Rolled up with a little butter or sugar and cinnamon, now that was good!!!!

Fortunately, my Sister and Uncle learned how to make lefse before my Grandmother passed away and we still get to enjoy it at the holidays... brings back wonderful memories! Sorry Grandpa, the lutefisk just makes for great stories now.

My Grandmother also used to make Norwegian cookies called "fuddimon" or something like that. They were deep fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Probably not very healthy, but they also tasted pretty good.

The latest one that I don't care for too much is Danish cabbage... red cabbage cooked with vinegar or something. My wife's lineage brings that one to the table every year... not quite as bad as lutefisk but I'll rank it #2!!! (I happen to love boiled cabbage with a little butter and pepper.

May the dear relatives RIP this Holiday Season! I am truly grateful for their sacrifices in life and being able to enjoy them and hear their stories. I wish they were still around if nothing else for the examples they set in the lives they lived. They would be disheartened at what is going on in our country today I suspect.

Merry Chistmas/Happy Holidays to all!!!

lefse I love...luefisk you can have my share of

You do not want to get your sterling silverware near the lutefisk, it will turn it black.

Memories of reports of the great granddad sitting over a plate full of lutefisk saying in heavy accent how wonderful it was, all the while continually shaky more and more salt upon it. Really miss grandma's, it was truly delicious. Many folks would never believe it, but it was really good. Have had it range terribly in the opposite direction too, the worst of it was some slimy atrocity I purchased and prepared. She'd also put together this concoction she'd call fruit soup with a big mix of things in a cold crock. And a home made fruitcake that was truly delicious also. Sure miss those earlier days. There is no tradition now for our foods but I am preparing a sort of deer backstrap bone-in roast about a foot long with high hopes... Merry Christmas all.

I have always equated lutefisk with fish flavored jello. However, we had some last year at the Eagles Club and the old Norwegian ladies there sure knew how to cook it. Even had a second piece. Also love Romagrout. A cream and flour pudding. Heart attack in a bowl. Also Krumkacka. A lite pastery rolled out and twisted on a stick thing and then deep fried. Wish we still had the grandmas back!

By the way, that's my niece with the rolling on Rod44 post.
Lefsa, as said before is best warm, rolled up up with cinnamon sugar and butter. You know if you had enough butter if it oozes out of the ends of the rolled lefsa and drips off your elbows.
Lutefisk - whole new ballgame. Edible only with cups of melted and only on Christmas eve. As a grade schooler in a small Wisconsin village, the local grocery stores displayed the sticks of dried Lutefisk along the sides of their stores. My mother always said they tasted better if the local stray dogs peed on them first.
Rommegrot (spelled with a double dot above the 2nd 'o'). A cream pudding that will melt your heart. And, my wife is an artisan when it comes to creating this dish. Life is good.
V

I stayed with a Norwegian family while Mom worked. Nick liked strong cheese and lutefiske. As a six year old I kept up with him helping for helping and Nick treated me like a son. I have not eaten any for years now but remember it fondly when Clara his wife spent the many hours necessary to get it ready. She made a fish cream soup of the leftovers which my wife's cullia myokka (a Finnish fish stew/soup) fills my heart and mind as well as stomach. We don't eat it much because she makes a two gallon pot and there are just the two of us at home now to eat it.

I remember rumagrot and fruitsup as well. A layered date cake called vinertarta and this poop smelling cheese called gammaloste.
My great Grampa homesteded in the Sargent county ND in the 1890's I expect the Norske relatives down there still keep much of the scandanavian traditions alive

Lutefisk! My wife and I both grew up eating and our kids love it as much as us. My Dad passed away last year he would have been 94 today. Every year on his birthday he would have friends, family over for oyster stew, so we are keeping the tradition going. just finished a gallon and a half of oysters with four gallons of milk and cream and four lbs of butter! dang it was great and a great day. We make lefsa a few times each winter. We feel it good to teach the kids what our parents taught us just to keep it going. Its been fun reading what others remember about there pasts.

darrylf - Oyster stew, WOW. That is the Lunde standard for Christmas Eve.
I should have previewed my earlier post. Forgot to add rolling (pin) and cups of (butter). Was under the influence of a large straight-up Beefeaters M.artini (bone-dry)