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<\/p>\n\n It\u2019s a tough sell for what\u2019s supposed to be a festive meal: a pile of translucent jelly with a questionable aroma.\n <\/p>\n
\n But, as I prepared to celebrate Christmas in my native Norway for the first time in at least two decades, I found myself once again facing the food that plagued my childhood December 24s: lutefisk.\n <\/p>\n
\n Pronounced loo-tah-fissk, the traditional Norwegian festive dish made from dried whitefish has a smell that suggests that the fish has been through something traumatic.\n <\/p>\n
\n And that\u2019s definitely how it starts \u2014 lutefisk translates as lye-fish because of the exposure to sodium hydroxide, commonly known as caustic soda or lye.\n <\/p>\n
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\n The corrosive, also used as a drain unblocker, is applied to stockfish, in this case dried cod, and rinsed away before serving. It\u2019s a perfectly safe culinary technique, if a little alarming.\n <\/p>\n
\n Besides you can\u2019t argue with tradition. I grew up in Tr\u00f8ndelag, a region where many Norwegians still choose lutefisk as their main Christmas meal.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhy do we have to eat this?\u201d the younger me would whine, turning my nose up at the fish, and filling my lefse \u2014 Norwegian potato flatbread \u2014 with potato, butter and the bacon bits that my dad, who\u2019s from Norway\u2019s Westland, had negotiated into the meal as a compromise.\n <\/p>\n
\n But now, after all these years, I was excited about a return to lutefisk. Tastes change, right?\n <\/p>\n
\n Reassurance came from my mother, Magni Ree, for whom lutefisk is as crucial a part of festive nostalgia as tomtebrygg, a homemade fermented malt drink.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen I was a child I didn\u2019t like lutefisk either, but now I love it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the mood, the tomtebrygg and the tradition. Lutefisk belongs to Christmas.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n It is true that Lutefisk once dominated Christmas tables in Norway. Swedes, Norwegians and residents of some parts of Finland have also traditionally invited rehydrated fish into their homes during the holidays, as have many descendants of Scandinavians in America.\n <\/p>\n
\n But times are changing. Nowadays, Norwegians are less inclined to add such old fashioned foods to their plates for their main Christmas meal \u2014 and the delicate fish dish has been steadily vanishing.\n <\/p>\n
\n Today, the national festive dish of choice on Christmas Eve, the day Norwegians typically celebrate Christmas, is usually pinnekj\u00f8tt \u2014 boiled ribs of lamb \u2014 or pork belly, with only 1% <\/a> still choosing lutefisk.\n <\/p>\n \n But as Norwegians grow more interested in their food traditions, lutefisk has been experiencing something of a revival.\n <\/p>\n \n Visitors to Norway in the months before Christmas should not be surprised to find lutefisk on the menu<\/a> in many traditional restaurants.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s becoming trendy among young people to arrange lutefisk evenings,\u201d says Annechen Bahr Bugge, a researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO)<\/a>, who has observed a lutefisk comeback in the past decade. \u201cNorwegians have become a lot more proud and curious about our own food history.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n And it seems that lutefisk\u2019s challenging consistency, flavor and smell could become its saving grace.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cFood trends are about pushing the boundaries of the edible,\u201d adds Bahr Bugge. \u201cYou have to shock your palate a little by eating unusual things.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n So how did this \u201cpeculiar\u201d dish come to be? No-one knows for sure how lutefisk was invented. The story is that a rack of stockfish caught fire somewhere in the north of Norway some 500 years ago, leaving the fish covered in ashes.\n <\/p>\n \n Then the rain came \u2014 essentially replicating the lye bath process that would later be adopted \u2014 and to avoid wasting precious food, someone decided to find out if it could still be eaten.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIn the 1800s, lutefisk went from an everyday food to becoming more of a Christmas food,\u201d says Bahr Bugge, explaining that the dish has a \u201creal foothold as a Christmas ritual.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Norwegian food traditions can often be linked back to tough economic times and a simple desire to make good use of what was available.\n <\/p>\n \n Fish was mandated as a Christmas dish<\/a> in Norway\u2019s Catholic era, which spanned from around the 9th the 16th Century, but we simply don\u2019t know if lutefisk became a festive dish for the lack of something better, or because people genuinely loved it.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a modest dish, for sure,\u201d says Jostein Medhus, food and drinks adviser at Norwegian Culinary Academy<\/a> in Oslo.\n <\/p>\n \n Even if it\u2019s unlikely to be their many celebratory meal on Christmas Eve, many people still eat lutefisk at some point during the holiday season today.\n <\/p>\n \n Norwegians have been getting more adventurous with lutefisk since the 1800s, says Bahr Bugge: \u201cThat\u2019s when they started adding toppings, and the dish becomes a feast.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Today, the lutefisk accompaniments span a whole universe \u2014 everyone wants different things.\n <\/p>\n![\"Fish](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/p6armk.jpg\")
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