cayugad

Lutefish is cod that is left to air dry for a very long time (until it starts to rot IMO) and is heavy salted. Then to remove the salt they soak it is lye. When you purchase this fish it will stink a house up so fast it can make a Viking cry and jump ship. After soaking in water to remove the lye, you then can bake it, or cook the fish a number of ways. Any way you cook it, it is nasty with a snot like texture. Then you cover it in cream sauce or butter.

Many Scandinavian families grew up eating the stuff. It used to be very cheap because no one was crazy enough to eat it but us. So I grew up with that stuff in the house because my father was addicted to the stuff. The rest of us just kind of put up with it. We'd eat the lefsa and boiled potatoes on those nights.

Lefse is a flat potato and lardbread and actually it is pretty good stuff. Think of it like a Norwegian taco as we used to joke. We used to steam it, and then put butter and sugar on it then roll it up like a cigar and eat it. That stuff I can handle. The Lutefisk is a no no at my house. Although my father still goes to the local Lutheran church on Lutefisk night for his fix.