Hi, all!
Just a FYI:

Lut-e-fisk is Norwegian; lute-fisk is the Swedish pronunciation.
American Norwegians generally boil it and eat it with drawn butter.  American Swedes often make a mustard sauce to pour over it. 

 It's an acquired taste brought by immigrants, usually a class of less well-to-do people. The cod is cured in lye as a preservative.  It used to arrive at the markets in the Upper Midwest in large frozen sheets.  One rinses the cured cod several times to get the lye out.  My mother used to wrap it in a clean cotton dish towel and boil it in a large kettle.  Ah, Memories of Minnesota/North Dakota Christmases.  White Christmases--white outside, white table cloth, white dishes, white food--boiled potatoes and butter with lefse (another story) and lutefisk.  EMMMMM YUMMM.  Makes my tummy churn just thinking about it, but it brings with it fond memories of hearth and home nonetheless!! 

Lutefisk is not eaten back in the European homelands!  As an American Norwegian (married to an American Pole), I can attest to its ethnic Christmastime appeal--but I gave up eating it around 1970! Warm, translucent fishy jell-o is not one of my favorite things...


Gloria A. Bartowski
State Education Department
New York State Archives
Room 9C73 CEC
Albany, NY  12230
(518) 474-6926
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www.archives.nysed.gov

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