Lutefisk and Cow Tongue
Shelby Anderson
Grand Marais, MN
I absolutely LOVE Christmas. I love the scents, colors, glitter, lights, traditions, Advent candles, Nativity, music, family time, and of course, the foods. Besides cookies and eggnog, one lesser mentioned traditional food is lutefisk!
I am a fan of lutefisk. Both of my great-grandparents immigrated from Sweden to Minneapolis, Minnesota. At family gatherings, potatis korv (Swedish potato sausage) or Swedish meatballs always accompanied the pièce de résistance: LUTEFISK!
Some of my earliest memories were at the “kids’ table” where Aunt Muriel would dish up a mountain of boiled potatoes topped with a buttery white sauce. She’d ask if we wanted to try a dab of lutefisk. We cousins would dare one another to try it! Not all my cousins or siblings cared for it, but I grew to LOVE it!
When my family moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota, large family gatherings became rare. My mother became the designated lutefisk chef, experimenting until she and dad decided baking was best, and we carried on the tradition.
My husband Lyle, of Swedish and Danish heritage, loves lutefisk too. When Lyle invited me to meet his family in Wisconsin over Christmas, I was eager to experience his traditions, which included lutefisk. Walking into his grandma’s home I encountered the overpowering lye smell of boiled lutefisk. I put on a big smile and took a big scoop. Ugh! Not only did it smell awful, Grandma Ingrid also didn’t debone or take the skin off. I choked down the serving. I couldn’t wait to leave. I missed my mom’s flaky baked version. I missed my home. I cried.
The next day, Lyle’s aunts and uncles introduced me to their Christmas delicacies. I just could not bring myself to try the raw burger, but cow tongue sounded “interesting”. Once in my mouth however, I had this vision of a cow chewing and rechewing its cud and the piece seemed to grow in my mouth. I discreetly disposed of it. Thankfully, cow tongue and raw burger balls never made it to our table!
I became the gourmet baker of lutefisk in our family, one year even preparing 50 pounds of it for a benefit! Lyle and I still enjoy seasonal meals with it, just not always at Christmas. Only one of our children has shared the tradition with his family.
Times changed and many traditions were adapted or thrown out. Instead of potatis korv or lutefisk, we now fix enchiladas and holiday buns, far easier to fix and clean up. Adjusting to our children’s new traditions, like going to the movies on Christmas Eve, sometimes makes me feel homesick for past Christmases. But as I remind myself, traditions are just “habits”. The essence of Christmas is CHRIST and LOVE – sharing love with family, friends, and strangers — no matter how it is expressed or what is served.
