Ever realized how astutely your taste buds are tickled by a whiff of simple tempering or frying or baking, that your thoughts are actually preoccupied with nothing but food. The lure of mouth-watering food aromas is indeed enthralling. Many will agree that they would lose their appetite if a platter of stinking food had been placed in front of them. Nevertheless, this is not the case with many Swedes at least, for they take pride in relishing a delicacy that has been labeled as the most foul-smelling food to be consumed.
Surstr’mming is fermented herring that has the foulest smell one could think about but the people of Sweden have no second thoughts about enjoying it. So foul is the stench that you cannot consume it indoors. The smell is due to production of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, propionic acid and acetic acid formed during the fermentation process.
How is this delicacy, surstr’mming arrived at?
The herrings that are caught from the Baltic Sea in the months of May and June and are put through a fermentation process as follows:
– The procedure begins with dropping the whole fish into brine for a day. The fish is then pulled out of the brine, decapitated, and cleaned.
– The next step involves loading the fish into barrels making sure to leave some air space at the top in the barrels. The barrels are then laid outdoors in the summer sun for 24 hours to initiate the fermentation process.
-Following this, the barrels are moved to a cool storage place for further fermentation. As the fermentation progresses the fish assumes a malodorous form.
-A person who has a knack for understanding the fish odour determines the precise point when the right degree of smell has been reached and when the fermentation process should to be discontinued. Experience is the key you could say.
– Once the fermentation is complete, the fish are canned and sold in markets.
There is a particular way to be followed to go about eating surstr’mming. The fish is pulled out of cans and filleted. The fish is cut into small pieces that are then wrapped along with onions, boiled potatoes (a special variety called almond potatoes is used) and a special kind of fresh cream in a special bread called tunnbr’d that has been buttered. To go with this wrap you ought to have snaps or chilled milk or some may even consume beer. Relishing this is a matter of acquired taste.
So much is the love for surstr’mming among Swedes that there is even a Surstromming Academy (www.surstromming.se) and in May 2005 in north Sweden, the first surstr’mming museum was inaugurated. However, this delicacy has also been embroiled in controversy. The claims of pressurized cans of surstr’mming being potentially explosive have led to many major airlines imposing a ban on serving of the fish on the airlines.
Nevertheless, those who wish to enjoy surstr’mming can go ahead and enjoy no matter the smell and no matter the controversy.
Via: Allscandinavia, NZHerald, Wikipedia
