one person's description.....................
The word “lutefisk” translates to “lye fish,” which is the first clue regarding this mystery meal, but it looks unlike any seafood most people have ever seen. It’s white, semi-translucent, and, weirdest of all, gelatinous. Honestly, it looks like a cross between fat cells and some type of jellyfish Jell-O (apologies for that mental image). Okay, enough already, what in the heck is it?
Lutefisk is whitefish — which refers to several species of finned fish such as cod, ling, or burbot — that has been air-dried and may or may not be salted. (The unsalted version is also known as “stockfish.”) It is first soaked in cold water for five or six days, with the water changed daily. The now-saturated fish is then soaked again for two days in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye. Lye, for the record, is a substance obtained by leaching ashes, and is also known as sodium hydroxide. After this weeklong process, the fish loses half of its protein and gains a jelly-like consistency. At this point it is also caustic (you may remember lye as the stuff Tyler Durden used in Fight Club to cause chemical burns and also make soap), so it needs another four to six days of soaking in cold water, refreshed daily, before it is ready to be cooked. Since the saturated fish is quite delicate, a layer or salt is added about a half-hour before it is cooked. This releases some of the water being held. It is then placed in a sealed pan and steam cooked on low heat for 20-25 minutes, or wrapped in aluminum foil and baked at 435 degrees F for 40-50 minutes.