Traditional Swedish cooking is known for its simplicity and accessibility. Cheap ingredients and simple techniques makes for food that can be enjoyed by all levels of society. Take for example a plate of swedish meatballs or a cinnamon roll with a cup of coffee. Both with mellow and comforting flavor profiles that you could serve any guest, no matter their background. And while many Swedish dishes follow this same humble tradition of tasty inoffensiveness this article is about our greatest odd one out. It’s about a food that smacks you in the face without apology and that only the most initiated can enjoy. I am of course talking about Sweden’s most bewildering delicacy, the world’s smelliest food, banned in international airports; the fermented herring - surströmming.
But what does it actually smell like, and how bad could it possibly be? Well, describing smells is a notoriously difficult task since usually one needs a reference point, something to compare it to. Unfortunately, on my 27 rotations around the sun I have yet to find any one thing suitable for such a comparison, likewise I will do an attempt by contrasting it to three of my most vivid stench based memories.
The first one is from a school trip to a sewage plant. The second coincidentally was also on a school trip, this time to a factory that made biogas out of rotten animal carcasses (writing this I begin to question if our teacher actually liked us at all). Anyhow, the third smell I would like to bring up is that of an outhouse during a heatwave. Not as bad as the first two but vile beyond redemption nonetheless. Now, if you combine all three of these smells into one nasty cocktail of odours you will start to approach something almost resembling the stench of surströmming. This notorious smelliness has led to the creation of a plethora of challenge videos on youtube where people from all over the world try to stomach this northern treat. Many throw up before even taking the first bite, gagging at the first whiff of fumes. Fortunately for people who still want to try the dish, the people in the challenges often eat it incorrectly, just opening the can in open air and eating chunks straight out of the brine instead of doing the correct preparatory steps.
First, the can is opened under water to prevent the pressurised liquids from spraying all over you, second the fish is transferred out of the fermentation liquid and put on a serving platter (cut into pieces of your prefered size). Honestly, this doesn’t really help against the smell at all since the oily acids can’t be washed away with water but it leads to a less messy eating experience.
Anyway, after that the surströmmming is put between two pieces of hard flatbread (called a klämma), or rolled into one piece of soft flatbread (called a stut). Whatever your choice of bread the surströmming is traditionally accompanied with a filling of cooked unpeeled almond potatoes which are there to soften up the fish's salty taste. More recent additions to the sandwich include, for example, onion (raw or fried with butter), sourcream, tomatoes and dill. With all the ingredients in place one quickly finds that while it has its peculiar taste it isn’t at all as bad as the smell and rather mostly just tastes of salt.
So what is surströmming really?
As mentioned surströmming comes packaged in tin cans, lying in an oily juice. This juice is a restproduct from a long process of fermentation, lasting for at least six months. This is done by lightly salting the herring (just enough for it to not rot) and keeping it in open vats. Here the fish is slowly broken down by its own enzymes (autolysis) with the help of some foreign bacteria. As the herring’s sugars are digested hydrogen sulfide is created as well as a plethora of odorous acids such as Propionic Acid, Butyric Acid and Acetic Acid giving the surströmming its rancid smell.
As these acids are all fat soluble one has to be careful with what they keep in the same room as the surströmming. Any fatty food that comes into contact with the smell will be contaminated and carry the taste forward. So keep that in mind if you are serving any butter or milk.
Why is surströmming?
So, how did a dish with such an unappetizing first glance come to be, and why did it stick around? To understand this we have to look back at the early to mid 1500s and the reign of swedish king Gustav Vasa. He rose to power after winning the Swedish War of Liberation against the Danish led Kalmar Union. While a victory the war was a costly affair and this together with several rebellions lead to a national salt shortage.
Lacking the appropriate amounts of salt used for regular food preservation people had to settle for using less. This in turn resulted in massive amounts of surströmming being created as a result of the herring being naturally fermented. Regular consumption of surströmming was thus born.
Whether this method of conservation was known by the Swedes since earlier or if it was discovered right then by coincidence isn’t known. Fermentation of fish wasn’t exactly something historically unheard of, just look at the Roman Garum. However, no matter if it was a new invention or not we can at least confidently say that this is the start of the dish being used in a broader sense in society.
Since then surströmming, because of its long serviceability, was adopted by the Swedish army as a staple food. This further contributed to the dishes longevity as this gave it staying power long after the salt shortage ended.
After this it got continuously ingrained into Swedish food culture and is still eaten even to this day. While not being consumed on the regular anymore it is enjoyed by many, especially in the northern part of the country following the “surströmming-premiere” on the third thursday of august. Before this date the dish is not generally available in food stores.
Hopefully this little food advert piqued your interest and that it, doubtful as it may be,made you long for some sweet, sweet (or should I say salty, salty?) herring. If it did, august 19th is just around the corner, so join me then, raise a glass of snaps and cheer, cause the smelliest premiere will finally be here.
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