Surströmming

Opened can of surströmming in brine.

Surströmming (pronounced [sʉ̌ːʂtrœmːɪŋ], Swedish "soured (Baltic) herring") is a northern Swedish dish consisting of fermented Baltic herring. Surströmming is sold in cans, which may bulge after prolonged storage, due to the continued fermentation. When opened, the contents release a strong and sometimes overwhelming odor, which explains why the dish is often eaten outdoors. A Japanese study has shown that the smell of a newly opened can of surströmming is the most putrid smell of food in the world, beating similar fermented fish dishes such as the Korean Hongeohoe or Japanese Kusaya.

Origin

A common myth tells that the dish originated with Swedish sailors in the 16th century. The story goes that they only had half the amount of salt needed to keep their fish fresh, so it began to rot. The sailors came across some Finnish islanders and decided to con them by selling the rotten fish to them. The Finns bought it and the sailors went away. A year later the Swedish sailors returned to the island and the locals asked if they had more rotten fish. The sailors decided to try it themselves, liked it and made more.

Another, probably more historically accurate, explanation of the origins of this method of preservation is that it began long ago, when brining food was quite expensive due to the cost of salt. When fermentation was used, just enough salt was required to keep the fish from rotting. The salt raises the osmotic pressure of the brine above the zone where bacteria responsible for rotting (decomposition of proteins) can prosper and prevents decomposition of fish proteins into oligopeptides and amino acids. Instead the osmotic conditions enable the Haloanaerobium bacteria to prosper and decompose the fish glycogen into organic acids, giving it the sour (acidic) properties. Fermented fish is an old staple in European cuisines; for example the ancient Greeks and Romans made a famous sauce from fermented fish called garum.

Historically, other fatty fish like salmon and whitefish have been fermented not unlike surströmming, and the original gravlax resembled surströmming.

Canning

The herring is caught in spring, when it is in prime condition and just about to spawn. The herring is fermented in barrels for one to two months, then tinned where the fermentation continues. Half a year to a year later, gases have built up sufficiently for the once cylindrical tins to bulge into a more rounded shape. These unusual containers of surströmming can be found in supermarkets all over Sweden. However, certain airlines have banned the tins on their flights, considering the pressurized containers to be potentially dangerous. Species of Haloanaerobium bacteria are responsible for the in-can ripening. These bacteria produce carbon dioxide and a number of compounds that account for the unique odour: pungent (propionic acid), rotten-egg (hydrogen sulfide), rancid-butter (butyric acid), and vinegary (acetic acid).

Eating surströmming

Surströmming with potatoes and onion on tunnbröd.

Surströmming is often eaten with a kind of bread known as tunnbröd, literally "thin bread". This thin, either soft or crispy bread (not to be confused with crisp bread) comes in big square sheets when crisp or as rounds of almost a meter in diameter when soft.

The custom in Höga Kusten ("The High Coast"), the area of northern Sweden where this tradition originates from, is to make a sandwich, commonly known as a "surströmmingsklämma", using two pieces of the hard and crispy kind of tunnbröd with butter, boiled and sliced or mashed potatoes (often mandelpotatis or almond potatoes) and sliced fish in between and nothing more.

In the southern part of Sweden, it is customary to use a variety of condiments such as diced onion, gräddfil (fat fermented milk/sour cream) or crème fraîche, chives and sometimes even tomato and chopped dill.

The surströmming sandwich is usually served with snaps and light colored beers like pilsener or lager. Other drinks of choice are svagdricka (lit. "weak drink", a Swedish low alcohol dark malt beverage brewed since the Middle Ages, slightly similar to porter), water or cold milk. However, exactly what to drink or not to drink to surströmming is highly disputed among connoisseurs. Some claim that cold milk is the right and only choice while others refer to svagdricka as the most traditional drink. Surströmming is usually served as the focus of a traditional festivity, a "surströmmingsskiva" (surströmming party).

Many people do not care for surströmming, and it is generally considered to be an acquired taste. Conversely, it is a food which is subject to strong passions (as is lutefisk), and occasionally people like the taste on first try.

Museum

On June 4, 2005, the first surströmming museum in the world was opened in Skeppsmalen, 30 km north of Örnsköldsvik, a town at the northern end of the High Coast.

Controversy

In April 2006, several major airlines (such as Air France and British Airways) banned the fish citing that the pressurised cans of fish are potentially explosive. The sale of the fish was subsequently discontinued in Stockholm's international airport. Those who produce the fish have called the airlines' decision "culturally illiterate," claiming that it is a "myth that the tinned fish can explode."

Because surströmming today contains higher levels of dioxins and PCBs than the permitted levels for fish in the EU, Sweden has had exceptions to these rules. The exception was 2002 to 2011, but an application for renewal of the exemption has been raised to the EU. Producers have claimed that if the application is denied, they will only be allowed to use herring below 17 centimeters, which contain lower levels. This in turn will affect the availability of herring.

In the news

In 1981, a German landlord evicted a tenant without notice after the tenant spread surströmming brine in the apartment building's staircase. In the subsequent trial, the court ruled that the termination was justified when the defendant's (i.e., the landlord's) party demonstrated their case by opening a can inside the courtroom. The court concluded that it "had convinced itself that the disgusting smell of the fish brine far exceeded the degree that fellow tenants in the building could be expected to tolerate."

In August 2011, German food critic and author Wolfgang Fassbender wrote in a major Swiss newspaper, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, that "the biggest challenge when eating surströmming is to vomit only after the first bite, as opposed to before."

See also

External videos
Food For Louis - YouTube

• Devil's dung (also considered to have a highly noxious smell)
• Gravlax
• Hákarl, islandian rotten shark
• Kiviak
• Lutefisk
• Rakfisk
• Fesikh, egyptian fermented fish

External links

• Kallax Surströmming - Kallax Surströmming is a well known producer
• Wedins - A Surströmming producer
• How to make surströmming at home
• Fiskevistet - Surströmming Museum in Skeppsmaln (in Swedish)
• Höga Kusten - The High Coast World Heritage Site