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Merry Xmas

Most fermented products are illegal to sell? Sheesh.. I hope at least they serve black tea in Canada, in case the Queen ever stops by.

And yes, it struck me that in the south parts of AU and NZ the climate may be a bit on the chilly side, and in hilly areas there's a great chance of snow even in the summer.

To be clear: julbord is not a particular dish, but a buffet of different dishes as I described them above. I assumed smorgasbord as a concept was reasonably well known abroad, but perhaps it is only recognized here and there.
 
carlsson: Most fermented products are illegal to sell? Sheesh.. I hope at least they serve black tea in Canada, in case the Queen ever stops by.
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Actually, she can come to my house where there is a decent selection of traditional teas from India and China. In fact I have a particularly fine Earl Grey that I discovered in a specialty shop on the coast. I also use very nice antique china cups for an overall pleasant experience. Any Brits that come by will, of course, get their milk in the cup first as per standard protocol in that culture. I should also add that anyone on the list is welcome to drop by - just not before noon.

Of course there are many fermented products like black tea and beer and wine, even miso and somtimes natto. I was exagerating a bit - sorry. :) It's mostly the live stuff that is a problem because of the strict health regulations which are driven by monopolies and not by physical need. The newer rules mostly leave the door open, and actually encourage, other types of even more dangerous diseases.

As I mentioned, the good European cheeses are no longer imported and we can only get "sterile" ones. That is really what causes my nose to be out of joint regarding fermented products. :) I really miss a good runny, and slightly brown on the edges, camembert. Sauerkraut is also strictly controlled. For those who are really serious about it, fresh milk is sold underground and there are huge fines if you get caught selling it. I'm not personally concerned about fresh milk, but the regular milk is so severely pastaurized that the it goes rotten and doesn't sour properly. When I was a kid in Denmark we used to leave bowls of milk out in a warm place and eat it in the morning with brown sugar and rye crumbs. Try that nowadays!
 
smorgasbord

smorgasbord

Well, all of us that whatched the Muppet Show know what smorgasbord is.
Unfortunately, I think in the US smorgasbord has been demoted to "buffet".

Unless I missed something, Lutfisk is technically not fermented( Pickled, Perhaps ?). I'll buy aged, though.
Ole Juul said...In Canada, most fermented products are illegal to sell
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How about to make ? I make my own kimchi and sauerkraut. I'll share the recipe. There's a lot of chopping involved, though. ~:) I've always seen myself as a kimchi-wielding revolutionary. ( and boy, if the tops on too tight...)

Really, though, fermented ? So you guys don't have sauerkraut ? What about 'cultured' products, like buttermilk ? How about Miso ? Beer ? Beer's fermented. I know for a fact that most NA Guinness came out the Labatt plant for a while.

Don't feel bad about the cheese. I thought that in the 'Dairy State' I'd finally find some proper cheese. No. Mostly bad chedder and wanna-be cheese. (cheese curds, and yes, I'm sure I'll be beaten over the head for that dig)

Not that I'm a Lutfisk expert or anything, but Safeway in the US still sells salt cod, so if you're willing to put the work in...
I've come across stuff advertising itself as Lutfisk, but tastes more like boiled salt cod than anything, so beware.
If, however, we're going proper fermented fish, try Rakfisk. I've yet to be sucessfull at making it. (You don't wanna know...)
patscc (Livin' the Midwest Dream)



patscc
 
I was using a hyperbole. Fermented products are not actually illegal in Canada, but there is a strong trend toward government control of traditional foods, especially those that rely on microorganisms to keep them safe. The feeling is that it is better to sterilize. It's a modern political/commercial fad and so I feel that we are on a slippery slope. It's a pet peeve of mine.

patscc: Unfortunately, I think in the US smorgasbord has been demoted to "buffet".
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The same in Canada. Typically we see "Chinese Smorgasbord". In Denmark we have smørrebrød which is our version of sandwiches and comes in two forms. One is premade according to traditional styles. The other is a traditional spread of things which you put on bread and is a "smorgasbord".

I'm curious about the lutfisk. I've never tried it, but I'm told that the smell is more than noticable. I remember someone going outside to open a can of it. I'm pretty sure it is fermented. Danes make pickeled herring, and that is not fermented at all, the smell is not very strong (to a Dane :)) and is a completely different thing. I've eaten a lot of that over the years. You have to have it for christmas. Surströmming is fermented herring and that's the same as lutfisk isn't it?
 
Lutefisk is whitefish (e.g. cod) prepared in lye, then cold water to bring down the pH to edible levels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk

Oh, and not everything on a typical Swedish smörgåsbord or julbord is meant to be put on a bread. Quite the opposite really, only a few of the cold dishes go on a sandwich, the other are eaten from the plate. So in modern times, buffet seems like a perfect interpretation.
 
carlsson said:
Lutefisk is whitefish (e.g. cod) prepared in lye, then cold water to bring down the pH to edible levels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk
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and don't remeber, before the cod (often from Lofoten) is prepared, it is sun-dried and maybe salted.

Lutefisk bought in the supermarked is usually extreme low quality. once we tried the low-quality one, it turned into gel. Real good quality Lutefisk should at least keep SOME of it's original consistency after it is done.
 
carlsson wrote:

And yes, it struck me that in the south parts of AU and NZ the climate may be a bit on the chilly side, and in hilly areas there's a great chance of snow even in the summer.

Not sure about NZ, though in our part of Australia which is the South-East corner on the Mainland having chilly weather is unusual. Our Mountains aren't even very high the highest ones around only reach 1000 metres (which is simply a twinkle compared to the mountain ranges in Europe) - technically speaking Australia's Highest isn't even on the mainland and is Australia's only active volcano! ;-) Tasmania maybe a little bit colder - have snow on the odd occasion in their nearby hills, though it's still unusual. NZ is a little bit closer again to the antarctic so they might have something, though they seem to warm up a little bit during summer as well.

To be clear: julbord is not a particular dish, but a buffet of different dishes as I described them above. I assumed smorgasbord as a concept was reasonably well known abroad, but perhaps it is only recognized here and there.

Ah, that explains it then, I thought it might have been some sort of jelly fish served on a board! :-DTo me a smorgasbord is something prepared - usually a meal, which you can help yourself to and have on your plate. Buffet has a variety of meanings and definitions in terms of something being Buffeted around by shaking or blowing, though a sideboard can also be called a Buffet or even a place where food can be served. Smorgasbord eliminates all of that and cuts to the chase! :-D
 
Our American friends will have heard of Lake Wobegon but I gotta say that quote referring to lutefisk as "something that would gag a goat" is priceless. Thanks for the link carlsson! There was another good quote there under "lutefisk humor":
Well, we tried the lutefisk trick and the raccoons went away, but now we've got a family of Norwegians living under our house!
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I'm still laughing!
 
Ghawd, y'all eat some disgusting sh!t... I guess I'm basically a meat & taters kinda guy.

I usually try to BBQ on Christmas Day, although I missed it by a day this year, as someone else had prepared a nice glazed ham. We Q-ed on the 26th instead, a whole turkey breast.

--T
 
Ole Juul said:
In fact in the last 30 years or so they've made laws that make the importation of proper cheeses almost impossible. Many traditional foods, infact, are illegal here. The large food companies like Kraft have lobbied for laws that favour their products. Too bad, I wouldn't mind a good piece of gammlost or camembert, right about now. The camembert you get in Canada is pasteurized before it matures so its not very tasty.
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I think the import restrictions on cheeses are economic protectionism more than possible health complications. About thirty years ago, some people I knew in Ontario with a small dairy farm, had to shut down their cheese-making operation, as they couldn't get enough milk (legally), while at the same time, the Canadian Gov't was paying other dairy farmers to dump millions of pounds of milk elsewhere. Something about restrictions on importing milk from one province to another. Eventually, it got so bad that they were also having to dump their own milk, due to exceeding Canada's production quotas. Sad situation, since they still had the 'extra' cows on their feed bill, etc.

Doesn't surprise me that there is still a black market for unpasteurized milk, as I know that a lot of people up there still like to make their own cheese.

--T
 
Terry Yager: Ghawd, y'all eat some disgusting sh!t... I guess I'm basically a meat & taters kinda guy.
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Well, that same Wikipedia article of earlier reference contains an interesting statement.
Wikipedia: A misconception is that lutefisk is most popular in Norway. In fact, lutefisk is today more commonly eaten by Norwegian Americans and Canadians of Norwegian descent than by their counterparts in Norway.
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So there!

I think many of the old European traditions are kept alive abroad. My christmas tree with candles is an example. You probably won't find one of those in Denmark any more. I can also give you a painstaking description of Danish christmas food and tradition which would be considered archaic over there. Emigrants make cultural time stand still.
 
Candles

Candles

Real candles on Christmas trees rule, although the tend to freak the natives out, especially since they tilt a bit.
The first Christmas I spent with my wife( then pre-wife ) in our own place I put up a tree with real candles. This was complicated by the fact that I couldn't find any holders, so I took 10 ga copper wire, twisted it into a couple of loops, stuck on end in the candle, and the clamped them onto the branches with a pair of pliers. I got lots of very odd looks, but everyone agreed that it looked great when the candles were lit.

patscc
 
The candle holders I use are made from wire like that. The design is simple and foolproof. A short spiral at the top to hold the candle, the wire then continues into a little hook (about 3/4") which hangs over the branch, and then continuing straight down below the branch about 6 or 7 inches. At the very end is a little lead ball which counterbalances the candle and keeps it perfectly vertical. Time tested and elegant.

The freakout factor regarding candles is quite real nowadays. Lifestyles are different and many people are not savvy with fire, or the prevention thereof. The trees in this part of Canada are mostly grown in (IIRC) Nova Scotia. They are harvested and loaded onto railroad cars waaaayyyyy before Christmas. That, combined with the fact that North Americans tend to put up their trees a very long time before the big event, makes the trees old and dry. A dry tree put into a dry apartment and decorated with a string of little incandescant heaters .... is a BOMB! I wouldn't leave electric lights on one of those when I wasn't in the room. Of course one would not burn candles on a tree when one is not there - even just because it's a waste. So candles are safer in that way. Anyway, in the old days people would not use old trees. They would cut them fresh just before they needed them. I cut mine in the afternoon before Christmas Eve. A fresh juicy tree like that is about as burnable as broccoli. :) You couldn't set it on fire if you tried. (Yes, I have tested that) My tree is out of the house long before the first needle falls off.
 
carlsson said:
Ole, do you also eat æbleskiver at Christmas?
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Since my parents died some years back, I have not been able to keep up some of those traditions. Yes, I have eaten a lot of æbleskiver! With powdered sugar, strawberry jam, you name it. I've got an æbleskive pan, but it hasn't been used in a while. Where I live now it is especially cold in winter, like north Sweden, and this would be a suitable thing to cook. Thanks for the reminder, and little walk down memory lane!
 
Trees and Broc.

Trees and Broc.

Ole Juul said...burnable as broccoli
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I'm not going to even ask how you determined that.
The other thing we used to do was hang sparklers from the branches. Key was, as Ole Juul pointed out, a fresh tree.

patscc
 
"burnable as broccoli"
It's the old fashioned version of "Will it blend?" hehe
patscc: The other thing we used to do was hang sparklers from the branches. Key was, as Ole Juul pointed out, a fresh tree.
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Now there's another early memory. I remember the first time that really impressed me. The sparklers are hard to find in the tree so the kids can go around looking for the hidden ones. We would also stand around the tree and hold hands and walk around singing specific christmas songs for that occasion eg. "Nu er det jul igen". Don't get me started or I'll sing them all for you... it'll be hours before you get outa here!
 
I read an editor's column in a weekly magazine. Her husband owns a chunk of forest, which means they could go and pick whichever tree they want for Christmas, right? Oh no, the good trees should eventually become wood which limits their selection to ugly trees close to power lines, those with split tops and so on. She wrote one year they brought in a tree so unbalanced that after decorating it, on the night to Christmas Eve it tipped over and smashed all the decorations and a lot more in the livingroom.
 
Terry Yager wrote:

Ghawd, y'all eat some disgusting sh!t... I guess I'm basically a meat & taters kinda guy.

I can't really speak for the others, though as for myself there's nothing like rolling around in pigsty on Christmas day!! :-D Eat like pigs, booze up and take crack pots at everyone else in the room - yes that's the way it should be ;-)
Throw the Turkey on the table and everyone digs into it with their bare hands, throw barrels of booze, wine, etc around - no knifes, forks - heck might as well throw out the table and eat of the floor! :-D And just drink from the barrel! :-D

But really I could probably eat a whole year on Bead Rolls with Vegemite and Cheese in them though - haven't really tried to be honest, I'm certain I can do it for a couple of days though!
 
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