Lutefisk can give you hot flashes
By Sheila Donnelly/Austin Daily Herald

This is the time of year that I see notices in the grocery stores and other venues advertising lutefisk and meatball suppers.

The First Lutheran Church in Blooming Prairie had its annual supper two weeks ago. This week, Little Cedar Lutheran Church in Adams is having theirs. Almost every Lutheran Church that was settled by Norwegian immigrants in this area must be having a lutefisk and meatball supper. I never attended one of these traditional suppers until 10 years ago. Friends of ours asked Tom and I if we would like to go to the Blooming Prairie Lutheran Church Lutefisk and Meatball Supper with them. I said sure. Tom was not sure, as he didn't know what lutefisk was.

I said, "I've never eaten it, but I have heard people say that there are lots of other things to eat at these suppers, like meatballs, potatoes, a vegetable and lefse."

Tom knew what lefse was, as our neighbor, Viv, made lefse every Christmas.

She demonstrated to me once how she rolled out her dough of mashed potato and flour to make the thin lefse layers. Then she heated the delicate layers on a flat electric lefse skillet. Tom and I liked lefse with butter and jam.

I didn't know much about traditional Norwegian food, only what I had heard from friends at school when I was growing up. My friends talked about how great lefse and krumkake tasted. Lutefisk, I had heard, tasted good with loads of melted butter on it. So with this bit of knowledge about traditional Norwegian food, I went to my first lutefisk and meatball supper.

My brother, Kevin, who lives in Ireland, was back for a visit and he went with Tom and I to the First Lutheran Church in Blooming Prairie. Kevin is a fisherman and is a colorful character and was regaling us and our friends and the people they brought along with tales of the deep sea, as we waited in line for an hour to be seated. We were all hungry when we were finally seated in the church dining hall. The women of the church set bowls of meatballs, mashed potatoes with melted butter, vegetables, lefse, bread rolls and of course lutefisk in front of us. The food was quickly passed family style around the table and each person loaded up his or her plate. When Kevin was passed the lutefisk, he got a look of total disgust on his face and proclaimed very loudly, "What the hell did they do to this fish?"

A gentleman was sitting next to Kevin and he chuckled softly. He told Kevin that he was originally from Norway. The man said that he had never eaten lutefisk in Norway. The man told Kevin that the fish had been soaked in lye.

Tom was listening to this conversation and had taken a couple of bites out of the lutefisk. He turned to me horrified and said, "Lye? Did he say lye? That's why I am so hot. As soon as I ate this fish, I got hot all over."

I looked at Tom, and sure enough his face was all flushed and he was perspiring.

"Waves of heat are coming all over me from this fish. I'm not eating anymore," said Tom.

Meanwhile Kevin was still ranting and raving about the lutefisk to the gentleman from Norway.

"I lived in Norway too," said Kevin. "I never ate fish prepared like this. This type of fish wouldn't ever be allowed on the fishing boats anywhere. This fish is disgusting."

Everyone was glancing at our table and I suggested to Kevin that he try the meatballs. He told me he wasn't eating red meat. Kevin didn't like the krumkake that was served for dessert either, as he doesn't eat sweets.

We did have a nice time with the company that we went to the supper with, but we have never been to a Lutefisk and Meatball Supper since. Tom doesn't care for foods that give him hot flashes and Kevin won't eat fish that has been dead more than one day.