transformation: it preserves them long and
gently enough for enzymes of both fish and
harmless salt-tolerant bacteria to break down
flavorless proteins and fats into savory
fragments, which then react further to create
flavors of great complexity.
Alkaline Fish: Lutefisk
Distinctly alkaline foods are rare and have
a slippery, soapy quality that takes getting
used to. (Alkalinity is the chemical
opposite of acidity.) Egg white is one such
food, and another is lutefisk, a peculiar
Norwegian and Swedish way of preparing
stockfish that probably began in late
medieval times, and that gives it a jiggly,
jelly-like consistency. Lutefisk is made by
soaking the partly reconstituted dry cod for
a day or more in a water solution that is
strongly alkaline, originally from the
addition of potash (the carbonate- and
mineral-rich ashes from a wood fire),