Traditional Nordic Umami: An Ancient Need for Preservation

The Nordic countries have a living tradition of consuming strange (and smelly) food that is fermented, dried, and aged as a consequence of the pre-refrigeration need for preserving perishable foodstuffs. Despite the smell, the delicious umami easily compensates for the odor. The best-known examples are the Swedish surströmming, a fermented Baltic herring conserved in cans that often bulge and are at the brink of explosion; Norwegian rakfisk, salted and fermented trout, whitefish, char, or perch; Icelandic hákarl, fermented shark; Faroe Island’s skerpikjøt, dried and fermented mutton; as well as Danish modnet sild, whole herring salted and fermented by the enzymes from its own entrails. Modern Nordic gravlax or gravad laks is lightly marinated fresh salmon, but its name reflects that the fish was originally fermented by burying it in a dirt pit. In this way, gravlax shares a historical development similar to sushi, which originated as a way of preserving fish by fermenting it in cooked rice.