On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 452

into a paste, and with a variety of enrichments and flavorings: in the north, often butter and mustard; in the Mediterranean, olive oil and garlic Salted Fish Preservation by natural drying works well in cold and hot climates Temperate Europe, where fish generally spoil before they can dry sufficiently, developed the habit of salting fish first, or instead A day’s salting would preserve many fish for several days more, long enough to be carried inland, while saturating the fish with around 25% salt keeps it stable for a year Lean cod and relatives were salted and then air-dried, while fatty herring and their ilk were guarded from airinduced rancidity by immersing them in barrels of brine, or by subsequent smoking The best of these are the piscatory equivalent of salt-cured hams In both, salt buys time for 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), ... 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-... 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...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