Lutefisk and Lefse

As tradition built it

Lutefisk and Lefse

Serves 6 · 1 hour for the lutefisk, plus 2 hours for the lefse

Ingredients

• 1.5kg prepared lutefisk
• 100g butter, melted
• to taste salt
• to taste white pepper

For the lefse

• 1kg floury potatoes, boiled and riced while warm
• 200g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
• 60g butter, melted
• 60ml double cream
• a pinch salt

Method

1. For the lutefisk, wrap loosely in foil and bake at 180°C for 30 to 40 minutes, until just set and opaque, taking care not to overcook, as it becomes watery quickly.
2. Serve simply, with melted butter, salt and white pepper, alongside boiled potatoes and lefse.

For the lefse

3. Combine the warm riced potato with the flour, melted butter, cream and salt while still warm, and chill the dough.
4. Divide into balls, and roll each one out on a well-floured surface, using a grooved lefse pin if available, to a very thin round about 30cm across.
5. Cook on a dry, very hot griddle or flat pan, 45 to 60 seconds a side, until lightly speckled brown, turning with a long, flat stick rather than a spatula.
6. Stack between clean tea towels while warm, to keep pliable.

Notes

The lye cure is real alkaline hydrolysis chemistry, not a defect.

What a modern chef changes

The lutefisk's own texture respected and controlled precisely, rather than masked.

Rung 4

Method

1. Cook the lutefisk sous vide at a low, precise 55°C rather than in a domestic oven, giving far more even control over a fish whose gelled, delicate protein structure collapses easily past that point, per Rung 4.
2. Serve it with a genuinely reduced, concentrated brown butter rather than plain melted butter, so the sauce carries enough of its own depth to stand alongside the lutefisk's deliberately unusual texture rather than simply lubricating it.