Uff da

Published 1:29 pm Monday, December 7, 2015

With meatballs and lefse on the side: Nearly 800 folks ate a half-ton of lutefisk last weekend at the Sons of Norway Bothell Lodge’s annual lutefisk dinner. In honor of lutefisk season (October through March), here are four myths about the gelatinous fish dish:

1. In “Breaking Bad,” Walter White used lye, a key lutefisk ingredient, to dissolve a body in a bathtub. Walt actually used hydrofluric acid; the Mexican drug cartels are the ones who have used lye to dispose of murder victims.

2. Leftover lutefisk can be used to clear clogged sink drains. The lye in which the dried cod was treated is, of course, rinsed away with lots of fresh water to make the lutefisk safe (so to speak) to eat. If anything, lutefisk’s jelly-like consistency will probably clog drains.

3. Lutefisk is a popular delicacy in Scandinavian countries. Not so, because nearly all of the folks who eat the stuff emigrated to the Upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.

4. Lutefisk is always eaten in church and lodge basements. Not quite — it is sometimes cooked and consumed outdoors, at the insistence of folks who do not eat lutefisk and value the air they breathe.

— Mark Carlson, Herald staff