Food-science expert McGee and adventurous culinary technologist Dave Arnold invite PopSci to sample rotten fish
By Paul Adams Posted 04.20.2012 at 5:35 pm 8 Comments

Surströmming Paul Adams
When Popular Science was acquired by Sweden's Bonnier Corporation in 2007, some people thought we'd be eating surströmming, the legendary Scandinavian delicacy of fish left to ferment in cans till the cans almost burst, every day. But in fact, the famously putrid herring has been utterly absent from these shores -- until today, when Dave Arnold invited me to come crack open a (ominously bulging) can of it that he'd smuggled back from Sweden. Scientific curiosity demanded that I investigate.

Joined by Harold McGee and several other Friends of Dave with assorted degrees of gameness, we cracked the can open in a well-ventilated park. It didn't squirt vile juices for meters, as I'd been told to expect; just fizzed and bubbled a little as the noxious gases vented from their confinement. The air filled with the odor of used diapers; perhaps used diapers at the seashore. The flavor molecules in surströmming include skatole -- named for the Greek word for dung -- as well as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and a couple named putrescine and cadaverine that are also found in decaying corpses.

Dave and McGee were the first to tuck in. Dave, it is safe to say, survived the experience; but McGee -- the only one of us who'd eaten surströmming before -- thoroughly enjoyed it. "It doesn't have any of the vomit flavor that the last batch did," he mused.

I enjoyed it too, after a moment's acclimation. The eye-watering sulfurous odor -- like rotten eggs and raw onions -- and the unchanged-baby odor predominated, but the salty deliciousness of cured herring came through. Especially on a piece of dark bread with some sliced red onion, the experience was more like eating cured fish while sitting next to a dumpster than eating actually rotten fish. The anaerobic fermentation (by Haloanaerobium bacteria that can survive in a brine salty enough to kill deadly Clostridium) gives it a slippery, disintegrating texture that's somewhat alarming, but on the whole I would do it again. Here's to you, Jonas Bonnier!

8 Comments

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Robot
04/20/12 at 5:52 pm

Stupid is, as stupid does.
I like my food fresh and cooked, thank you.

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.
Open your mind and see!

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killerT
04/21/12 at 12:31 pm

How is this NOT like eating rotten fish? Have you ever tried rotten salted fish?

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IchNR
04/21/12 at 4:04 pm

Now you just have to try Hákarl!

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SteelPulse
04/22/12 at 3:47 am

It's interesting to see what our servants eat. Their culture is similar to ours in many ways, but thankfully we have not adopted this vile habit. Swedish work immigrants are quite happy doing jobs Norwegians won't, and we appreciate it. Just open your can of putrid fish in a sink filled with water, and then bring me another coffee. Chop-chop!

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Quintus
04/22/12 at 3:24 pm

With surströmming in mind, I have drawn the conclusion that there are very good and sound reasons for "local delicacies" staying exactly that. Local.

The article does not nearly do justice to the vile stench of this of this stuff. It really resembles nothing as much as a fermenting latrine, and the first human being that has eaten this has must have been in a very desperate situation.

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Akim91
04/22/12 at 3:38 pm

I wonder how long they had to leave the surströmming on the bench / table until that many flies came. That was a crazy amount of flies, which saying they love to eat dead, decaying things and feces I will not try this lol.

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i2hellfire
04/23/12 at 12:09 pm

much respect...but, yea...i'll have to pass. with as many options for non-rotting food out there, it will be a long while before i find myself with any inclination to trying out surströmming.

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Elaine123
05/02/12 at 10:54 am

I think I'll pass on the herring..
Dave Arnold is doing some other pretty cool non-gross events around town! He'll be down at Booker & Dax doing a master class in mixology with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) on Wednesday, May 9 from 4-5pm where we learn how to make exciting cocktails with some unexpected and exciting ingredients! (think liquid nitrogen, hot pokers, but no rotten fish...sorry...)
Check it out!
www.fiaf.org/events/spring2012/2012-05-09-mixology.shtml



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