Meat Hook, the twelfth one, his talent would display
as soon as he arrived on Saint Thorlak´s Day.
He snagged himself a morsel of meet of any sort,
although his hook at times was a tiny bit short.
St Thorlak's day is Iceland's patron saints day. St Thorlak did not officially get recognised by the catholic church until 1984 when John Paul II decided to do so (probably politically correct at the time) Thorlaks sainthood was confirmed by the Icelandic parliament in 1198 - so it took the church a while to respond...
What is special about his day is the fact that alot of Icelandic people choose to eat what I term rotten food. Skate is disgusting...
The following is from fisheries.is and basically tells you why it stinks and why I don´t eat it.
"Icelanders prepare the skate by salting or fermenting it. The Icelandic way of fermenting the skate is quite simple; the skates are put in a pile on the deck of the boat or on the seashore, and there they lie for a few months. During this process the urea in the blood is broken down into harmless ammonia compounds. Harmful bacteria that would otherwise cause the flesh to rot (to become putrid) are kept away by the high acidity and by other harmless bacteria during this process. It is commonly thought that Icelanders eat putrid skate, they do not! The skate is not putrid! The Greenland shark is processed in a similar way. However, the shark is eaten raw while the skate is always boiled." (putrid or not a fish that is left to lie for a few months......)
"The strong ammonia smell of a well-prepared skate is supposed to stop your breath temporarily and clear your sinuses. It is supposed to be a good remedy for the common cold. Research has not supported that."
It is eaten with boiled potatoes and some put putrified melted animal fat on it as well.... mmmmm
Actually the people that eat it declare it delicious. I just want to know - if it is so delicious why is it not always on the menu - why only on Thorlak?
It´s nearly Christmas and I am still not ready...
3 comments:
Yuk, I think I would give the skate a miss. And you're right! It would always be on the menu if it was so great. Good luck with the preparations! Just enjoy yourself.
I'll stick to the chicken noodle soup I'm cooking. I'm pretty picky about my fish, if it smells I'm not eating it.
Don´t be so negative Sigga baby - skate IS GOOD:):) I am used to eating haddock and cod (siginn fisk) that has bin hung up aboard the boats and left there until dry and "stinky" - I eat it with potatoes and melted butter - it´s my favorite fish - yummi!!! Every Thorlak´s day, me and Finnur take the little ones, Victoria and Finnur Jr. to the Rescue Team headquarters, to have a "skate-feast" - along with a whole lot of people - they cook it - we pay for it and eat it - and by doing that, we are supporting the Team. Also we meet a lot of people - and just have a Jolly feeling - smelling or not when we come out - he he...
This is a tradition, which is not so old, but a good tradition. It would not be so, if the skate was ALWAYS one the Menu!!!
Have a nice day you all - "happy smelling" because the whole town is SMELLING OF SKATE - YUMMI......
Love you Sigga darling (¨,)....
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