Revenge of The Vikings -

Surströmming

A reporter for The Telegraph attempts to eat "the smelliest food in the world".  A food so bad that it has been banned from every airline in the world.  A food so noxious that it distorts and bulges the cans that hold it.

I remember seeing stands on the streets of Amsterdam that sell it but I refused to try.
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Surströmming: tasting the smelliest food in the world

Harry Wallop smells - and tastes - a Viking delicacy which is reputedly the stinkiest food in the world. Will he keep his breakfast down?

By Harry Wallop, video by Chris Stone
7:00AM GMT 07 Mar 2014

Scandi culture has become huge recent years. From sleek design and brooding crime dramas to Danish cuisine and Sarah Lund jumpers. It seems appropriate that the Scandinavians are also invading the British Museum with this year’s blockbuster exhibition: ‘Vikings: life and legend’, which opened this week to rave reviews.

The collection of artifacts blasts away the myth that the Norsemen were mere rapers and pillagers. They were warriors, true, but also cultured tradesmen, with an eye for beautiful jewellery and fabrics.
But there is one barbaric practice that the Swedes still indulge in: surströmming. This fermented herring, a northern Swedish speciality, is widely believed to be the smelliest food in the world. Noxious gases build up in the tin, making the cans bulge, and most airlines in the world have banned passengers transporting surströmming for fear of the cans exploding and causing the plane to be evacuated.
The European Union, in theory, should outlaw the fermented fish because it has too high a polychlorinated biphenyl -- a cancer-causing toxin. But Sweden was able to win a special concession from the EU.
I am a fan of the Scandi gastronomic explosion and responsible for some of the estimated 11.6 billion Swedish meatballs that have been consumed in Ikea’s UK restaurants since 1987. I am not surprised that sales of rollmop herrings are up 38 per cent this year at Marks & Spencer.
But I was nervous about surströmming, even though I am determined to try it.
Jonas Aurell, the founder of Scandinavian Kitchen, says that in a typical month he sells about 50 tins of surströmming from his London shop -- though many of those are brought by practical jokers.
He promised to supply me a tin, but insisted we meet in Hyde Park in order that the smell could escape on the breezes.
On opening the tin, the initial odour was not too bad: sour, if slightly farty. But after a few seconds the full horror made it from the tin to my nostrils. It was a mixture of old nappies that have been left to linger unsealed at the bottom of a bin, combined with the unmistakable and sharp note of dog faeces. This was overlaid with a faint vinegary sourness.



I have a strong stomach, but this was too much for me, and caused me to gag.

I asked Aurell how sane Swedes enjoyed the dish, which is usually served on tunnbröd, a slightly sweet flat bread, along with some diced onions and a slice of potato.
Aurell says: “Think of whisky. When you first taste it, it burns your throat, but you know there is this rich tradition and all this ritual, so you persevere and you gradually acquire the taste.
“Surströmming is like so many traditions. Do you really like it? No. But the there is so much mystique around it -- helped by it being banned by BA -- that people learn to love it.”
And what do you think of it, I asked?
“I think it’s awful,” he laughed.
The actual taste -- when diluted by a piece of tunnbröd -- was unpleasant, mostly because of the sensation of the fermented fish lightly fizzing on my tongue, but it was not as bad as the smell.
The exhibition at the British Museum includes a description of the Vikings by the Arab diplomat Ahmad ibn Fadlan, writing in 921. He had never seen men with such perfect bodies, as tall as palm trees. But he added he was shocked by many of their habits, describing them as “the filthiest of God’s creatures”. It’s possible he was talking about their love of surströmming.
With thanks to Jonas Aurell from Scandi Kitchen