Elastic modulus measurements of cooked Lutefisk

Abstract

Lutefisk is a traditional Norwegian Christmas dish, made of dry cod soaked in a lye solution before re-hydrated. We report measurements of the tissue softness of cooked Lutefisk. Surprisingly, we find that the elastic modulus does not seem to depend heavily on cooking time, cooking temperature and the amount of salt, but depends instead mainly on the size of the fish fillets and the period of fishing. Although the salting and cooking of the Lutefisk affects strongly the visual aspect of the fish fillets, these changes are not measurable with a rheometer.