Using Peat Moss to Preserve Fish

mattbull writes "Some scandinavian scientists have taken a clue from the Vikings and discovered that packing fish with peat moss can keep it fresh for up to two years. They also think they've isolated the sugar in the moss that gives it its preservative properties. What do we have to do to get some of those bogs in the States? I don't have thousands of years to wait." Hey, Kipling knew this a long time ago.

Re:Keeps it 'fresh'?

[JanneM]

It's not rotten, it's fermented, just like yoghurt or sour cream. The smell is a bit off-putting, but the taste is great!

/Janne

Re:Keeps it 'fresh'?

[JanneM]

Hey, lutfisk is great with potatoes and a mustard sauce! Even better is surströmming, though foreigners tend to resist that dish for some reason :-)

/Janne

Re:Keeps it 'fresh'?

[joto]

Hey, anything is good with mustard sauce.

And for those who don't know what lutefisk is all about. It is a traditional scandinavian dish which is eaten at most once a year, but everyone praises like it was the best gourmet food ever.

It consists of fish, that is first dried, then put into lye for a few months, and finally put inside a stream to remove the lye (and any remaining nutricients), and finally boiled. It looks pretty much like jelly, feels pretty much like jelly, and tastes pretty much like jelly, except that it doesn't have strawberry flavour added.

It is usually eaten somewhere in the christmas holiday, and is served with potatoes, bacon, peas, mustard, pepper, and anything else that has some taste. Few people really knows what it tastes like, as they have never really tasted it without all the add-ons and mix-ins. Yet they continue to praise it and still refuse to eat it more than once in a year.

Personally, I'm quite fond of jelly, and don't see what all the fuss people make about this fish is all about. It is neither as bad or as good as some people would have it.

Better than Oil of Olay....

[xmark]

The preservative properties of moss and peat mentioned above aren't so surprising if you think about the bog mummies [archaeology.org] of Scandinavia and Britain. Many of these bodies are 2000 years old, yet are better preserved than any other human remains surviving from ancient times. (Yes, that even includes the freeze-dried remains of the Ice Man [about.com] of the Tyrolean alps.) The bog water and peat arrest the organisms responsible for decomposition and over time, bog acids naturally "tan" the bodies into nearly indestructible leather.

The preservation is so good that when the occasional bog body is found, it is usually the police who get the first call, because the discoverers think they've found a recent murder victim.

Re:How does it taste?

[Gordonjcp]

Actually, peaty water tastes perfectly OK. It's certainly more drinkable than the heavy metal and halogen-loaded stuff that comes from most peoples kitchen taps...

Scotch

[jesseraf]

Now scotch isn't the only thing peat moss is great for. =)

I used to work on a peat bog

[aethera]

In high school I worked as a guide and steward on a 5,000 acre peat sphagnum bog in upstate New York. The sugars in the peat combined with the high acidity that the peat creates prevents just about anything from growing. Especially limited are the bacteria which cause normal decomposition, so the nosrmal succession of wet swamp land to damp meadow, to rich-soiled forest never occurs. You can dig for 60 feet and find undecayed peat that is virtually the same except compacted by the weight above it and brown from lack of chlorophyl.

The browm color of the water is related to the tannic acid leachates off of the sphagnum and other plants. *My* bog had a lot of leahterleaf, black spruce, and pitcher plants.

The old folk tale I used to hear was that a half cup of bog water will add five years to your life. If so I should live till about 140...but I don't recommend it unless you are strong of gut and strong of will...this ain't no cup of tea!! But maybe this study lends some credence to that old story.

Another interesting tidbit..in the civil war they discovered that wounds dressed with sphagnum moss were significantly less likely to become infected compared to those dressed with cotton bandages..again, the acids restricting bacterial growth I imagine.

Bogs are pretty crazy, cool ecosytems, but as you might have guessed, very rare and very fragile.

Re:How does it taste?

[Rogerborg]

Uh, you know malt whiskey? The good, expensive stuff? Know where the distinctive taste comes from? You know, the warm, earthy, peaty taste? ;)

This segues neatly into an "and finally" story on the Scottish news a while back (no web link, sorry) about a pub that was selling fish pickled in whiskey as a traditional Scottish delicacy. It's nothing of the sort, it was a prank played on some tourists that got out of hand. Interesting to see if it actually becomes a genuine "traditional dish". I wonder how traditions got started before there were rich and gullible foreigners to fleece? ;)

How does it taste?

[geoswan]

I've hiked through a peat bog. My recollection was that water was as brown as tea, but more turbid. I remember thinking at the time that it looked like it would be awful to drink.

The article says that some Norwegians draw their drinking water from peat bogs? Yuck!

What kind of taste does it add to the fish I wonder?

Re:Keeps it 'fresh'?

[NaturePhotog]

The closest I've gotten to that is the anchovies in Jansson's Frestelse, and I'm perfectly happy to leave it at that. Though I suppose with enough glug I might be convinced :-)

Keeps it 'fresh'?

[NaturePhotog]

If you've heard of lutefisk [bartleby.com], you have to be suspicious any time a Scandanavian uses "fresh" and "fish" in the same sentence :-)

Some Scandinavian scientists...

[John Hasler]

Before you try this you should be aware that this is the part of the world where lutefisk [sofn.com] originated.

Re:Yum, halon

[cpl almost]

Halogens are the period of compounds including Flourine, Chlorine, and Bromine. Their presence in drinking water can be unhealthy, can be real nasty combined with hydrocarbons (think dioxins). Halon is a chemical fire extinguisher (mostly chloro and fluro-carbons) which are inert and displace oxygen. Radon is similar in that it is nonreactive chemically, however it is RADIOactive. Comes up from the ground as a gas and "pools" in basements (being heavier than air). It poses both a radiation hazard and suffocation (exludes oxygen). Phew, there is your chemistry lesson for today.