Why you should be aware of Surströmming

Why? It smells. From the minute you crack open the tin, there is no mistaking the potent odour of Surströmming. If you're a first timer, then quite likely have you never smelled anything so foul in your entire life. And to think you eat this.

Surströmming is fermented Baltic herring. The custom of eating this culinary feast occurs in August in the very northern parts of Sweden. It dates back to the time centuries ago, when only a little salt was used to preserve the herring, as salt was expensive back then. This starts the process of fermenting the fish.

The fermenting continues inside tins today, and the result is such that one year on, the smell of the fermented herring is unbelievably pungent. And not in a nice way either. If you can eventually bring yourself to taste such a foul smelling food, then it actually doesn't taste that bad.

Surströmming is produced on various islands in the Gulf of Bothnic to this day. Once a food of the poor used for survivial throughout harsh winter months, now considered a delicacy. Such are our times.

So if your new Swedish best friend challanges you to try some Surströmming, you may want to think twice. Or at the very least start with pegging your nose. Thankfully the addition of yellow potates and thin, unleavened barley bread, known as tunnbröd, helps wash everything down. That and the schnapps of course.