The big secret is getting the moisture and caustic soda, or lye, out of the fish, he said. “That’s the way my dad had always did it.” And his dad knew a little about lutefisk, said Bergh.

In case you’re unfamiliar, lutefisk is white fish (usually cod) that has been dried and soaked in lye and then re-hydrated before being cooked in a boiling pot of water or in the oven ...

a fish Scandinavians love if prepared properly, or hate if it’s not. Lutefisk is dried lingcod reconstituted with a lye ...