I Was Thinking... The Lutefisk Faithful

Football, falling leaves, and fall festivals are all signs of autumn in Minnesota. Falling temperatures, earlier sunsets, and combines in the field remind us that summer is over, and that winter isn’t far away.
Food seems to also trigger a signal that fall is here. Orchards advertise crisp Minnesota apples and wagons loaded with pumpkins and gourds appear along the roadsides. Coffee shops add pumpkin spice to their list of coffee flavors and churches begin promoting their fall dinners.
Soup suppers are a staple of fall and chili becomes a regular meal after a cool Saturday football game. But one of the surest signs of fall is the advent of lutefisk suppers. Chicago may have deep dish pizza, New Orleans may have gumbo and Door County is famous for the fish boils, but only Minnesota can relish a piece of cod once soaked in lye. No other delicacy has more of a diverse an audience. Some people can’t get enough of it while others refuse to even touch it.
For years it has become a Minnesota tradition from border to border. From Hermantown and Virginia in the north to Emmons in the south, churches spend weeks if not months preparing for crowds drawn to the smell of this boiled fish. In Lutheran churches in large cities like Minneapolis to small rural churches like the one in Bernadotte, people put on these once-a-year dinners. Madison, Minnesota even claims to be the Lutefisk capital of the world. Southeastern Minnesota is no exception to this fall tradition.
For years, churches in SE Minnesota have staggered the dates for their lutefisk dinners so people could follow the “lutefisk circuit.” The lutefisk faithful don’t just go to one dinner, they take in a multitude of them.
You could go to Vang Lutheran near Dennison, East St. Olaf south of Byron used to hold a dinner and Blooming Prairie is also known for their lutefisk spread. One of the largest in the area has been the one right here in Kasson on the fourth Thursday of October, Oct. 24th, at St. John’s Lutheran Church.
Every dinner serves the desired white fish, but each dinner may have a variation of what else is included in the meal.
While lutefisk is the main attraction, many churches do offer an alternative to the fish and even advertise the meals as a “lutefisk and meatball” dinner. It seems almost sacrilege to offer Swedish meatballs with the Norwegian staple, but it is just one of many of those things that is only explained by calling it a tradition.
In addition, almost all dinners include mashed potatoes and gravy, but the vegetable side dishes may vary. St. John’s Lutheran still goes through the labor-intensive process of serving rutabagas while others have opted to serve corn or carrots. Different nationalities also differ on what to put on the lutefisk.
Many Swedes seem to favor a cream sauce while a good share of the Norwegians prefer to smother it in butter. Cole slaw and cranberry salad is served at St. John’s while beet pickles are offered by some churches. Rommegrot and fruit soup is served by a few churches but they almost all agree that a necessary offering must be lefse. While some of decided to buy their lefse for the dinner, St. John’s continues to spend nine weeks before the dinner making their own.
The traditional lutefisk and meatball dinners epitomize a comfort food experience. Some say the lutefisk dinners are the antifreeze Norwegians take in to survive the upcoming winter. And take it in they do. Many of the dinners, like St. John’s, will again be serving all you can eat and family style after a couple of experiments tried after Covid. Many dinner waiters are amazed on just how much of the slippery fish some people can actually consume. Stories of third and fourth servings still circulate around churches. But there must be a demand because St. John’s has now expanded their serving times to three around noon and three more in the evening.
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