Return with me to the prehistoric time when the first human in Norway decided to make lutefisk. One wonders what he/she was thinking. It made sense to pick berries and eat them. It made sense to drink the milk of goats. It made sense to roast a little wooly mammoth over a fire and eat that. But lutefisk?

That prehistoric Norwegian caught a cod, cleaned it, boned it, salted it, and dried it. Then he/she soaked it in lye. Honest to God! He took a can of what would later become the most popular drain cleaner in the world and put his/her food in it for a while. The smell alone was enough to drive invaders back from Norwegian borders.

You just gotta wonder.