KASSON, Minn. — Lutefisk is what you get when you soak cod in lye.
It doesn’t sound like the most appetizing treat, but many descendants of Norwegian and Swedish immigrants can’t get enough of it, myself included. Just as many run far, far away.
For those who choose the latter, the lutefisk dinner at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kasson has plenty of other Scandinavian specialties, like meatballs, lefse and cookies. But there’s more than enough lutefisk to go around, served with plenty of butter. (That’s the Norwegian way to eat it, while we Swedes prep it with white sauce.)
The dinner at St. John’s serves between 1,800 and 2,000 consistently. It takes months to plan, with the committee getting started in March. Each of them has a binder with their responsibilities listed.
“We start with lefse bakes in August,” said Gloria Gilbertson, who is in charge of communications and advertising for the dinner. “We’re one of the few remaining churches that make our own lefse. We do that for nine Wednesdays and freeze it, serve it and sell it at the bake sale.”
The week of the dinner, the committee and other workers start cooking. The meal is held the fourth Thursday of each October. On the Tuesday before it, they cut and prep rutabagas.
“They’re like squash, but they’re an acquired taste,” Gilbertson said.
The next day, the workers cook the rutabagas and prep the meatballs. It adds up to enough to serve all of those who come through to eat, plus the workers and those who purchase take-out meals.
The meal is a congregational effort, but most of those who attend aren’t members of the church, Gilbertson said.
The lutefisk dinner tradition dates back to 1930. It ran through 1942, then picked up again in 1962. Attendance took off during the 1960s, and even more so when the church added a noon meal. Today’s serving schedule is 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., then again at 4 p.m. until all are served.
The dinner costs $16 and $6 for children under 10.
“We submit the proceeds to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and they disperse it for missions,” Gilbertson said. “The bake sale proceeds are kept in the church for projects, like if we need a new refrigerator.”
Workers dress up in red aprons so attendees can recognize whom to ask for assistance. Some even dress up in traditional Norwegian garb. The line is out the door before 11.
“There are a lot of small churches that are still trying to do dinners like this,” Gilbertson said. “We __have some younger people working in our kitchen who are excited about it. It seems to regenerate itself.”
By the numbers
In 2015, the church served:
1700 pounds of lutefisk
434 dozen lefse
910 pounds of potatoes
900 pounds rutabagas
550 pounds Swedish meatballs
310 dozen baked Scandinavian cookies
40 gallons cabbage slaw
30 gallons cranberry relish
