Lutefisk substitutes

This is what the majority of Scandinavian-American families quietly serve when lutefisk cannot be found, and it works because the accompaniments carry the plate. The difference is texture, not flavour: cod flakes into firm white petals instead of collapsing into the soft, quivering, faintly translucent mass that lutefisk is famous for. It also tastes cleanly of fish, where lutefisk tastes of almost nothing. Poach it below a simmer in salted water until it is just opaque at the thickest point, lift it out with a spatula, and dress it with the same melted butter, bacon, white sauce or mustard sauce the recipe calls for.

Best for

Christmas Eve and holiday dinners, serving with white sauce or mustard sauce, feeding guests who were dreading the lutefisk, any recipe where lutefisk is served with butter and potatoes

Salt the fish lightly and let it sit 20 minutes before poaching, then pat it dry. It firms the flesh so it holds together on the platter, which is the one place cod struggles next to lutefisk.

The closest thing in spirit. Salt cod and lutefisk begin at the same place, a dried cod flitch, and diverge only in how it is preserved and reconstituted, so salt cod gives you the same ritual of days of soaking and the same dense, dried-and-returned character. It tastes considerably more of fish and of the sea than lutefisk, and it stays firm and meaty rather than turning soft, so the plate reads as a proper piece of fish rather than a tradition. Soak it 24 to 48 hours in the refrigerator, changing the water three or four times, then poach it very gently.

Best for

cooks who want the dried-fish character, holiday plates with strong sauces, anyone who cannot find lutefisk but has a Portuguese, Italian or Latin grocery nearby

Taste a scrap of the poaching water before you serve. If it is still salty, the fish needs more soaking. Undersoaked salt cod will overwhelm the butter and white sauce completely.

Before substituting, look harder. Frozen and vacuum-packed lutefisk is sold seasonally by Scandinavian grocers and Midwestern fish houses, particularly through Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas, and it ships frozen in November and December. Some markets also sell dried cod already lye-treated but not yet freshened, which needs only a few days of cold-water soaking at home. This is the only route to the genuine texture, and it is usually easier than people assume.

Best for

families who want the actual tradition, church and lodge suppers, December holiday planning

Order in early November. Supply is seasonal and small, and it sells out. Frozen lutefisk should be thawed in the refrigerator and cooked within a day or two, because it degrades fast.

All three stand in for cod and each shifts the plate slightly. Haddock and pollock are softer and sweeter and closer to lutefisk's mildness, which makes them the better mimics, though they also break apart more readily on the platter. Halibut is the opposite: firm, meaty and easy to serve in tidy pieces, but distinctly more substantial than lutefisk ever is, so the meal ends up feeling like a fish dinner rather than a lutefisk dinner. Choose by how much you care about lifting it out of the pot in one piece.

Best for

large platters that need to hold their shape, cooks who cannot get good fresh cod, buffet and potluck service

Thicker fillets are more forgiving. Anything under three quarters of an inch will overcook while you are ladling sauce.

Worth saying plainly: at a great many Scandinavian-American holiday tables the lutefisk is the least eaten thing on it, and leaving it off costs the meal very little. The trimmings are the meal. Serve the boiled potatoes, mashed rutabaga, mashed peas, lefse, meatballs, pickled beets and cured salmon, and put out the melted butter and mustard sauce anyway so the flavours of the tradition are still on the table. Nobody goes hungry and no one asks twice.

Best for

small households, guests who have never eaten lutefisk and are nervous, tables that already have plenty of other dishes

If lutefisk matters to one person at the table, a single small portion can be ordered frozen and cooked separately in a parchment parcel while everyone else eats the cod.