10
votes
We learn how surströmming is made, why it smells so strong, and how locals prepare it, and then... we eat it
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- Title
- How the World’s Stinkiest Fish Really Tastes
- Authors
- Great Big Story
- Duration
- 8:01
- Published
- Apr 25 2025
I had this for the first time recently. I looked up how to prepare it properly and everything because I knew all the videos of people eating it online were just straight up wrong, like eating a teaspoon of cinnamon.
.....It's bad. It tastes like compost smells. Normally I'm pretty open to strange tastes and things many people find unappetizing even for acquired tastes. But it just tastes awful. Sulfur is just not a good flavour profile to my tastes.
It could also be that salt they use. It's a very fine salt which they also use on the extra salty licorice salmiak. It is extremely salty. That combined with the other taste profiles of this fish.... ugh. Tastes like compost smells, even at its best.
Still, a fascinating experience. That smell is no joke when you open the tin. The Swedish flatbread that goes with it is a good one.
intterrresting, I'm now actually super interested in trying it...except the fish part lol
I'm worried about texture and fish adjacent tastes/smells as those can be very triggering.
But what intrigued me most about your post was the mention of sulfur! I really like thousand year eggs which have a sulfur component.
I think for me, I could try anything if I was not aware of everything about it. I don't want/need to know how the sausage is made, it would be hard for me to enjoy certain things from the psychological perspective, if they disturbed me visually, for example. Things like [balut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(food) would be really hard for me to try or stomach for mouth feel reasons and visual reasons.
I actually really like these, I didn't even remember they had that sulfuric component to them. But also I was writing politely, what I really mean is that the fish strongly tasted like farts. Just big, nasty, worried-about-underwear farts. Sulfur was an overwhelmingly primary flavour of this fish. Thousand-year-eggs aren't anywhere near that realm of sulfuric.
I just saw this after leaving my reply, where I actually compared it to century egg (and sorry, but in a negative way, it's not my favourite dish).
I think it's possible you would like surströmming; while it doesn't taste like the thousand year egg, there's something that puts it in the same neighbourhood. If you can find it somewhere in a way that's prepared, you won't have any fishy texture at all; it'll be very small / spread apart pieces. If you have to prepare it yourself, you might have the issues with the texture.
Both dishes have something in that sulfurous flavour profile, so if that is something that you like, then I think that it's worth finding it to try it!
I had this a long time ago, in a way similar to the flatbread from the video. I'm okay with anchovies, and I thought it would be something like that.
You are exactly right - it tastes like compost smells. I am a fairly adventurous eater, and this almost immediately went on the list of "things I will never eat again" and maybe also "won't go to places that are serving this because of the smell". The only other thing on the list is century / thousand year eggs.
Still, pretty cool to watch the video, even if it's just something that's not for me.
I'm glad to see Great Big Story actually took the time to eat surströmming in the "proper" way. It genuinely pisses me off when people in other videos about it on YouTube treat it like some sort of Fear Factor challenge by opening the can indoors then trying to it eat the fish whole immediately afterwards... similar to people doing the same with spoonfuls of vegemite/marmite. Imagine how dumb it would be for people to do similar with soy sauce or even ketchup, drinking them straight out of the bottle. Like, no shit it's revolving when you consume them without any other ingredients, in a way that they aren't typically consumed!
p.s. One of the first videos I ever saw about surströmming where it was actually being eaten the traditional way which really opened my eyes to the idea of it. I have yet to actually try it myself, but it is on my food bucket list, and if I ever go to Sweden I will definitely seek it out.
I ate it in a manner similar to the traditional one, and it was hands down the most revolting, disgusting and unappealing thing I have ever stomached. The fact that with so many living creatures to eat on this planet people choose to eat this, truly boggles my mind.