Surströmming: The World's Most Pungent Food

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Surströmming (sour herring) is fermented Baltic herring — salted in barrels, left to ferment for 6 months, then tinned. The fermentation produces hydrogen sulphide, propionic acid, and butyric acid — compounds that give surströmming its legendary smell, often compared to rotten eggs, sewage, and death simultaneously. The tin bulges from the gas pressure. It must be opened outdoors (and some Swedish apartment buildings ban indoor opening). Despite the smell, surströmming is a genuine delicacy to its devotees: the flesh, once past the initial olfactory assault, is salty, tangy, umami-rich, and complex. It is eaten on tunnbröd (thin flatbread) with potatoes, onion, and sour cream, traditionally at a surströmmingsfest (fermented herring party) in late August.

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