Dishes made with fish described as "rancid"?

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    • #61599
      Inunah
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      My uncle used to be married to a Korean woman (whom I only met when I was very little, so I don’t remember her at all), and my mom has quite a few stories about her. One of the stories that sticks out the most is a story about her cooking or food preparation.

      She would take some fresh fish (not cut or anything, just an entire fish) and – without putting anything on it to preserve it or anything – and sit it on top of the dryer in the laundry room. It would sit there for quite a while, and make her house start smelling quite bad. In addition, she would apparently just eat bits of the fish raw…but it was apparently always a big enough fish that at least some parts of it were probably used in some sort of prepared dish.

      What kind of prepared dish would use fish that some would describe as being rancid?

      (Note: I wouldn’t describe it as being rancid, so I’m only using the words my mother used. I mean, she told me that it smelled rancid and pretty much identical to what an Asian grocery store smells like. I know some people don’t know what an Asian grocery store smells like, though, so I used the other description. If I knew how to describe an Asian grocery store’s scent, though, I’d do it.)

    • #61600
      Inunah
      Participant

      Also sorry about the grammar mistakes. With forums, I usually end up editing a post like 6 times before I’m happy with it, but I couldn’t find the edit button after the first edit here.

    • #61615
      Lynnjamin
      Participant

      Perhaps your mom wasn’t exactly close with her sister-in-law, and the stories she tells may reflect a slight lack of understanding? At any rate, you will find several recipes that call for fermented raw fish (check out the recipe for Easy Kimchi). It is certainly not rancid, or rotten, but preserved by fermentation. I’ll be the first to admit that fermented food (fish and otherwise) has a bold, earthy smell, but its a smell that you quickly come to associate with indescribably delicious flavor. :)

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