This can is swelling — and in Sweden, that is exactly how you know it is ready.

Surströmming is lightly salted Baltic herring, fermented in barrels and sealed in tins while the fermentation is still unfinished, so the can bulges as the bacteria keep working. It has been made on Sweden's High Coast since at least the 16th century, it is opened outdoors by tradition and by necessity, and in 2006 several airlines classified the pressurised cans as potentially explosive. This is the full story: the salt that is deliberately only enough to stop rot, the chemistry of the famous smell, the third Thursday of August, and why the taste — according to the people who actually eat it — is not what the smell promises.

World Weird Food Tour tells the real stories behind the world's most misunderstood dishes — with sources, and with respect.

▶ Watch all episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUYBsn2zwphs

Chapters:
0:00 The Swelling Can
0:31 Not a Viking Food
1:00 An Ancient Technique
1:31 Salt — Just Enough to Stop Rot
1:58 The Barrels Rest
2:28 From Barrels to Tins
3:02 The Bacteria Keep Working
3:41 Naming the Smell
4:11 A Season With Rules
4:41 Ulvön, the Heartland
5:12 Open It Outdoors
5:40 The Surströmmingsklämma
6:09 Smell Is Not Taste
6:52 Banned From the Airplane
7:29 Courtrooms and Exploding Cans
8:09 Why It's Hard to Buy Abroad

Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons):
- sur-bulged-can-hires.jpg: Photo by Kat1100, CC BY 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Surstr%C3%B6mming_bulged_can.jpg
- sur-festival-table.jpg: Photo by Pymouss, CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stockholm_-_nordiska_musset_20190818-07_Surstr%C3%B6mmingfesten.jpg
- sur-klaemma.png: Photo by Primordial~commonswiki, CC BY-SA 3.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Surstroemmngsklaemma.png
- sur-ulvon-north.jpg: Photo by Gabrielwennstig, CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Norra_Ulv%C3%B6n_H%C3%B6ga_Kusten.jpg
- sur-ulvon-south.jpg: Photo by David Stanley, CC BY 2.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_Ulv%C3%B6n_Island_(53467929917).jpg
- sur-herring-closeup.jpg: Photo by Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, CC BY 2.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clupea_harengus_(S0884)_(12599080314).jpg
Additional photography from Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Diagram plates are original to this channel.

Sources include: Kobayashi et al. (2000), International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (Halanaerobium); Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking (2004); BBC News, "Swedish fermented herring hits airlines" (1 Apr 2006); Regulation (EU) No 1259/2011 (Baltic herring derogation); BBC News, Enånger warehouse fire report (2014).

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