In 2014, The Telegraph reported that Inge Hausen, a pensioner from the Nordic village of Tyrsil, contacted an explosions expert from the Norwegian army about a 25-year-old can of fermented herring, called surströmming. The swollen can had lifted Hausen’s roof by two centimeters, and he feared it would explode. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
According to Mr Hausen’s wife Bjørg, the herring was forgotten after an aquavit-fuelled tasting party in the spring of 1990.
“We had three cans. We ate two and my husband took the third and put it up under the roof, because we had eaten enough. Then he forgot about it,” she told The Telegraph. “There’s going to be a gruesome smell.”
Mr Madsen said that if the herring has not been completely destroyed by the fermentation process, it will be “very mild and very soft”.
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