Often times, you can research the chemical composition of odors by searching for its name plus GCMS.
The Good Scent Company is a free online database of natural materials, pure aromachemicals, and formulae.
Issues of the trade rag Perfumer & Flavorist are available for free online and there will be content about GCMS, chemistry, and formulating.
Basenotes is a forum for amateur perfumery that may have relevant conversation.
And there are the manufacturers of chemicals used in fragrance and flavors: Givaudan, IFF, Firmenich, Symrise, and others. Their catalogues and the vendors that sell them (some even in small quantities) can be valuable resources just for exploring the space.
They can give you the basic recipe, but the full formula varies from application to application. Some molecules won't stand acid, or soap, or heat, so you need to work around it. It's rarely just one or two molecules, except in extremely cheap things, and it will need dozens of support flavors to get the right result.
The specifics are closely guarded secrets, because of the weird way the industry pays for research and manufacture.
It seems like the core logistics might still have some value, and offices will now become rental space. Stunning to see a national institution evaporates like that.
Surströmming is mostly only eaten in August and really only in costal communities. In fact it used to be illegal to eat surströmming before the third Thursday in August, and many people still follow that tradition. Even the people who ostensibly like it only eat it once or twice a year at special surströmming parties in the second half of August. So unless you're in Sweden in August and visiting a place with a strong fishing tradition it's very unlikely you'll see it.
The true national dish of Sweden and Sweden's main contribution the culinary world is of course the kebab pizza with all its variations.
I guess restaurants avoid it because of its long-range effects.
> In 1981, a German landlord evicted a tenant without notice after the tenant spread surströmming brine in the apartment building's stairwell. When the landlord was taken to court, the court ruled that the termination was justified after the landlord's party demonstrated their case by opening a can inside the courtroom.
Funny. I was in an Asian grocery recently, and they actually had whole durian in the produce section. How long until some pranker plunges in a knife and opens one up?
