[Sca-cooks] salt cod

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jun 21, 2009, at 12:28 AM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> So until I can get around to reorganizing it, this file in the  
> Florilegium contains information on stockfish (dried fish), salted  
> fish, lutefisk, pickled fish, lefse

Okay, but lefse is a flatbread/pancake type thing, and lutefisk is a  
preparation of dried fish, not a dried fish itself. If that makes a  
difference.

Oh, and sushi's not fish either, it's rice, and is sometimes served  
with raw or cooked fish, or eggs, or tofu, or pickles... ;-)

> and other preserved fish. There are a number of recipes in there on  
> preparing preserved fish, but none that I could find on actually  
> turning fresh cod into salted cod.
> stockfish-msg    (118K)  4/18/09  Period preserved fish.
>
> While the term "kippered" goes back to 12th century or so, what we  
> think of as "kippered" fish or "kippers" apparently dates to just  
> the 19th century and refers to a lightly smoked fish, one where the  
> smoking is mostly for flavor. This fish required the speed of the  
> railroads to transport it to market before it spoiled since there  
> wasn't enough smoking to add much preservation qualities.

I dunno about that; real kippered herring from Scotland are pretty  
powerful critters, and really should be soaked a bit before cooking  
and eating. Mostly it's salt, rather than a heavy smoking, but it's  
not like there's no preservative action taking place. Smoke, per se,  
isn't much of a preservative on its own; it has some antibacterial and  
insect repellent qualities, but it's the salting and drying that  
generally accompany it that usually do most of the work. Unless you're  
talking about canned kipper snack fillets, for which the main  
preservation process is... canning.

> I am currently in the middle of reading this book. It has quite a  
> lot of info about fishing in the Middle Ages including the creation  
> of the salted herring and the stockfish trade.

Sounds like good stuff; I take it you've seen Kurlansky's book on cod?

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter