Dried and salted cod

Lore & Background

Dried and salted cod has been produced for over 500 years in Newfoundland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. It is also produced in Norway, where it is called klippfisk, literally 'cliff-fish'. Traditionally, it was dried outdoors by wind and sun, often on cliffs and bare rock-faces. Today, klippfisk is usually dried indoors with electric heaters, but in western and northern Norway fish is still dried outdoors, mainly for export to southern Europe. Newfoundland lacked the cold dry weather for stockfish and the plentiful salt for Portuguese-style salted fish, so they developed a hybrid approach of lightly salted fish dried in a milder climate. In Norway, this was first known as 'terranova fisk' (Newfoundland fish) but came to be known as klippfisk.

Reader's Guide

Salt cod formed a vital item of international commerce between the New World and the Old, forming one leg of the triangular trade. It spread around the Atlantic and became a traditional ingredient in Northern European, Mediterranean, West African, Caribbean, and Brazilian cuisines. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. Salting became economically feasible during the 17th century, when cheap salt from Southern Europe became available to Northern Europe. The method was cheap, and the work could be done by the fisherman or his family. The resulting product was easily transported to market, and salt cod became a staple in the diet of Catholic countries on 'meatless' Fridays and during Lent. Prior to the collapse of the Grand Banks stocks due to overfishing, salt cod was derived exclusively from Atlantic cod; since then, products sold as salt cod may be derived from other whitefish such as pollock, haddock, blue whiting, ling, and tusk. In Norway, grades ranged from superior extra (made only from line-caught cod, bled while alive, salted with dry salt, and dried twice) to popular. Salt cod is part of many European celebrations of the Christmas Vigil and the modern Italian-American Feast of the Seven Fishes.

Did You Know?

• Dried and salted cod has been produced for over 500 years in Newfoundland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.
• In Norway, the best grade of klippfisk, superior extra, is made only from line-caught cod that is bled while alive.
• Salt cod formed one leg of the triangular trade between the New World and the Old.
• The British developed a system of drying cod from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland during the summer, called 'habardine' or 'poor john'.