Salted fish, such as kippered herring or

dried and salted cod Dried and salted cod, sometimes referred to as salt cod or saltfish or salt dolly, is cod which has been preserved by drying after salting. Cod which has been dried without the addition of salt is stockfish. Salt cod was long a major export ...

, is fish cured with dry

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

and thus preserved for later eating.

Drying Drying is a mass transfer process consisting of the removal of water or another solvent by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid. This process is often used as a final production step before selling or packaging products. To be consider ...

or salting, either with dry salt or with brine, was the only widely available method of preserving fish until the 19th century.

Dried fish Fresh fish rapidly deteriorates unless some way can be found to preserve it. Drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of microorganisms. Open air drying using sun and wind has b ...

and salted fish (or fish both dried and salted) are a staple of diets in the Caribbean,

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

Southern China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

, parts of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

including Newfoundland, coastal

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, and in the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

. Like other salt-cured meats, it provides preserved animal protein even in the absence of

refrigeration The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...

Method

Salting is the

preservation of food Food preservation includes processes that make food more resistant to microorganism growth and slow the oxidation of fats. This slows down the decomposition and rancidification process. Food preservation may also include processes that inhibit ...

with dry

edible salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantit ...

."Historical Origins of Food Preservation."University of Georgia, National Center for Home Food Preservation
Accessed Mat 2012. It is related to

pickling Pickling is the process of preserving or extending the shelf life of food by either anaerobic fermentation in brine or immersion in vinegar. The pickling procedure typically affects the food's texture and flavor. The resulting food is cal ...

(preparing food with brine, i.e. salty water), and is one of the oldest methods of preserving food. Salt inhibits the growth of

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

s by drawing water out of microbial cells through osmosis. Concentrations of salt up to 20% are required to kill most species of unwanted bacterium, bacteria. Smoking (food), Smoking, often used in the process of curing meat, adds chemicals to the surface of meat that reduce the concentration of salt required. Salting is used because most bacteria, fungi and other potentially pathogenic organisms cannot survive in a highly salty environment, due to the Tonicity, hypertonic nature of salt. Any living cell in such an environment will become dehydrated through osmosis and die or become temporarily inactivated. The water activity, a_w, in a fish is defined as the ratio of the water vapour pressure in the flesh of the fish to the vapour pressure of pure water at the same temperature and pressure. It ranges between 0 and 1, and is a parameter that measures how available the water is in the flesh of the fish. Available water is necessary for the microbial and enzymatic reactions involved in spoilage. There are a number of techniques that have been or are used to tie up the available water or remove it by reducing the a_w. Traditionally, techniques such as Stockfish, drying, Salt-cured meat, salting and Smoked fish, smoking have been used, and have been used for thousands of years. In more recent times, freeze-drying, water binding humectants, and fully automated equipment with temperature and humidity control have been added. Often a combination of these techniques is used.FAO
Preservation techniques
Fisheries and aquaculture department, Rome. Updated 27 May 2005.

Gallery

File:Carlb-nfld-codflakes.jpg, Platforms, called fish flakes, where cod dry in the sun before being packed in salt File:Usines de Salaison I Neapolis.JPG, Remains of Roman fish-salting plant at Nabeul, Neapolis File:Malpe(24-1-08).JPG, Drying salted fish at Malpe, Malpe Harbour File:Salt fish dip 070826-292 mank.jpg, Salt fish dip at Jakarta File:Port Eynon - The Salt House - geograph.org.uk - 868752.jpg, Ruins of the Port Eynon Salt House – seawater was boiled to extract salt for preserving fish File:Egyptian fishery3.jpg, Ancient Egypt, Egyptians bringing in fish and splitting them for salting File:A salt fish in the market.jpg, Salted dried butterfishes in Chinese Food Store at Yuen Long, Hong Kong File:Fish in salt crust-01.jpg, Fish in a salt crust File:Fish cellars at Church Cove - geograph.org.uk - 824054.jpg, Fish cellars at Church Cove, England, used for pressing salted pilchards into barrels for storage and export to the continent File:Koserower Salzhütten 001.jpg, Salt cabin, a small building where fish is salted, in Koserow, Germany File:Dried Fish - ଶୁଖୁଆ.jpg, Dried Fish in a market of Odisha

Notes

References

* Schwartz, RK (2004
"All roads lead to Rome: Roman food production in North Africa"
''Repast'', 20 (4) : 5–6 and 8–9. {{Authority control Food preservation Salted foods

Method

Gallery

See also

Notes

References