![]() ![]() Stockfish is a staple of Nigerian cuisine. In the 16th century Russian and Swedish stockfish were sold to many European countries. In Russian cuisine dried stockfish is a very popular dish which is often eaten with vodka and beer. (Stockfish is called stoccafisso in most Italian dialects, but confusingly baccalà-which normally refers to salt cod-in the Veneto). Stockfish is extremely popular and is widely consumed in Catholic Mediterranean countries, mostly in Portugal and Italy. Preserved cod fed Iceland for centuries, to the extent that it has been described as a local equivalent of bread. This product accounted for most of Norway's trade income from the Viking Age throughout the Medieval period. Stockfish is first mentioned as a commodity in the 13th-century Icelandic prose work Egil's Saga, where chieftain Thorolf Kveldulfsson, in the year 875 AD, ships stockfish from Helgeland in mid-Norway to Britain. Stockfish is Norway's longest sustained export commodity. This etymology is consistent with the fact that "Stockmaß" is German for the height of a horse at the withers. "Stock" may also refer to a wooden yoke or harness on a horse or mule, once used to carry large fish from the sea or after drying/smoking for trade in nearby villages. The word stockfish is a loan word from West Frisian stokfisk (stick fish), possibly referring to the wooden racks on which stockfish are traditionally dried or because the dried fish resembles a stick. Stockfish warehouse in the village of Forsøl, Norway In English legal records of the Medieval period, (written in Latin), stock fishmongers are differentiated from ordinary fishmongers when the occupation of a plaintiff or defendant is recorded. Stockfish is cured in a process called fermentation where cold-adapted bacteria matures the fish, similar to the maturing process of cheese. Salting was not economically feasible until the 17th century, when cheap salt from southern Europe became available to the maritime nations of northern Europe. The stockfish (fresh dried, not salted) category is often mistaken for the clipfish, or salted cod, category where the fish is salted before drying. Over the centuries, several variants of dried fish have evolved. The method is cheap and effective in suitable climates the work can be done by the fisherman and family, and the resulting product is easily transported to market. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks (which are called "hjell" in Norway) on the foreshore. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |