Wooden racks on the foreshore for drying cod fish in winter. Reine fishing village, Lofoten islands.

Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks - is called hjell in Norway - on the foreshore. The drying of food is the world`s oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. 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. Cod is the most common fish used in stockfish production. Over the centuries, several variants of dried fish have evolved. The stockfish fresh dried, not salted category is often wrongly mixed with the clipfish, or salted cod, category where the fish is salted before drying. After 3 weeks in salt the fish has salt-matured, and is transformed from wet salted fish to clipfish through a drying process. The salted fish was earlier dried on rocks clips on the foreshore. Lofoten Island, Norway.

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