The stockfish of Norway

The terms "dried cod" and "stockfish" express only two different ways to treat the same fish, the codfish or "gadus morrhua", of the Gadidians family, osseus fish pertaning to the suborder of the Anacantinis, and these treatments are due to well defined environmental and climatic conditions for its preservation. The Gadidians family counts 140 species, grouped in 15 genders. Norway, Iceland, Groenland, the Baltic Sea and Newfoundland are extremely rich of this fish, because the sea waters in these lands are very cold and limpid; while the vulgar variety, the whiting, can be found in the Mediterranean Sea, but with different characteristics.


The one we are more interested in is the Gadus Morrhua of the Teleosteis order, brown or dark green coloured, with little yellow spots on the back and a white side band on all its body, and with a brownish abdomen, This fish can be up to 1-1,50 mts. long, and can reach the respectable weight of 50 kgs. The most practiced places for catching it are the Lofoten islands, on the Northern Coast of Norway, in the shores of which you can see thousands of fishing boats between the months of December and April. The fishing is accomplished with fish-hooks and fishing-nets. As lure, fishermen use calamaries or slices of other fish.

Once the codfish has been catched, and got rid of its head, fins, tail and interiors already on the fishing boat, it is immediately put into barrels, and generously covered with salt, that guarantees its draining and a long preservation. This is the "dried cod".

On the contrary, when it is dumped on the shore and brought to drain for months on wooden hurdles at a temperature near to 0°C, hence exposed to the cold atmosphere and the feeble sunrays of the Northern skies, you get the "stockfish", whose name derives from the german word "stock", meaning a staff (or cane) which shape and hardness it resembles.

Why do we have these two different way of treating the same fish? The reason why must be referred to the environmental conditions in the fishing seasons, in order to better preserve the fish. It is easy to understand that during the cold northern winters, when the codfish is catched, it is extremely prone to preservation by means of drying on the wooden hurdles because the temperature is cold enough to allow fishermen use this method.

In the summer, when the temperature is raised, and neverthless the fishing activity must go on, this method, for obvious reasons due to the deterioration of the codfish flesh, cannot be practiced and the solution is in the salt + barrels method. The codfish is opened, cleaned, generously salted inside of the barrels already prepared onboard the fishing boats.