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Around 70 per cent of the water in stockfish is lost during drying and some of this has to be returned before it can be used in food preparation.
Stockfish is rehydrated by soaking in cold water, the water being changed every day. The fish, once soaked, should be treated as if it were fresh and therefore be stored at five degrees C or lower.
Split fish
The fish we present in this book is round fish. A second type called ‘rotskjært’ or filleted stockfish is produced in much smaller volumes. This fish is split in two along the spine, which is removed, the two separated fillets being hung together on the rack. The head is removed from both types.
Round fish and fillets
Round fish is soaked for five to seven days, depending on size, fillets taking about half as long.
Peel off the skin and remove all bones before use. All recipes presented here are based on soaked stockfish from which skin and bones have been removed.
Original text: from Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (eds.): TØRRFISK kysktultur kokekunst Querini Orkana 2018.
Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown
Photos:
From the stockfish festival in Acerra, just to the east of Napoli. Stockfish filets being soaked ready for use. Photo from Arne Johansen
Filetting of soaked stockfish. Photo: Kjell Ove Storvik
In Italy they soak large pieces of fish, different soakers having different ways of soaking. The soaking tub of a stockfish soaker in Genova and soaking of fish in Napoli. Photos from Gian Paolo Orlandi