Home › The Principles of Cookery › Stock-Fish

Stock-Fish

This is the commercial term used to denote salted and dried cod and other fish of the same family, particularly hake, ling, and torsk. The fish is cured as soon as possible after being caught. It is first split up from head to tail, and thoroughly cleaned by plentiful washings with salt water; a piece of the backbone is then cut away, and after the superfluous water has been drained off, the fish are laid in long vats, covered with salt, and kept down by means of heavy weights. After a time they are taken out, washed and brushed, and laid out, exposed to the action of sun and air, on rocks or on a sandy beach. They are afterwards piled up into little heaps, and when they have acquired a fine whitish appearance, known as the bloom, they are considered ready for the market. The quantity of stock-fish cured on the southern coasts of Britain is inconsiderable, but it is otherwise in the north. The cod, ling, and hake fisheries of Scotland rank next in importance to its herring fishery.