Air-dried stockfish of Lofoten
Pescado seco al aire (stockfish) de Lofoten
- Date
- c. 1000 · confidence low
- Place
- Lofoten Islands, Nordland, Norway
- Credited to
- Fishermen of northern Norway
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Cod split and dried in the cold wind on wooden racks until hard as a board. It keeps for years and was the basis of Hanseatic trade out of Bergen.
The date is approximate: sagas allude to dried fish in Viking times and its systematic export from Bergen is documented from the 12th century.
What it led to
- trade of dried fish to Italy, Spain and the Baltic
- Lent and fasting fish in Catholic Europe
- salted and dried cod of the 15th-17th centuries
Built on
- Smoking and drying of food