Dried and salted cod, Stockfish

, often called salt cod or clipfish (klippfisk in Norwegian, see also other names), is cod which has been preserved by drying after salting. Cod which has been dried without the addition of salt is called stockfish.With the sharp decline in the world stocks of cod due to overfishing, other white fish are often used instead. Sometimes these other species are labeled as such, and sometimes still misleadingly called "salt cod", so the term has become to some extent a generic name.

Dried and salted cod has been produced in Canada, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Norway and Portugal for over 500 years. It forms a traditional ingredient of the cuisine of many countries around the Atlantic. Traditionally it was dried outdoors by the wind and sun, but today it is usually dried indoors with the aid of electric heaters.The fish is beheaded and eviscerated, often on board the boat or ship. (This is feasible with whitefish, whereas it would not be with oily fish.) It is then salted and dried ashore. Traditionally the fish was sun-dried on rocks or wooden frames, but today it is mainly dried indoors by electrical heating. It is sold whole or in portions, with or without bones.

Morue for sale at a Nice market

 Species of fish

Traditionally salt cod was made exclusively of cod. After the collapse of the Grand Banks (and other) cod stocks due to overfishing, some products sold as salt cod are in fact other whitefish, such as pollock, haddock, blue whiting, ling and tusk.

 Quality grades

In Norway, there used to be five different grades of salt cod. The best grade was called superior extra. Then came (in descending order) superior, imperial, universal and popular. These appellations are no longer extensively used, although some producers still make the superior products.The best klippfisk, the superior extra, is made only from line-caught cod. The fish is always of the skrei, the cod that once a year is caught during spawning. The fish is bled while alive, before the head is cut off. It is then cleaned, filleted and salted. Fishers and connoisseurs alike place a high importance in the fact that the fish is line-caught, because if caught in a net, the fish may be dead before caught, which may result in bruising of the fillets. For the same reason it is believed to be important that the klippfisk be bled while still alive. Superior klippfisk is salted fresh, whereas the cheaper grades of klippfisk might be frozen first. Lower grades are salted by injecting a salt-water solution into the fish, while superior grades are salted with dry salt. The superior extra is dried twice, much like Parma ham. Between the two drying sessions, the fish rests and the flavour matures.

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