Stockfish is fish which has been beheaded and
gutted and left to air dry in near-freezing temperatures. It's essentially
freeze-dried fish. It will keep for up to two years without refrigeration. The
usual fish is cod, most classically cod caught off the Lofoten Islands. There
was a resounding North to South trade in stockfish during the Middle Ages, as a
staple as well as a meat-substitute for Lent.
An article in the current issue of Natural History
reminded me of this. I had completely forgotten the necessity for the freezing
temperatures necessary to process the fish and I wondered how it kept. In the
Lofoten Islands, stockfish caught and processed in January.
The various articles here are fascinating, and in
their way, on topic to this group. The article about the '3,000' year old
cave-paintings are certainly interesting. The Lofoten fisheries have been
exploited for a very long time indeed. I've mentioned before an article
I've read where Corded Ware sites are recorded up the coast of Norway, past the
Arctic Circle, practically to the North Cape, and that this detail is rarely
mentioned in the usual literature.
One question I have which remains unanswered is
just how far back the processing of stockfish goes. I also wonder if it was
practiced with fresh water fish, specifically, with the fish found in the
multitude of Swedish lakes. Certainly, one can fish in freezing temperatures,
even when the body of water is frozen over (you cut a hole in the ice). I also
have questions about just how long smoked fish can be kept; apparently, this
requires salt, or at least, concentrated brine.
There are all sorts of implications here for the
origin of Germanic.
Mark.