Preserving fish

There are various ways of preserving fish dating back thousands of years to when fish was first traded for other commodities. Suitable fish were air-dried and others salted. Salt itself was expensive, so salted fish carried a high premium and was regarded as a luxury. Salt is now cheap and you can easily salt your own fish at home. Simply layer up some trimmed and boned fillets of white fish, like cod, haddock, hake, etc., with lots of coarse salt in a non-reactive container. You don’t even need to go to the expense of using sea salt, as any coarse kitchen salt will work equally well. The salted fish will keep for several weeks in a cool place if you regularly drain off any liquid that comes out of the fish. It then needs soaking in several changes of water to remove the salt before cooking.