stockfish the name for cod and related fish which have been simply dried (as opposed to being salted and dried) until their moisture content has been reduced to around 15 per cent, when they are stiff as a board and will keep well. Some say that ‘stockfish’ means ‘stick-like fish’—though others say that the name was given because it is necessary to beat the product with a stick to help soften it up, and yet others think that the name refers to the poles or sticks on which the fish were hung to dry.
