Smoked, Dried and Salted Fish

Smoking, drying and salting are early methods of preserving fish that we still use. Each has survived because of the particular flavour it gives to food. Smoking only preserves for a limited period but it must have been realized early on what wonderful results it can have on fish. Fish is either hot smoked, which lightly cooks the fish as well as flavouring it, or cold smoked, which leaves the fish raw as with smoked salmon (which is salted before smoking). Hot smoked fish include mackerel, trout and eel. As a rule look for plump, pale-coloured fish.