Subject: Re: Drying Fish

From: [email-masked] (John E. Taylor III)
Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 08:00:50 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>, Big Jerry
<[email-masked]> wrote:

> How did ancient people dry their fish?  The books I have read,
> recommend (when in humid zones), bringing the fish indoors after
> the sun goes down.  It just seems to me, that would not have been
> a very practical suggestion for some older civilizations.

I've seen several photographs of modern fish-drying racks in native
villages along the British Columbia and Alaska coasts, so they still dry it
pretty much the same way it's always been done.  Salt it, put it on the
rack where it gets good air flow around it, and wait.

The suggestion about bringing it indoors at night is to avoid dew forming
on it, which can cause local putrification in spots where the salt is
diluted enough for bacteria to grow.  Dew doesn't form where the breeze is
strong, and it won't form under some sort of cover (where it can't radiate
into the night sky, causing the cooling that forms the dew).  My guess is
that folks in places where the humidity is high enough to form dew would
rig some sort of cover--animal skins, thatch or whatever was handy, and put
that over the fish (or meat, for that matter--same process) when the sun
went down.  You still have to leave some space for air circulation under
the cover.

--
John Taylor    (W3ZID)      |  "The opinions expressed are those of the
e-mail: [email-masked] |   writer and not of Rohm and Haas Company."

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 18:24:19 GMT

>rack where it gets good air flow around it, and wait.

Native American Indians used to split the fish and hang it on a rack over a 
low, smoky fire which was kept burning for a couple of days.  The combination 
of low ambient humidity and mildly elevated temperature created "fish jerky".  
I believe that it was also salted.

Seems to me Ellsworth Jaeger's "Wildwood Wisdom" addresses this method...I 
have to go and look again.

The Elitist

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From: [email-masked] (Ray Goddard)
Date: 14 May 1995 01:31:55 GMT

Re drying fish :-
An interesting source for you :-
Traditional Life in Shetland, James R. Nicolson, Robert Hale, London.
A few snippets :- 
 
Meat was dried in a 'skeo' a rough stone house with plenty ventilation, 
these were also used for drying fish.  
In the early part of 19 century  dried unsalted fish was known as blawn 
fish - practice ceased with abandonment of skeos later in the century 
partly I believe due to the greater availabilityu of salt. Partly dried 
unsalted fish remained popular. Skate was  hung up on  the house gable 
untill partly dried, this was considered a delicacy in spite of a strong 
smell of ammonia when eating it. 
Cod heads dried on the house wall formed staple diet of poorer people in 
the main cod season. 
Some species were heaped in the open - a process called 'soornin'. 
Whitings lightly salted and partially sun dried were called  'sookit'  
whitings. 
Regards..... I wear red socks.