"Bob" wrote in message
oups.com...

Lars Johansson wrote:
In the Nordic countries (at least Sweden and Norway), we have a long
tradition of airdrying fish. Mostly white fish like cod. The fish is
gutted
and boned like Len describes but not salted. Is is held open and flat
with
sliver of wood and dried on wooden racks on the cliffs. (Nowadays
indoors.)
But is is not consumed dried. It is soaked in lye for several weeks,
then
rinsed many times and finally boiled.
Nowadays a Christmas dish, earlier a a part of the everyday diet.
Earlier
the dried fish was exported to the rest of Europe.
/Lars J

Hi Lars:

Thanks for the suggestions. H&G butterfly, skin on, tail on, pin in.
So it sounds like either salt or lye. What does the lye do? Kill
everything?Remove moisture? Clean your pipes?!?!

The drying is enough to preserve, the lye is not used until you are
preparing the fish, a few weeks before eating it. It is part of the
rehydration (is there such a word?) process. It is so effective that the
fish ends up about 3 time the original volume. After the lye you rinse the
fish many times before you boil it, so there is no lye taste, in fact, there
no taste at all. Imagine eating poorly set tasteless gelatine with boiled
potatoes and white tasteless gravy.
/Lars J