@@Astrix_Jaeger hehhehh hehhe that man was Also From Indiana, well born and raised in Gary anyway as for the fish hmm well sounds like a novel way to freeze dry it our ancestors were more knowledgeable then is let on, but for most this knowledge is lost, also though I have seen people beat sinuw for makeing archery things much like John did with this fish. though this still dont seem as bad as pickled herrine called strustruming or something like that, they say it is one of the smellyest foods in the world.
Its actually named stockfish because the engine was "produced in Norway and cooked in Italy" refering to the original creator of glanurung being Norwegian and Stockfish being a further development from glanurung being created by an italian.
when i used to live on a island with our summerhome. i used to get some pieces of sundried pike pieces wich i loved. problem is dunno how to make it myself. it more or less looks just like that fish but without skin or head
@@GamesFromSpace Salt was very important. They probably didn't have pepper, but they would have some spices around. Salt was important for preservation reasons. Stock fish was popular because it wasn't salt cured, it would give them a break from overly salty everything.
0:40 Cod Drying Racks. Fantastic dual-purpose device.. On one end, it dries your fish On the other end, and for several miles downwind, it forms an impenetrable barrier of stench. Great for warding off invaders, killing vermin in the fields, and *great* motivation for dieters.
I can only imagine what it's like dating in those Norwegian villages. No need for perfume, everyone and everything smells like stockfish. It's like a curse and a blessing at the same time.
The pieces of bone and skin and all the other bits that get chewed on and spat out are called "chankings". They were a much more common experience in dining during that time period, particularly among those that could not afford to waste food. Olive pits, sunflower seed hulls, gristle, all chankin's.
If pirates attacked, I wonder if the sailors would beat them back by wielding stockfish as clubs. _"No! Come back & fight us for longer! We still have to pound this for hours before we can eat it."_
Before the Attack: Pirate Crewman: Captain, We be low on weapons Pirate Captain: Aye. Use the "thing" Both ships begin an all out brawl with their stockfish clubs.
Mr. Townsend, your channel is a breathe of fresh air for someone like me who wants to temporarily forget of all the negative things that's going on in today's world. Thank you.
The world is safer and less people live in poverty than ever before, also we live longer than ever. The modern world is amazing not depressing as the media pounds into you. News is just easy to get now so people think the world is terrible. It's not.
This is the safest, most peaceful and most prosperous time to be alive. I too am a big fan of this channel and have been a supporter for over a year. However there were plenty of negative things about living and dying in the 18th century. Try to focus on the positives and don't watch too much "news". Cheers!
@@Trainy2 Simpler only in retrospect, for the people at the time the future didnt seem safe and known as it does for us when we reach into the past. Life has always been the same, but you should really appreciate the luxuries of our modern times, like clean drinking water, modern medicine, electricity and so on.
The cook was a skilled position, they were not required to take watches etc but the duty was hot and miserable. A good and resourceful cook was near indispensable to keep up morale, but a poor one brought misery and conflict.
I was 7 years old. We had a family farm where me, my siblings and our parents used to spend our summer holidays. Every night, after dinner, we would sit outside of our farmhouse and my granny used to tell us the most amazing stories. We would all lay there, listening to our granny's stories; relaxed and amazed at the same time I used to feel so comfy, safe and happy, that I used look forward to going their. That was the highlight of my year. The summer holidays. My granny passed away last year. All year, we didn't get to see our granny and grandpa that much. So whatever memories I have of them are from these summer holidays.. And I dont know why, but anytime I watch one of your videos, I remember those carefree childhood days and I feel nostalgic and comfy at the same time. It almost feels like my granny is still here, and her stories too. Thank you very much for making these videos. They are very very valuable. God Bless You! :-)
It's important to remember: This is just the food that sailors ate, because not much else could survive months without refrigeration. In towns and villages, where food was much fresher, they ate pretty much the same stuff that we do, just a bit less varied - only the stuff that grows locally.
@@runninggames771 you're thinking of lutefisk, also a Norwegian fish dish that's often served at Christmas and delicious (although not everyone agrees lol.) Stockfish is just dried, it's the total opposite of decomposed/rotten. You could hang that stockfish up in a root cellar and it would still be edible 200 years later.
@@priestesslucy3299 Is Lutfisk a learn to love kind of thing? Because any food that you have to open underwater sounds a little too much like it was just born out of necessity and doesn't really have any benefits.
I love how there was a weekly schedule for a lot of sailor foods. Today we have Taco Tuesday, in the 18th century they had Burgoo Thursday and Stockfish Friday.
Half the reason fish was a Friday thing is because it was a Christian thing. Instead of enjoying the flesh and blood of animals on Friday, a lot of people were taught to give up meat for the sake of remembering the crucified flesh and blood of God. Nowadays it's pretty much only done for 7 weeks out of the year by some Christians.
@@badgerlordpatrick6493 Still done on Fridays year round by Roman Catholics :) If I'm not mistaken that's why the Filet-o-fish at McDonald's exists. A franchise owner noticed that the town's Catholic residents wouldn't come in on Fridays because basically everything on the menu had land animal meat. But fish is exempt from the fast, so making a new fish sandwitch was the answer!
@@cypherusuh That is exactly what makes this therapeutic. It makes you think about a different time, before things got so complicated... I would give all this technology up, to be able to live in a simpler time. Where people had to work together to survive, unlike today, where people "troll" each other for "fun."
Here in Newfoundland "salt cod" was split, deboned, spread flat on "fish flakes" or rocky beaches, heavily salted, and allowed to dry. The fish was flat and the main bones had been removed, so it was much easier to work with. It was soaked overnight before preparation. For hundreds of years salt cod was the mainstay of our economy, and it is still a traditional meal enjoyed by many. One of our closest trading partners for those hundreds of years was New England. Many folks in Newfoundland still have a great affection for the "Boston states," and have family members who immigrated there. I absolutely love your show, Jason. Keep up the tremendous work!
Frank Dawe Coincidentally salted cod was also traded with the British colonies in the Caribbean and Ackee and Saltfish (made with Newfoundland cod) is actually the national dish of Jamaica.
Salt cod is the closest you get to the national ingredient of Portugal. I won't say "dish" because we say there's 365 recipes, one for every day of the year.
@@0NicoLoco0 I remember seeing a video about this, and they said that every time Norway thinks they've opened up a new small market for stockfish, it turns out there's an emerging population of Nigerian migrants there. :P
In Genoa, northern Italy, stockfish with potatoes (stoccafisso) is still a common meal, enjoyed mainly during holidays. It was imported back in medieval ages, when Genoa was a huge trade center, and used to trade with Northern Europe
Here in North Italy the Stockfish (called Stocafisso in italian, Baccalà in local language) is considered a delicacy today, while was a poor food in the past, expecially in the areas that were under Venice Republic in the past. I don't remember the story, but the use of dried Stockfish was imported by a guy who travelled in North Europe. Personally, i love it, both "in rosso" (with tomato) and "alla vicentina" (more creamy, without tomato). My grandmother told me and old saying about the baccalà: "it must be beaten by a mad man and seasoned by a blind one".
Dried, salted codfish is very common here in Portugal, is a very typical food that dates from the maritime expeditions. We usually just let it on water from night to day and its ready to go.
I was also thinking about that (bacalao creole). I've had it as a stew (with tomatoes, peppers, sherry, and onion) and salt cod fritters with spicy mayo. You couldn't imagine anything more delicious.
@@KoriEmerson Yep , but before its bacalao its called Klippfisk . Its salted cod dried on the rocks of the shore . every night someone had to go the round to turn it over for monts at end. Greetings from Kristiansund ⚓
I’m from Norway, and I love stockfish! To me, the best way to eat this is as a snack. Don’t boil or do anything with it except from beating it soft enough to chew it. Then you eat it with cold butter and beer!!!
My god yes! British but grew up in Trondheim. Would buy stockfish from the fishhall on the docks and eat it like this (just without the beer, i was only a tween!), many happy memories.
As a reanactor that is always looking for new and exciting ways to prepare the meals that they would have ate in the way they had cooked them i am so glad to have found this channel and that you recommend the books you get them.
The smell is actually not that bad, LOL. For instance, Nigeria and other West African Countries are the largest importers of stockfish, as it is a staple of several stews and African dishes. It gives a nice sweet and savory complex taste to the dish.
@@msiledrama in another thread here, a Norwegian was telling me that actual stockfish from North Norway doesn't smell so bad and is higher quality than what Jon has there, so I'll take your word for it, too. Incidentally, after mentioning that I want to try it, another person said to try finding an African market to buy some. As they say: you learn something new every day. And, today, I learned quite a bit about stockfish. Thanks for your comment!
Norwegian here Norwegian stock fish (Nord-Norsk tørrfisk) honestly doesn't smell bad at all. It smells kinda like leather, and salt sea water :-) I don't even LIKE white fish much, but I do when it's dried :-) Try the Portuguese dish Bacalao ! really really good !
@@TonyisToking thanks, but I suppose I should give some full disclosure and admit that I had never heard of stockfish until watching this video, so all I had to go on was what Jon said here. But, very true about those aversions. And, the more people here told me about stockfish, the more I want to try it
@@RegulareoldNorseBoy that actually doesn't sound bad at all. More appealing, in fact. I've never been much for fish in general, but lately have been finding more that I like and this sounds right up my alley. Unfortunately, not much of a Norwegian or Scandinavian presence where I live (which sucks because I really like the cultures), but I'll definitely keep that dish in mind. Thanks!
Also important to understand how it helped Vikings without them even realizing it. It was their main source of Vitamin D, due lack of UVB rays which is essential for human growth.
They ate alot of different fishes, some dried like this, others pickled or salted. They ate a ton of herring, not to mention fresh or salted meats like mutton. They were also big cheese and butter eaters, even using a special heavily salted butter that would last for months on board a ship.
Actually salmon, trout, and mackerel have a lot more D (herring has some too). You don't get much D from cod unless you eat the liver. But I'm sure Scandinavians have been benefitting from smoked salmon and pickled herring for millenia.
@@christianroselund1441 And I would imagine they figured out cod liver oil stored in earthenware jars at some point in their early history as all those gutted fish meant a lot of livers to process into oil that could be preserved. You see something very similar in Korea and Japan with dried pollack and squid, or various people's smoking salmon for preservation.
Stockfisk - the first norwegian gold - older than the Vikings. Still important for norwegian fish industry today. But, we do not beat the stockfish before soaking. Grilled stockfish is a real delicatesse, but most often it is beaten and eaten raw. Goes really well with beer, stockfish. In northern Norway - boiled half dried soaked stockfish is most common (Boknafisk). Luxury food. Personally I like the icelandic way. Dried salted Haddoc raw. There are simply no other snack that complements beer like dried salted Haddoc. Great channel, btw. Cheers from us who discovered America.
check out what we in croatia do with it. afaik, it is the only country besides nigeria and italy that imports norwegian stockfish in significant quanities. we soak it for 5-6 days, then use the flesh to either make a stew with potatoes, or grind it into a spread with olive oil. both are delicious. i sugest you try.
@@limerot That's interesting! Here in asia we have dried fish as well but we fry them and add them to dishes. We also have dried cuttlefish/squid that we shred and eat as a snack.
Stock fish was a special dish for me growing up. Southern Italian cooking used tomato and other herbs to create a casserole for Christmas Eve. Very special
Growing up, this was our Swedish/American version of lutefisk. We bought salted/dried cod that you can still buy in wooden boxes and my mom would soak/rinse it for a long time then cook it in a milk gravy and pour it over smashed potatoes. No hammer needed. We still love it!
In my family we eat lutfisk twice a year, always at christmas as a tradition, but also once when we get cravings for it because it's just so good. Always soak them as well, never beaten them.
I bet you Steve would somehow find and buy and old 18th century ration and that’s how their video will be made, with Steve eating the ration while Townsend explains how it was made
I'm from Ukraine and we have a history of drying fish but we salt it extensively and the salt is very very much necessary for this as it makes it taste really good and no one I know would think about making it without salt because it would be bland -we call it taranka and it is essentially fish jerky and on that point it makes about as much sense to make jerkey without salting it as it does here to make the stockfish which is what the taranka is as it is air dried as well.
Stockfish is the most delicious eaten raw. It's an amazing snack. My grand uncle, when he was alive, would make his own stock fish every year, that us kids would eat as a snack. Having those "freshly ripped off" pieces of stockfish is especially delicious and an experience extremely few people get to enjoy, and I haven't had that pleasure for many years now.
@@kylegilmore3810 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IRdeWwZ9hD0.html This one looked very different, especially the fats Wow you must be very fun at parties
@@terramerc733 Well, for one - steak isn't fish. "especially the fats". Oh yeah, can't forget about the big strips of fat on that fish. For two, NONE of this looks any different and it's all been freeze dried ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9183p7iJ5E0.html s-so scary
@@terramerc733 You have very poor reading comprehension Terra. Take moisture out, put it back in, it looks how it did when it had moisture originally. You say it doesn't, and give steak as an example, as if that what you based your original observation on and were surprised at how the fish turned out. Well beef fat is hardly fish meat, and then I linked a video with an entire freeze dried meal that looks just like how it did originally once moisture was returned to it.
Before soaking it looks and feels like a piece of wood. I don't beat mine, just soak them overnight in cold water and in the morning they're good to go.
Reminds me of my childhood, where we got dried cod and had it soak for days just to make Lutefisk for Xmas. Only difference was that it was also lye cured.
A little butter, onions, and cream (and maybe a touch of brandy) and you'd probably be off to a pretty decent bisque (although I doubt cream would be found aboard ship). Looks yummy! 👍
Even into the next century. It took half a century after the invention of canned food before the can opener was invented - in the meantime, you had to grab a hammer and chisel.
I came here to say exactly this. Once you get a bit of something that makes you sick, you don't want to eat it again, even if that first one was just a rare bad one.
Maybe the writer of the journal didn’t really like fish in the first place. I thought it plumped pretty nicely, and even had an almost fresh appearance. As a preservation technique it looked better than canned. As one who likes to takes freeze dried and dehydrated ingredients on camping trips that don’t require me the take along an ice chest, I think stock fish would be interesting to try. Keep the videos coming.
It could also be that the provisioner for the ship pocketed part of the money for supplies and bought lower quality provisions, some of which were spoiled.
We use it dry as a proteinrich snack, in Norway. Perfect for hiking. Cut or tear off a piece of the meaty part. Beat it soft with a stone or a hammer, and eat it like you would beef jerky. Quite tasteless at first, then it grows on you, and it is very addictive. Round stockfisk is best for dishes. It is made in the northern parts, where the climate is colder, from the Lofoten islands and north. Split in half is easier to handle when consummated dry.
Could possibly have been spoiled. Keeping dried foods dry onboard a ship before they were needed was hard. The barrels they would have been packed in when not really waterproof.
Fascinating videos, as always. Having sailed some of the seven seas in the USN, I'm am amazed at the privations that sailors (and passengers) of yore endured to travel to another country. If seas sickness, bad weather, scurvy or some accident didn't cripple or kill you, foreign pirates could (and would). Being propelled by wind meant that the ship was at the mercy of Mother Nature 24/7!-John in Texas
So here's some eggs and coffee, but you know what would be amazing to go along with it? Nutmeg! Because nutmeg apparently not only adds flavour, it also numbs your tongue.
lol....when I was a kid I was always in trouble for getting my moms spice rack, over the course of a yr I would totally decimate her Nutmeg, just pour it in my hand and eat it straight outa the jar a couple times a month, and when she needed it it wasn't there...lol
@@denofearthundertheeverlast5138 Worth noting, just in case you were curious and didn't already know, that in high enough quantities nutmeg is a hallucinogen, so you ran a very real risk as a kid of giving yourself an unexpected trip doing that in quantity. :P
I would have to cast my vote with Nicholas. If one doesn’t like fish, one is more sensitive to its smell. About the only fish I can tolerate is COOKED tuna. My daddy used to catch 25 lbs salmon from Lake Michigan. I usually did not eat it except during the 1978 blizzard. My mother had taken a salmon out of the freezer for my dad to eat that evening. The blizzard came, dad was stuck at work. Mom & I were at home. The blizzard struck the day before they shopped for groceries. In those days people usually didn’t store too much food, well, my folks didn’t. Mom & I both disliked fish. We were stuck with fairly bare cupboards. I started digging through the big freezer. There wasn’t much of a selection. Luckily there had been an extra turkey from Thanksgiving & I was thankful for it. We cooked &nate that turkey for a week. From then on, mom kept a "blizzard turkey " in the freezer every winter. I grew up to & became semi prepper (2-3 months) into a canning, dehydrating full blown prepper (1 yr or more). I only freeze small amounts because, hey, you might loose power! I’m sorry to digress. All this from a fish dislike! This is why many of your viewers are interested in how the 18th century people preserved food. From watching your videos, I’ve gained more insight on how to survive WTSHTF. I’ve purchased a wide array cast iron cookware, including 2 dutch ovens. This summer I will learn to cook over a fire/coals in cast iron. I have a feeling many of your viewers are preppers. Thank you for being such a great teacher. If you’re in dire straits when the WTSHTF, come & find me in South Bend. You can find my address in your customer list. I’ve bought many of your books. But, I digress again. Thank you TeamTowwnsends.
Thank you for putting Norway on the map! We're proud of our fish, and while most people probably don't eat stockfish often, it's legacy is still alive and well. Perhaps the most popular variants are "Lutefisk" for Christmas, and "Bacalao", a sort of Portuguese fusion food from the Age of Sail and trading on the sea was all the rage in Europe.
When it is soaked like that, then we in North Norway call it " bokna fisk" we also just pound it with a hammer and eat the fish fibers direct with lots of cold butter...
North Raven: Have you tried raw bacon instead of cold butter? My daring swashbuckling cousin came up with that idea - well, with Greenlandic stock fish, but still.
Dried salted fish is a delicacy here in southern China, just immerse it in cooking oil, add some ginger or leeks, cook it with steam, and serve with rice. A typical fisherman's meal.
It's a common thing in the Phillipines... This video reminded me of one of my favorites back in the day. Lived there in Asia half my life and these dried fishes are emergency foods during typhoon season. Goes well with mixed vegetable soup, piping hot white rice, fried rice, or just by itself. We don't really eat potatoes with fish. It's like fish jerky. Not just fish are dried this way. Also squid, calamari, octupus, and shrimp. Also shark meat and stingray meat can be prepared this way. It can also be deep fried and becomes a crunchy treat. It can be chopped up into bite sized pieces and mixed with our favorite tropical vegetable soups. There's a whole variety of dishes dried fish can go with to add more flavor and I really love eating these foods when the weather gets all rainy. I call them rainy day comfort foods. And also, the fishy stinky smell of dried fish is actually fragrant to us. It is appetizing to us. It's an acquired taste. Goes well with spicy hot chili pepper infused vinegar or even just the common Tabasco sauce as a dip. Perfect combination. ☔. 😻 🇵🇭
Deep fried dried fish are the best, at least in my opinion. We eat them all the time with white rice, dhal curry and coconut sambal. Simple, relatively cheap and absolutely delicious.
Are pressure cookers common there? That fish looks like it'd really benefit from some pressure to speed up the whole soaking and cooking thing without the hammer.
@@krislaracoelho8643 They are not terrible common in private households, and to my knowledge no recipe have ever put them to use when cooking stockfish. When folks prepare meals from stockfish at home, they usually take pride in doing it the old fashion way, which usually means soaking it (the hammer technique is unknown to me), before cooking it.
@@GinSoakedBoy well, that's definitely a nice tradition! That said, I'd be willing to experiment with some pressure cooking if I got my hands on stockfish...
I have always been a great fan of your channel, and have always been satisfied with my purchases from you wonderful company. Thank you for preserving our American history.
Eaten dry it makes for a delicious Saturday snack that you can wash down with cold beer. It knocks the socks off any crisps, also the dried cod will put lead in your pencil and give you that overwhelming urge to go pillaging in England.
As a Norwegian , dried fish , preserved food etc is normal to me. It’s called tørrfisk. Just means dry fish . Haha love your show ! It’s a nice little snack, and my dog loves it too!
Hi John, My parents are from Spain and there you can buy Cod salt cured. I remember my grandmother soaking it for 2 days, one to softened it and two to help remove most of the salt. She would prepare it with eggplant like a stew with tomato sauce and served over white rice. Man I can smell it. Lol. Thank you for sharing.
growing up in newfoundland i've had a lot of dried cod in my life and i've never seen them preserved like that, in that shape with the bones still in. but also don't beat the devil out of it before we cook it either
We had a similar kind of drying of sea food here in the philippines and it smells so bad but when you taste it, it’s amazing and you would look for rice and spicy vinegar.
Lol western culture hasn't lost their cuisine culture at all, western culture isn't made up solely of america and Britain where they have alot of heavily processed foods
@@Gameprojordan The Anglosphere is probably most notable but it's flat out wrong to say that the West hasn't headed down the same path. You'll find many Italian recipes, etc, have fallen out of favour and the younger generations are turning to processed crap.
love your channel however i realized a part of me is still 14, when you showed the presoaked stock fish and said " I pounded this one last night" that little part of me giggled abit, ive been wanting to try this fish forever
Uh, that's low grade stockfish, as it is dried cusk. Good grade stockfish is cod. High grade stockfish is skrei (cod caught during winter that's ready to spawn). Edit: Forgot to clearify that the first Fish he was hammering is cusk, while the other he had that was soaked and cooked is cod.
Watching these videos makes me appreciate what I have in my fridge a lot more. This is what I imagined school was going to be like when I was little :( only to be pestered with paper work and teachers who were annoyed with the class. Amazing videos!
I want to say thank you for your videos. I truly appreciate how you explain history and how you recreate so much of what you you are explaining. I enjoy watching videos that teach. I often explain to others what I have learned from the videos, however I find very few who have any interest in history. For me, it’s even better for when I watch videos that confirm much of what I have read in books.
For me this is an object of great beauty--- much desired, much coveted: obtainium. Rare jerky. A different beast but akin to a childhood favorite: dried salt cod, shredded. I am old enough to remember when dried salt cod was a readily available commodity in Massachusetts. You can still get it (or NOT) in the little wooden boxes smaller now like candy bars--- FOR A PRICE. Not the cheap workingman's food of yore. The mild, white cod cakes my mother made of the dried shredded stuff were a staple of my early childhood diet. A taste of the sea so unique: unlike any other. Pure Yankee nostalgia.
I grew up in Newfoundland and before the cod moratorium everyone was a fisherman in the summer and logger in the winter. I remember eating salt cod right off the skiver and the caplin season was big as well. Some fisherman only wanted the females so we would pay for our school close by getting a dollar fifty for filling a 5 gallon bucket yet others did the opposite. They discarded the females and skivered the male caplin through the eye to smoke and dry. Now a bag of salt cod jerky-size pieces is 20 a pound. We used to eat a dish with the salt cod and potatoes fried up with pieces of pork fat after the fish, potatoes were boailed with stale bread that was reconstituted and fried with everything. Fish and brewis was the name. On special occasions my mom would make a turkey with vegetables boiled with corned (salted) beef and riblets. Then just before it was cooked she'd throw giant chunks of fresh salmon in the pot. 4 different proteins. I'm 44 and love in cape breton now and nobody heard of it.
