Seafood preservation techniques

[wet]

After reading that neandertals dried and probably smoked fish, I wondered about how old these methods might be, and what other methods have been used.

In regards to ancient traditional methods of storing seafood for travel, trade and seasonal downturns,

Sun drying (air): fish, squid, seaweed, all?
bake airless oven heating (like charcoal is made?)
Smoking
Pickeling
Salting, rolled in dry salt
Arctic flash freezing
Fish Oil squeezing/draining/filtering? Fish paste fermented?
Cooking & storing: boil, fry, kebab how to store without fridge?
Pulverize into fish meal? Only after dried?
Live storage in weirs, nets, ponds (aquaculture), tidepools?

In humid areas, fish is pickled/salted/smoked,
in arid areas sun-drying is common,
in very cold areas, flash-freezing

Am I missing any? Human cultures have come up with so many tricks for food storage. I guess it is mainly about keeping water away from the protein.

DDeden

 

[Marwan]

im not sure if my great great great great great garndfather used to mummify fish or not...

 

[wet]

I heard some crocodiles and cats were mummified, I guess it's possible.

 

[wet]

Lutefisk is sun dried fish that when ready to cook has lye added to it, then the lye is removed, a sauce is added to provide flavor.

"As I understand it lute fish is a (rather late, I think) invention in the long series of food preservation techniques you find in winter climates. You had to come up with methods to preserve the food from when you could get it. Salting, drying as pemmican or lute fish, preserving in vinegar, fermentation of fish, and possibly other techniques that people stumbled on.

(Self-fermentation of fish is the most interesting IMO, since the enzymes that do the process is from the fish itself, IIRC the bones in the head. Someone must have accidentally fermented instead of salt preserved a can of fish, and found out that it was still edible and even enjoyably spicy. Despite the somewhat... unique... smell.)"

from Torbjorn at here:
Pharyngula: If you are what you eat…

also canning/bottling after boiling

 

[trux]

David, I think you did not mention using sugar (usually honey or fruite sugar) for preservation. Although it may sound strange, and I indeed do not remember eating fish or seafood preserved in honey or sugar, I found that it is a popular way of meat and fish preservation:

From Food Preservation - Scientific Principles, Historical Methods Of Preservation, Thermal Processes, Packaging, Chemical Additives, Irradiation

Curing is used with certain fruits and vegetables, such as cabbage (in the making of sauerkraut), cucumbers (in the making of pickles), and olives. It is probably most popular, however, in the preservation of meats and fish. Honey-cured hams, bacon, and corned beef ("corn" is a term for a form of salt crystals) are common examples.

 

[wet]

Thanks Ivo,

yeah, honey preserves well, but I didn't know sugar worked also (for fish).

I guess salt is easy to use on marine fish, while smoke would be for river fish.

I know that some waterbugs were preserved in tree sap amber for many millions of years, so it's possible a minnow could have been naturally preserved in amber as well.

Aside from smoking some carp, pickeling some bass, and regular modern cooking, I haven't done any traditional preserving foodstuffs. Just curious how far back they go. Intentionally sun-dried dried seaweed probably goes back a few million years, while chemical treatments would be more recent, sun/wind drying, smoking and brine pickeling are probably the oldest.

 

[Mr. X]

Some of these have been touched on before:

regular fridge/freezer
freeze drying
irradiation (works for veg, probably would for meat too)
vacuum packing (used to preserve sandeels for bait in the UK - check out ebay.co.uk)
tinning (obvious - e.g. in oil, water or brine)
pickled in alcohol (rather than vinegar)
preserved in aspic/jelly?
Feed it to another animal (e.g. chickens) then eat that animal at a later date
Use it as fertilizer (like the Russians used to do) & then eat the veg. later

 

[wet]

alcohol pickling, yeah, that'd work.

and secondary consumption, like putting small fish with seeds to provide nutrients in poor soils...was used by native Americans growing maize/corn.

thanks Mr X