Salted fish, such askippered herring ordried and salted cod, is fishcured with drysalt and thuspreserved for later eating.Drying orsalting, either with dry salt or withbrine, was the only widely available method of preserving fish until the 19th century.Dried fish and salted fish (or fish both dried and salted) are a staple of diets in theAzores,Caribbean,West Africa,North Africa,South Asia,Southeast Asia,Southern China,Scandinavia, parts ofCanada includingNewfoundland, coastalRussia, and in theArctic. Like othersalt-cured meats, it provides preserved animal protein even in the absence ofrefrigeration.

Salting is thepreservation of food with dryedible salt.^[1] It is related topickling (preparing food withbrine, i.e. salty water), and is one of the oldest methods of preserving food.^[1] Salt inhibits the growth ofmicroorganisms by drawing water out of microbial cells throughosmosis. Concentrations of salt up to 20% are required to kill most species of unwantedbacteria.Smoking, often used in the process of curing meat, adds chemicals to the surface of meat that reduce the concentration of salt required. Salting is used because mostbacteria,fungi and other potentially pathogenicorganisms cannot survive in a highly salty environment, due to thehypertonic nature of salt. Any living cell in such an environment will become dehydrated through osmosis and die or become temporarily inactivated.

Thewater activity, a_w, in a fish is defined as the ratio of thewater vapour pressure in the flesh of the fish to the vapour pressure of pure water at the same temperature and pressure. It ranges between 0 and 1, and is a parameter that measures how available the water is in the flesh of the fish. Available water is necessary for the microbial and enzymatic reactions involved in spoilage. There are a number of techniques that have been or are used to tie up the available water or remove it by reducing the a_w. Traditionally, techniques such asdrying,salting andsmoking have been used, and have been used for thousands of years. In more recent times,freeze-drying, water bindinghumectants, and fully automated equipment with temperature and humidity control have been added. Often a combination of these techniques is used.^[2]

The practice of salting fish dates back to ancient times. Inclassical antiquity, the town ofMagdala on theSea of Galilee, located in present-dayIsrael, was also known by its Greek name,Taricheae, meaning "place of fish salting." The Greek geographerStrabo even praised the quality of its fish (Geographica 16.2.45).^[3]

Due to the elevated levels ofnitrites, consuming salted fish increases risk ofstomach cancer andnasopharyngeal cancer.^[4][5][6] TheInternational Agency for Research on Cancer classify salted fish (Chinese-style) as aGroup 1 carcinogen.^[7][8]

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  Platforms, calledfish flakes, where cod dry in the sun before being packed in salt
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  Remains of Roman fish-salting plant atNeapolis
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  Drying salted fish atMalpe Harbour
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  Salt fish dip atJakarta
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  Ruins of thePort Eynon Salt House, where seawater was boiled to extract salt for preserving fish
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  Egyptians bringing in fish and splitting them for salting
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  Salted dried butterfish in Chinese food store atYuen Long,Hong Kong
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  Fish in a salt crust
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  Fish cellars atChurch Cove, England, used for pressing saltedpilchards into barrels for storage and export to the continent
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  Salt cabin, a small building where fish is salted, inKoserow, Germany
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  Dried fish in a market inOdisha

• Cantonese salted fish
• Cured fish
• Salted squid
• Dried and salted cod
• Brining
• Gibbing
• Pickling salt
• Spekesild (cured, salted Atlantic herring)
• Surströmming (lightly-salted soured Baltic herring)

• Schwartz, RK (2004)"All roads lead to Rome: Roman food production in North Africa"Repast,20 (4) : 5–6 and 8–9.

• Food preservation
• Salted foods

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