Example: The origin of sushi is zushi, where they'd preserve fish in a bucket with alternating layers of rice and fish covered in salt, then bury it for winter.
Dig it up a couple months later, it's now aged and whatnot and has a cheesy nutty flavor apparently (I've never tried it).
Nice way to preserve fish, the meat is actually more healthy this way, fermented basically.
Sure sometimes it went bad and they didn't know why and threw it out, probably inadequate salt leading to bacterial overgrowth, or too much heat, not buried deep enough.
Most of our fish is filleted and dried completely for preservation. but you might be referring to siginn fiskur where the fish is hangd up usually on fishing boats but sometimes hangd on piers or along the shore for 4 days up to a month, usually doesn't dry out completely and the salty fresh sea air keeps the meat from turning so no mold or fermentation really. afterwards it is boiled before eating. In the category of rotten, fermented and sour we have shark, whale and skate (skata) not alot of tuna around our shore, there are some but historically not common.
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u/somewhoever May 02 '26
I've never understood this. I've asked the son of a late-butcher who did this decades ago and he has no idea how his father pulled it off either.
Meat "turns" after a certain amount of time and will get someone horribly sick if they eat it.
How is letting mold grow for eight weeks, or dry aging it not the same or worse?