Seafood Made Simple: Saltfish is this soup's secret ingredient

These dried sides of fish I have now come to know as salted ling. Salted ling has been a staple Irish food for centuries, mstly enjoyed in rural Irish fishing communities, nowadays though it’s not as common.

Salting has long been used to preserve fish. Before the invention of refrigeration the fish was filleted, salted and dried. 

Traipsing through the English Market as a young reluctant fish eater, I wondered why anyone would consider eating these petrified fillets of fish strewn out over the counter.