Stock Fish

What stockfish really is, and what the label may not say

Stockfish is fish dried outdoors in cold air with no salt, no smoke and no additives. The Norwegian Seafood Council describes the process plainly: the fish is gutted, hung on wooden racks to dry for up to three months through the northern winter and spring, then left to mature indoors for months more. What comes out is a pale, rigid, very light slab that keeps for a long time without refrigeration.

Cod is the classic stockfish fish, but not the only one. The Council's own guide lists stockfish made from cod, saithe, tusk and haddock, and names Nigeria as the biggest importer of the tusk type. So two packs that both say stockfish can hold different fish. When the species is printed on the pack, read it.

How a Norwegian winter fish ended up in an Igbo soup pot

Accounts differ on details. The Council says Nigeria has been its biggest stockfish market since the 1930s, and food historians describe an agreement between Norwegian exporters and Nigerian merchants that ran from 1946 to 1951. A widely repeated Nigerian account adds that relief shipments during the civil war in the late 1960s made the fish familiar across the east. The sources that explain its staying power agree on the reasons: it survives hot, humid weather, and it gives soup a deep savory flavor. In Igbo it is okporoko. In Yoruba it is often called panla, a name with other meanings too, which the panla fish page sorts out.

Heads, round fish, split fish and pieces: the forms you will meet

Whole fish is called round fish in the trade. The Council also describes a split form, opened along the backbone but still joined at the tail, and notes that fish are tied together in pairs for drying. Cod can be run through rollers after drying, which changes the texture and leaves a pattern along the sides. Heads are sold separately, and they matter: the Council reports heads as the largest product category in Norway's stockfish exports to Nigeria.

One more term trips people up. Tusk is a real stockfish fish, as above. Titus is not a stockfish term at all: in Nigerian markets that word means mackerel, a different fish. Properly graded stockfish is sorted by hand into more than twenty categories by size, color and quality.

Soaking stockfish: the slow cold way and the quick hot way

The Norwegian method is patient. Cover the fish with clean cold water at about 36 to 39 degrees Fahrenheit, which means the refrigerator, and change the water at least once a day. The skin can come off during the soak. The fish more than doubles in weight, so use a big container.

Nigerian home cooks often start with hot water instead. They wash the pieces in hot water, let them soak, then boil them until the flesh pulls from the bone. That works, but hot water cools to room temperature in a few hours, and the CDC advises refrigerating perishable food within two hours, or one hour if the room is above 90 degrees. For anything longer than a short soak, move the bowl to the refrigerator.

One difference from other dried fish: stockfish is not salted. You are soaking water back in, not salt out, though dust and grit still need rinsing away.

One pot, start to finish: ofe onugbu

Bitterleaf soup shows why stockfish goes in early. Following a well-known Nigerian recipe, the order is:

1. Boil the assorted meats, tougher cuts first and softer ones later.
2. When the meat is tender, add the stockfish and cook until it is soft.
3. Stir in ground crayfish, smoked prawns and ground pepper.
4. Add palm oil and cook for three to four minutes.
5. Thicken with pounded cocoyam in small spoonfuls, or with achi or ofor powder.
6. Season, add ogiri, and put the washed bitterleaf in last for only two to three minutes.

Stockfish has the longest cooking time of any fish in the pot, so it sits with the meats. Smoked fish often joins later, as in oha and banga recipes, so it does not fall apart. A popular oha soup recipe also uses cocoyam to thicken and adds the stockfish during the meat stage. In afang soup the fish is boiled with the meats until very soft, then periwinkles, ground crayfish and pepper go in, and the leaves cook only briefly at the end.

How much to buy for a family dinner and for a party

Weight is a poor guide, because soaked stockfish more than doubles. Recipe writers count pieces instead: one popular egusi recipe uses a single medium piece of smoked fish or stockfish for the pot, while an egusi pepper soup recipe asks for two or three medium pieces of stockfish or dried fish. For a party, soak and boil the fish the day before, keep it covered in the refrigerator, and add it to the soup on the day. Soaking a little extra is cheap insurance, and leftover softened fish goes into the next pot.

Stockfish next to the other fish in the pot

Stockfish gives chew and an unsmoked, deep savory flavor. Smoked bonga gives smoke and flakes into the sauce. Dried catfish brings firm pieces for picking at. Many soups use two or three of them together, which is why Nigerian recipes so often list stockfish and smoked fish side by side.

Keeping it: dry, frozen or soaked

A dry pack belongs in a sealed bag or container in a cool, dry place, with the smell contained. The Council says stockfish can be kept frozen for up to 18 months. Once soaked, treat it as perishable seafood: keep it refrigerated and cook it soon. Fish in a finished soup should be heated through until steaming hot before you serve it again.

Where Afri Foods Basket stands on stockfish

Stockfish is not on sale here yet, and there is no date to promise. The Notify me form on this page is how you will hear if and when it is listed. A soup like ofe onugbu wants a swallow to scoop it up, and our 2 lb bag of pure pounded yam flour is in stock. The other fish are all on the dried fish and seafood page, listed the same way.