In the metropolitan area where I live, there is truly a great selection of dried fish in various ethnic food stores, my favorite of which is herring. However, it is always very salty and I have a somewhat high blood pressure so the doc said keep my salt intake under control as well as I don't really like salty food very much.
Is the saltiness essential to the preparation of dried fish? Can the fish be as nicely dried/smoked without using so much salt? Finally, the most important question is, is there a way to desalinate the dried herrings that I otherwise like so much? E.g. I would make eggs with minced dried herring and not add any salt to the eggs, hoping that would neutralize the saltiness and the mix is still so salty I can barely eat it.
Best Answer
You are correct in that salt fish are very salty. Where we live salt herrings are a tradition. The way to remove the saltiness is to soak them, changing the water every few hours.
The trick here to really getting the saltiness out is to split the back. (The belly should already be split.) This is really important.
I once had someone cook them for my family and they were so salty you could barely stand to eat them. When asked if they had soaked the fish they replied that they had soaked them for two days! Then someone asked if they had split the back and, of course, the answer was no. They didn't know to do that.
If soaked properly the fish should not be totally fresh but should taste like fresh fish that you seasoned with salt.