[mrighele]

Stockfish has been the main ingredient of a very traditional plate in north east Italy for more than four hundred years [1]. These days it is not used as much as in the past, but you can still find stockfish in a number of supermarkets. Preparing the fish for cooking takes 2-3 days, and the first step is of course beating it with a mallet :-)

[1] It was in fact considered food for poor people which is quite strange since it was imported from far places.

[kbenson]

> It was in fact considered food for poor people which is quite strange since it was imported from far places.

Well, so was lobster at one point...

[carlob]

As a matter of fact the two stories are related, because code is one of lobster's main natural predators and overfishing of the former led to an overpopulation of the latter.

[masklinn]

Necessity being the mother of invention, that's a common theme to the more traditional cuisines.