Salted fish

Salted fish was a common and affordable food item found throughout the Realms, usually produced in costal regions , salted fish was sometimes eaten raw , usually being soaked and cooked, or used as an ingredient in various dishes.

Description
Various species of fish were cleaned, gutted, and butchered and packed in salt. Smaller species were salted whole. With time, salt extracted moisture out of the fish and preserved the meat giving it longevity and ease of transportation as far as the sweltering lands of Zakhara. Before cooking, the salted fish was usually soaked in water overnight to wash off excessive salt.

Availability
Port Kir in Tethyr was a major supplier of fresh and salted fish, a lion share of the town's economy, being sold and traded in local markets and to caravans of traveling merchants. The entirety of Tethyr's costal area produced fish, it was consumed fresh or salted then traded inland.

Shadowdale, the Dalelands location of the Twisted Tower of Ashaba had salt fish commonly available and used in the kitchens of the tower.

Svardborg in Thrym was inhabited by the frost giant who fished and produced salt fish.

Ten Towns of Icewind Dale produced, sold, and exported salted fish, notably, Dougan's Hole was a major producer among the Ten and their fish was sold in Bryn Shander's markets.

Tharkar, in the Utter East was an unruly costal pirate city with salted and dried fish being a very common food items there. Donder's Dancing Masques tavern served it plane as a cheap bar snack.

Zakharan markets had salted fish available in abundance, often packed in a set of hundred fish and sold for prices from 2 gp to 7 sp, depending on haggling skills of the buyer.

Waterdeep's dock warehouses stored local salt fish. One such warehouse was turned into a shrine to Valkur, Sailor's Last Request.

In the Blade Kingdoms of the Vilhon Reach, salt fish was made out of carp, fished from Akanamere. The fish were salted, and dried in the sun, stretched on long strings.

Uses

 * Archenbridge tavern Bridge and Bow served a platter of salted fish, sausages, topped with melted cheese prepared with herbs, and brought to the table with fresh bread and parsley.


 * Juniril's tavern, the High Helm served a cold platter of salt fish, aggressively flavored cheese, and radishes. The joy of consuming that dish usually costed 3 cp.


 * Marsember's Platter of Plenty served Blentra's oysters and wild rice in mushroom soup, a delicious recipe, made popular by Volothamp Geddarm, used a cup of crushed salted fish as one of its many ingredients.


 * Ravens Bluff was the home of Skully's Bar and Bait, a seedy tavern that served fishbroth, a soup "dish" cooked with salted fish, old fishing bait that was too rotten to use, and various cheap and spoiled sauces and perfumes purchased for next to nothing.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Legacy of the Crystal Shard &bull; Storm King's Thunder &bull; Princes of the Apocalypse
 * Novels
 * Elminster: The Making of a Mage &bull; The Council of Blades &bull; The Mercenaries &bull; The Sapphire Crescent &bull; The Emerald Scepter