Dried Fish - Harðfiskur - Healthy and Great Snack


I love to relax and have a bite of dry-fish with a little butter on. Some of my friends like it plain and finds the Haddock Dry-Fish better than Dry Catfish - which I love. And the good thing about it is that it is not only good, it is one of the healthiest snacks you can have. That is why I made this page to promote both recipes for fish dinners and the high quality fish processing plant my father in-law runs at Thingeyri in Iceland.   I hope you will enjoy this page.

The "harðfiskur" dry-fish is very popular as box lunch in picnics and camping and is also much used as snack in parties or as a regular TV-snack. In the January "Þorrablót" winter fiesta, it is one of the main item on the "Thorrablót Buffet" table. As often as I go camping and to Scout Jamborees, this is the thing I never forget to take with me - and my children would not forgive me if I did.    - Guðmundur Jónsson

A fishing village called Þingeyri (Thingeyri) and the history:
Thingeyri is a small fishing village at the Westfjords with about 450 inhabitants. The town's biggest industry is fishing, but there are also several farmers there and people hopes that new industry will be developed there soon. One hundred years ago, the Haukadalur Valley was a trading port when the France, English and Norwegian fishermen needed to come in for supplies.

Haukadalur valley has besides being the home of my wife's grandmother, an historic place in the Icelandic Sagas, where the great Viking Gísli Súrsson lived before he was killed by Eyjólfur Grái and many other Icelanders who needed to revenge his killings. That was then, today Icelanders are free of violence, even the police don't carry weapons and you can see the children left by themselves down town without being worried about them being kidnapped as we hear so sad news about in other countries.

We left the bad thing in the past, but kept the good things - like "Harðfiskur" and other traditional food that has made the Icelanders to the first place of "long-life records" and latest Gallup Polls shows also that we are the happiest people in the world - not bad.

The process of it is similar to what many people know in meat as "Slim-Jim" or other similar dry-meat snack products. But in the fish product, there are no additives in it. It is cleaned and hanged up to dry outside and maintains only the original ingredients.

Since the settlement of Iceland in 874, Icelanders have used a traditional way of preserving food, the way is to dry it. Icelandic Dried Fish (Harðfiskur) has been processed for centuries by traditional methods in Iceland, and that makes it unique in the world. Fish was dried in wind before to preserve the food, but the Icelandic Dry-Fish methods is what makes children as well as adults to like it as fresh and healthy snack (both as between meal snack and even as a full course lunch-box meal.
Nutrition Information
A typical value nutrition in 100 grams of serving are:
    Protein: 83,6g
    Fat: 0,8g
    Water: 9,9g
    Salt: 2,2g
    Energy: 542kcal
1452kj
It is best to keep the Dry-Fish in a dry and cold place until consumed.

The dry-fish "harðfiskur" is also de-boned before being dried outdoors, then normally on racks in special open fish-shacks or it is dried in a processing plant by machine (normally done in the summer when the wind is not cold. This dry-fish from Unnur ehf is fished outside the Westfjords of Iceland, which many call the "five-finger area" in NorthWest of Iceland. That is where the cold and fresh Atlantic Ocean provides the most valuable fish in the world. If you check your supermarket, you may find fish, but if it is Icelandic fish, it may cost a little bit more, but that is the value of the fresh non-polluted food the world is now looking for.

Ever since the 13th century the dried fish has been an export product and was exported to Denmark, Germany and England. Haddock and Catfish are the most commonly dried fish today but halibut and cod is now gaining its popularity too. You can still see fish hung outside housed in the small villages in Iceland, when the house is located near the sea level. When fish is dried by machine, it can take between seven and ten days to dry, though it stills takes several weeks in storage to mature.

"Harðfiskur" is a traditional Icelandic delicacy that is healthy and can be enjoyed any time in any season. We now give stores, restaurants, and individuals a chance to order this delicacy of highest quality direct from the plant. Just give us a call, send us fax, or email us for further information and we will send you a sample - or a whole container if you prefer. The Dried-Fish is full of natural ingredients and no additives are used to protect shelf-time, in other words, as healthy snack as you can get. The North Atlantic Ocean and the clean non-polluted air of Iceland is a stamp of guarantee for quality, taste and health.

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About Unnur ehf:

Unnur Ehf, Fish Processing Plant,         
Fjardargata 46, 470 Thingeyri,
General Director/Chairman:
  Mr. Sigfús Jóhannsson
Plant Director:
  Mr. Ragnar Gunnarsson

  
IS-470 Iceland.
   Tel: (Int. Code) + 354 456-8121
  Fax: (Int. Code) + 354 456-8151
Email:Unnur ehf - Thingeyri

I will continue to add information about the "harðfiskur" here at this web-site as well as recipes of what you can do with the fresh fish we also export. Currently we distribute our products to stores and supermarkets in Iceland, and export to Denmark and United Kingdom. New points of contacts are welcomed. For further information, please don't hesitate to contact us.

We also apologize the delay in sending you information about prices and shipping cost to individuals world wide, due to we where not expecting all these individually consumers requests. We have now worked these things out and leave the price sample here on this page for your information. And thank you all for your inquires and purchases of our products. We will in the future be able to serve you with highest quality services and satisfaction - which is the least we can do for you.

Fish Recipes:

    This section is still under construction.

Many Great Web Sites to Visit in Iceland:

U N N U R E H F - Fish Production Thingeyri, Iceland

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    Síðast uppfært: 2. January, 1998

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