It isn't smoked, salted, or cooked at all — just hung outdoors on wooden racks and left to dry in Iceland's constant wind until it's basically fish jerky.
Whole haddock, cod, or wolffish fillets are hung on open-air drying racks called hjallar for weeks, where Iceland's cold, relentless wind pulls the moisture out without a flame or a grain of salt touching it. The dried result is torn into strips by hand and eaten plain or slathered with a thick layer of butter.
Why it's made this way: With almost no natural fuel for smoking and salt historically expensive to import, wind-drying was simply the cheapest way to keep a boat's catch edible through the dark winter months — a habit that outlasted the need for it and became a national snack instead.
Roughly what's in it
160kcal
30gprotein
0gcarbs
3gfat
Estimated per typical street-vendor portion — not lab-tested.