Stockfish — tørrfisk in Norwegian, panla or okporoko in West Africa — is cod (Gadus morhua) that has been split and air-dried on open wooden racks in cold winter wind, with no salt at all. Cold Arctic air alone pulls most of the water from the already lean flesh and locks in a stiff, board-hard, pale-golden fish that keeps for years at room temperature. Rehydrated, it is a firmer, chewier, far more intensely savoury fish than fresh cod — deeply umami, faintly aged and marine — with a concentration and depth the fresh fish never has. It is the oldest form of preserved cod, distinct from the heavily salted bacalhau/bacalao, and it anchors two culinary worlds oceans apart: the ancient trade of Lofoten and the lutefisk and baccalà of Europe, and the pepper soups, egusi and jollof-adjacent stews of Nigeria and West Africa, where its imported dried cod-heads and bodies are a prized flavour base.