File:Fish hanging to dry in Sørvágur Faroe Islands.jpg

English: Fish hanging to dry just under the roof of a family house in the Faroe Islands. It it raining quite often in the Faroe Islands, so the fish needs to be hanged out under some kind of shelter for the rain. The fish will hang there for a couple of weeks until it is dry, then it must be beaten with some kind of a sledge hammer in order to get softer, or else the fish meat will be to hard to eat. In older days there were no freezers, so the fish had to be stored somewhere until eaten, now it is possible to freeze the fish after the drying period, so it can last longer. But dried fish can also be of good quality for several months after it has been dried. It must be stored in a cool and dry place. Many Faroese households have "hjallur" where they can store dried sheep meat, dried fish and dried whale meat. The "hjallur" is built by timber, and it has open spaces between each timber in order for the wind to blow through the building. The building is mainly next to the family house or sometimes even built together with the family house. Fishermen who work on board Faroese trawlers are allowed to hang some of the fish which they catch up to dry, and then they can take it with them home for their family. These fishes are said to have a special salty taste because of the salty breeze of the sea. Fishes which are dried on land but on a house or "hjallur" which is close to the sea also gets the special salty taste of the sea.