Dried salted cod
Cod split, salted and dried on flakes until hard, a long-keeping fish that must be desalted and rehydrated before use; the salting and the extensive drying together make it portable where light salting or partial drying does not.
Built structures · Terraces, platforms and stands
Flake (fish-drying structure)
flake · fish flake · cod-drying flake
A Newfoundland flake was an open wooden platform where split, salted cod was laid in the sun to dry. It belongs to the historic coastal fishery, not to smokehouses.
An open platform in the Newfoundland cod fishery
A flake was an outdoor wooden platform used to dry split salted cod in Newfoundland's historic fishery. It was part of the shore infrastructure where fish was cured after landing. The source material describes wooden flakes but does not set out one standard design.
Sources for this section
Wooden supports and an exposed drying surface
The Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage account says split, salted cod was spread on wooden flakes in the sun. A Canadian fisheries report from 1893 refers to drying hurdles set parallel to one another, with room for workers to move around them. Together these sources support a raised, open wooden support structure; they do not establish a fixed height, surface material or pole spacing for every flake.
A seasonal shore-work structure
The heritage account describes the inshore catch being split, salted and left to dry in the sun, a process that could take weeks. Fish was brought inside whenever rain threatened. The flakes therefore belonged to a wider seasonal fishery and household shore-work system, not to an enclosed processor. The sources do not turn that historical context into a validated current method.
Sources for this section
The images distinguish a display from a working yard
The attached public-domain photograph shows a flake-and-barrel heritage display at Signal Hill, photographed in 2002; it is not an operating nineteenth-century drying yard. A linked university-backed heritage page separately documents historical cod-drying images from Newfoundland. The generated hero is an editorial reconstruction of the wooden platform form, not a photograph or construction plan.
Sources for this section
History
Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage describes split salted cod spread on wooden flakes in the nineteenth-century inshore fishery; historical images are dated before 1892 and 1898. A Canadian fisheries report from 1893 describes wooden hurdles for cod drying.
Site
SettingCoastal Newfoundland fishing settlements and shore work areas.
GroundThe cited sources do not give one standard footing or ground preparation.
ClimateThe historic fishery depended on sun and rain-sensitive drying; the sources describe moving fish under cover when rain threatened, not a built-in weather control system.
FootprintNo standard dimensions are documented in the cited sources.
NotesAn open platform for fish drying; not a smokehouse or enclosed kiln.
A build is made where it stands: moving it means building it again.
How it is built
Materials
- Wooden poles and platform members
- A flake was an open wooden drying structure used in Newfoundland's historic cod fishery. The name refers to a platform for fish, not an enclosed kiln, smokehouse or drying cabinet.
- The Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage account describes the inshore catch being split, salted and spread on wooden flakes to dry in the sun. Drying could take weeks; when rain threatened, the fish was brought inside. This describes a seasonal fishery practice rather than a modern food-processing instruction.
- A Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries report from 1893 calls the drying supports hurdles and describes fish being spread on them, gathered into piles overnight and returned to the supports. The report gives period context for the work around a flake, but it is not a construction drawing for every Newfoundland platform.
- The heritage site's historical images include a St. John's salt-cod drying scene dated before 1892 and a separate image of cod drying on flakes before 1898. The linked public-domain photograph in this record is different: it shows a heritage display at Signal Hill, not an operating nineteenth-century yard.
- Evidence establishes an open wooden platform used to dry cod, but not a single standard height, deck surface, pole spacing, foundation or shoreline layout. The illustration is a restrained reconstruction from the documented platform form and a photographed heritage display; it does not provide a build plan.
Places
Newfoundland
Historical attestation · Region evidenceThe sources describe the fishery at regional scale; no single locality or universal flake layout is claimed.
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Sources
Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Site; Memorial University of NewfoundlandHistory · Use · Geography · Visual reference
19th Century Cod FisheriesNineteenth-century inshore cod was split, salted and laid on wooden flakes to dry in the sun.
Drying could take weeks and the family brought the fish inside whenever it rained.
The page shows a St. John's salt-cod drying image dated before 1892 and a separate image of cod drying on flakes dated before 1898.
Cited in: An open platform in the Newfoundland cod fishery; Wooden supports and an exposed drying surface; A seasonal shore-work structure; The images distinguish a display from a working yard
Department of Marine and Fisheries, CanadaStructure · Historic context
26th Annual Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries (1893)The report calls cod-drying supports hurdles or flakes, describes them as set parallel with space for workers, and records fish being spread, gathered overnight and returned to dry.
The report supplies period process context, not a universal construction specification.
Cited in: Wooden supports and an exposed drying surface
Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Site; Memorial University of NewfoundlandHistorical context · Geography
Lifestyle of Fishers, 1600-1900The heritage account describes flakes as part of the coastal infrastructure built for curing fish and says shore crews spread fish on flakes or beaches to dry in sun and air.
Cited in: An open platform in the Newfoundland cod fishery; A seasonal shore-work structure
Wikimedia CommonsVisual reference · Rights
File:Carlb-nfld-codflakes.jpgThe public-domain photograph depicts a cod-flake heritage display at Signal Hill, photographed in June 2002; it is not an operating drying yard.
Cited in: The images distinguish a display from a working yard