Although the research was undertaken in the 20th century, this paper should give the reader some insight into "making fish".
Tony
Link:
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/M ... view/17703"Hard Racket for a Living" — Making Light-Salted Fish on the East Coast of Newfoundland by Mark Ferguson
Abstract
This paper describes drying fish, the final phase in the processing of cod in the Newfoundland salt fisheries. Three themes regarding this work emerge: its remarkable labour intensiveness; the complex techniques and knowledge required; and the key roles women played in "making fish." Fishing people's evaluations of this work indicate seemingly contradictory positions: one typifies it and its way of life as sheer thankless toil, the other recalls these with satisfaction, even pleasure. I highlight the latter, neglected view and so begin the project of re-evaluating received academic/bureaucratic interpretations of the salt fisheries and the women and men who worked in them.