Salting pilchard

This weekend, an old art, the salting pilchard school, will be revived on the Fažana waterfront.

The participants of this school will try their hand at this old art of the sea, the cellar and the kitchen, learning how to arrange salted pilchards in cans, applying knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation. Children, locals, guests, beginners and experts: everyone will learn something about the amount of fish needed, about salt, oil, spices, learn from the fisherman how to properly salt, filet and marinate pilchards.

The Fažana Pilchard Salting School has been operating since 2004 as a continuation of the tradition of sardine salting in Fažana, where one of the largest sardine salting factories on the Adriatic operated from the beginning of the last century until 1952.

Competitors will arrange salted pilchards in marked cans, applying the knowledge passed down from generation to generation. The school lasts about an hour and a half, it is free, and the participants will receive everything they need: pilchards, salt and a tin container in which to put the fish. After school, there will be live music and a party with pilchards, cheese and wine on the waterfront. The participants take the salted fish home, and their only obligation is that after three months they must return with their can of salted fish to the festival in Fažana on August 14. At that festival, the cans will be opened and the sardines will be tasted and the best and the saltiest.

Along with the gastronomic offer of salted pilchardds, olive oil and Istrian wines, as well as a lecture on traditional ways of canning, processing and preparing pilchards, a workshop on making traditional tools and a good music program will be held on the Fažana waterfront.