Population living in coastal areas of Kurzeme – the Livs and the Kurshi – used dried, smoke-dried or easily smoked cod in the menu even before the arrival of German settlers in the 13th century. Later, dried cod is found, for example, in the export lists of the Hanseatic cities.

During the Livonian Order and the Duchy of Courland this product was used in the daily menu very often. Everybody ate cod - knights, priests and monks, barons, counts and dukes, the fishermen, seafarers and farmers. Dried cod was used as a starter, main course or a supplement. Quite often a wanderer, sea robber, or a fisherman only with a dried cod in the bosom could get along for several days.
Dried cod in large quantities was taken in the ships which went to explore the colonies of the Duchy of Courland – Gambia in North Africa, Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean Sea.