Salted fish, such as kippered herring or dried and salted cod, is fish cured with dry salt and thus preserved for later eating. Drying and/or salting, either with dry salt or with brine, was the only widely available method of preserving fish until the 19th century. Dried fish and salted fish (or fish both dried and salted) are a staple of diets in the Caribbean, North Africa, Southeast Asia, Southern China, Scandinavia, coastal Russia, and in the Arctic. Like other salt-cured meats, it provides preserved animal protein even in the absence of electrically powered refrigeration.