These are small fatty fish of the pelagic class (q.v.). Unlike most other fish species, anchovies are not normally eaten fresh, but are marketed in a preserved form such as salted, canned, smoked or dried. When cured with salt in barrels and left in the sun in warm climates (e.g. in Spain and North West Africa), they undergo a complicated process of maturation, possibly involving fat oxidation, which results in the characteristic flavour.