The market · Fish and seafood · Southern Europe, Northern and Central Europe
Salt cod
Cod, salted and dried until it keeps for months — bacalao in Spanish, bacalhau in Portuguese.
briny · firm
What to do with it
Ana Etxarri's ChawanmushiSalt cod would season itRosa Ibarra's Clarified milk punch, mezcal and pineappleSalt cod would season itTolu Adeyemi's Jollof, party styleSalt cod would season itMira Kowalski's Pierogi ruskieSalt cod would season it
BasqueBacalao al pil-pilSalt cod poached in olive oil with garlic and chilli, then swirled until the oil and the cod's gelatine become a thick sauce.1 version here
BasqueTortilla de bacalaoA soft omelette of salt cod, onion and green pepper — the first course at the Basque cider houses.No one here has made it yetBasqueBacalao a la vizcaínaSalt cod in a deep red sauce of dried choricero peppers and onions cooked slowly until sweet.No one here has made it yetCatalanEsqueixadaA summer salad of raw salt cod torn into shreds, with tomato, onion, peppers and black olives, dressed with olive oil.No one here has made it yetJamaicanAckee and saltfishSoft, buttery ackee fruit sautéed with flaked salt cod, onion, tomato, peppers and scotch bonnet — Jamaica's national dish.No one here has made it yetKinds
- Thick loins
- The best part, with the gelatinous skin pil pil depends on.
- Tail and flakes
- Cheaper; for croquetas and brandade.
If you can't find it
Spanish, Portuguese and Caribbean shops, as bacalao or bacalhau.
- 1HakeFresh cod or hake, salted heavily for 24 hours, then rinsedYou lose the dense, flaky chew of the long cure.
Goes with
Cooked with, here
How much, here
Knowing it
- Where to buy
- Spanish and Portuguese delis and fishmongers.
- A little history
- Basque and Portuguese fleets fished the North Atlantic for cod for centuries; salting is how it travelled home.
- Worth knowing
- Soak 24–48 hours in cold water in the fridge, changing the water three or four times. Taste a flake before cooking.
Kitchens that keep it in
Euskadi — northern Spain and south-western FranceBasqueA coastal and mountain cooking built on salt cod, peppers and olive oil — and on sauces made from nothing but the fish and the pan.9 classics · 1 cooked hereCatalonia — north-eastern Spain, from the Pyrenees to the Ebro deltaCatalanA Mediterranean kitchen of sauces — a slow sofregit to begin, a pounded picada to finish — with bread rubbed with tomato, vegetables charred in the embers, and sea and mountain on the same plate.7 classics