Ever tried salted fish before?
Recently I have realised that majority of Portuguese people don’t know what actual Cod is or thinks that they haven’t ever tasted it.
As some of you might know, Cod, our Bacalhau, tastes very different. In fact, it has nothing to do with the fresh version.
Portugal kept the tradition of drying and salting the fish before cooking it. So for the majority of our population, the taste of Bacalhau is simply the sated version. In fact, there is no word in Portuguese for fresh cod, it is instead called “fresh salt cod”.
Dried and salted cod has been produced for over 500 years in Newfoundland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, and most particularly in Norway where it is called klippfisk, literally “cliff-fish”. Traditionally it was dried outdoors by the wind and sun, often on cliffs and other bare rock-faces.
Drying preserves many nutrients, and the process of salting and drying codfish is said to make it tastier.[1] Salting became economically feasible during the 17th century when cheap salt from southern Europe became available to the maritime nations of northern Europe.
The resulting product was easily transported to market, and salt cod became a staple item in the diet of the populations of Catholic countries on ‘meatless’ Fridays and during Lent.
But despite its origin, I wonder why it’s still, in dead, one of our iconic marks.
Did you know that “they” say there are 1001 ways to cook it? Would you believe it?
I will give you some water mouthing ideas…
