Baccalà, or salt cod, has been used as a staple food aboard ships and in colonies for centuries. It is still produced in Norway and Canada and used in traditional dishes across the world. To use salt cod, it must be soaked in water to extract the salt. As cod stocks in the Atlantic have depleted, other white fish are being dried and salted using traditional techniques and labeled as “cod.”
Baccalà is cod that has been dried and salted to preserve it, creating a flexible and compact dish that can be stored for months under the right conditions. It has become an integral part of many nations’ cuisines, thanks to its common use as a staple aboard ships and in colonies, and many popular traditional dishes from Italy to Brazil are made with cod. While such comprehensive preservation techniques are no longer needed, several nations including Norway and Canada continue to produce cod as people have acquired the taste for it. The flavor is radically different from fresh fish, as is the texture, and it appears in soups, stews, tapenades and other dishes, along with ingredients such as fresh herbs, vegetables, potatoes and others.
People have dried and salted meats and fish to preserve them for thousands of years, and cod has been produced since at least the 1500s, when European explorers learned of the extensive Grand Banks cod fishery in the North Atlantic. The fish could be split and cleaned aboard ship and taken ashore to be dried and salted to preserve it so it could be sold in Europe. Cod can also be simply dried, in which case it is known as stockfish.
To use salt cod, people have to soak the dried fish in several changes of water to extract the salt. Once soaked, the cod can be used to add a distinct chewy texture and subtle flavor to food. Codfish dishes are popular in Northern Europe, many Mediterranean countries, the Caribbean and parts of South America, reflecting the once mighty power of the cod industry. In Europe, cod was sold to the poor, who may not be able to afford other forms of protein, and was stored aboard ships and used as a staple food for slaves on colonial plantations.
This food is also known as codfish, baccala or klippfisk in various regional dialects. At one point, cod came in many grades, from fish of the highest quality to fish that were poorly stored and sometimes went bad. Most modern cod is of medium to high quality, and when selecting fillets, people should avoid highly discolored, slimy, or woody fish, as they will be unappetizing.
As cod stocks in the Atlantic have been severely depleted, many companies dry and salt other white fish using traditional techniques used for cod and may label these products as “cod”. There are some flavor differences between real cod and the imitation, but many people are perfectly fine with other white fish. Substitutes for real cod are also a better green choice, as they will allow the cod fishery to recover.
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