Fish & seafood · Preserved fish
Salt cod
Cod salted and dried until stiff (bacalhau, bacalao); soaked for a day or more before cooking.
Also called: bacalhau, bacalao, baccalà, dried salted cod, klippfisk
Around the world: bacalhau (pt) · bacalao (es) · baccalà (it)
A kind of cod
Photo: Sitomon, via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-2.0)
What it is
Salt cod is split cod that has been heavily salted and dried, giving stiff, greyish-white planks. Before use it is soaked in several changes of cold water to remove salt and rehydrate. Cooked, it becomes firm, flaky and more savoury than fresh cod. Norwegian klippfisk is salted and dried; stockfish is dried without salt.
How it’s used
- Portuguese bacalhau à Brás and pastéis de bacalhau
- Spanish bacalao al pil-pil and brandade
- Caribbean saltfish and ackee, buljol
- Fritters and croquettes
- Salads with potatoes and olives
Characteristics
- Taste
- Savoury and mildly salty after soaking.
- Texture
- Firm, dense flakes.
- When cooked
- Soak in the fridge for 24–48 hours, changing the water several times; taste a flake to check the saltiness. Simmer gently rather than boil hard.
- Sold as
- cured, dried
- Cooking uses
- Commonly cooked, Suitable for boiling, Suitable for frying
Storage
Cool, dry and dark. Dry salt cod keeps for months wrapped in a cool, dry place (or the fridge). Once soaked, treat it like fresh fish and cook within a day or two.
Diet, allergens and safety
Contains Fish.
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Egg-free
- Gluten-free
- Nut-free
- Soy-free
- Caffeine-free
- Contains fish, a common allergen.
- Soak in the fridge, not at room temperature.
Nutrition per 100 g
- Energy
- 290 kcal
- Protein
- 62.82 g
- Carbohydrate
- 0 g
- Fat
- 2.37 g
- Fibre
- 0 g
- Sugars
- 0 g
USDA FoodData Central: Fish, cod, Atlantic, dried and salted.
Substitutes
Optional — what works if you don’t have it, and how it changes the dish.
- Cod — Fresh cod salted for 30 minutes; softer, less savoury.
Related ingredients
Recipes with salt cod
Bajan fish cakes
Bajan · 55 min · 348 kcalMetemgee
Guyanese · 1 h 20 min · 660 kcalMoksi alesi
Surinamese · 1 h 35 min · 572 kcal
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