During the festive season, cod cannot be missing from a Portuguese table. Whether it’s for Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve dinner, the truth is that we can’t live without the ‘king of national gastronomy’. So one of the questions that really needs to be asked is: do you really know how to choose the best cod?
There are 1001 ways to cook the fish most appreciated by the Portuguese: raw, boiled, fried, roasted, sautéed, baked, au gratin, in pastries or pataniscas. The list of possible recipes is (almost) endless. However, the aim here is to help you choose the best product, so that nothing goes wrong when you sit down at the table.
Table Of Contents
How do you choose the best cod?
So let’s start at the beginning, with the shape of the fish, because there is only one cod, while there are a number of “substitutes” from the same family. Here’s the trick: real cod has a straight cut tail, three fins on the back and appears on the market in the shape of a wing.
The color must be yellowish, like straw, and uniform. Avoid buying it if it has black spots, which indicate that it has been badly bled, or pink spots, which show that it has excess moisture. And the smell must be pleasant, that typical cod smell and not unbearable.
The most important rule
The most important rule for choosing good cod is excellent drying, the more dehydrated and free of moisture, the better! The best test you can do here is to hold the cod by the loin (where the head has been cut off) and if it stands almost straight up, it’s perfect. If it bends, there’s too much moisture in it, in which case don’t buy it.
When shopping, you’ll find deep-frozen soaked cod or dry salted cod. Which is better? Both, it just depends on how much time you have to dedicate to preparing the recipe. Deep-frozen cod is quicker because it doesn’t need to soak, but it has less flavor. Dried salted cod needs to be soaked for at least 24 hours, but it retains its flavor better.
Now that you know how to choose the best cod, it’s time to cook it. Whatever recipe you choose, cod cooks very quickly. Curing it with salt already causes the first natural “cooking”, then with drying, it goes through another “cooking” process. So pay attention to the timing, cod that is overcooked will become dry. There’s also a little trick to the quantity: each person eats around 150g to 250g per meal.
Finally, the hardest part is choosing the dish you’re going to cook. With so many options, it’s very difficult to choose just one recipe. But whatever it is, cod always goes well with a good Portuguese wine.