But still, many of his 2,400 pages make the case that smart use of science, whether it's sous vide (cooking vacuum-sealed food in a water bath) or salting fish, has the potential of producing a flavor or an ingredient that can become mainstream. Myrhvold's amusements and food chemistry than it does with cooking and eating. I'm still trying to get my head around Nathan Myrhvold's new $625, 5-volume and 40 pound Modernist Cuisine, which seems to me has more to do with Mr. But not all cod is verboten and in most New York-area stores, salted cod is easily available, selling for about $10 to $12 a pound. For this reason and also for its cost, some producers have switched to salting other kinds of white fish. Today the cod has been severely over-fished and according to the Monterrey Bay Seafood Watch, some, including ones caught by trawler, should be avoided. Salt cod also shares a history with the slave trade as it was a food preserved for the long ship journeys from Africa to the Americas where it became a food for slaves on southern plantations. The fish would be salted and put out in the sun to dry, afterwards keeping for months. Because there was lots of it, it was cheap, and being cheap, it became a food for the poor. In Italy it's called baccalà, bacalao in Spain, morue in France, bacalhau in Portuguese, bakaliaro in Greece, saltfish in the Caribbean, and klippfisk in Scandinavian countries.įor centuries, cod was hugely plentiful in the cold northern Atlantic sea. Its history goes back to the Vikings, but many countries, especially ones that share a coast with the Atlantic, have some culinary connection with salt cod. Salt cod came from our forebears' innovation: they needed a way to eat year-round, fish was plentiful, and a means of preservation was invented. It's the same but different and both are wonderful. It's not unlike how fresh pork can be transformed into ham. This produces a chewier texture and milder, almost sweet, yet still fishy taste than its fresh counterpart. When white fish is saturated with salt and dried, amino acids and other chemical changes occur in the fish. It is traditionally served with boiled potatoes and turnips, and butter or tallow (with cracklings).Why would we eat salt cod when we can have fresh fish? It is then cooked in fresh water for 10-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the pieces. To cook salt fish, soak it in a generous measure of water for 12 hours, changing the water 2-3 times. When the barrel is full, a final layer of salt is put in, a loosely fitted lid put in and a light weight put on top. A layer of salt is put on the bottom, then a layer of fish, with the backs down, then another thick layer of salt, taking care to fill the body cavities of the fish with salt. Small codfish are treated differently: they are gutted, their heads cut off and they are washed in cold water, then arranged in a barrel. If the fish is sun-dried, it can turn yellowish. To increase the time it can be stored, salt cod is dried, traditionally by laying it in a single layer on clean rocks or gravel, in dry weather, until reduced in thickness and dry to the touch. The fish is allowed to stand in a cool place for 1-2 weeks. Salt cod is made by filleting or butterflying cod and arranging in layers with layers of coarse salt in-between.
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