[Sca-cooks] Anyone made salt cod?

King's Taste Productions kingstaste at comcast.net
Sat Jul 15 16:01:03 PDT 2006


I have recently been learning to work with salt cod.  When I go to the
market, all of the old wives (they really look like they stepped out of
a painting somewhere) stand around and squeeze every package of fish,
looking for the ones with the most give.  The harder it is, the more
soaking and cooking time it will have.  If it is still 'meaty' and has a
bit of give, all they need is a short soak and they can be added to
whatever.  Usually the plank-like fish that have been salted hard and
flat are not in a package.  In my case, I've been learning the finer
points of Saltfish and Akee from Jamaica.  
I've never salted any fresh cod myself, although I had some to work with
in a fish cookery class last week.  Having gotten used to the texture of
the salted and then rinsed fish, I found the fresh fish very apt to
crumble and I saw the benefits of the salting technique for the changes
in texture it gives to the fish.  
I'd rinse it and give it a try in something. 
Christianna


I coated some nice, fresh cod fillets with salt and
then wrapped in two layers of cheesecloth.  After
about five days they had not lost an appreciable
amount of moisture and I felt the process was not
working.  So I took the fillets and put them in a
large ziplock bag and emptied out my 1/2 box of kosher
salt on top of them.  This was yesterday.

I should mention, the fillets have been under constant
refrigeration and I was following the directions
specified in the Ruhlman/Polcyn Charcuterie book up to
the point of putting them into the ziplock and burying
them in salt.  That was from the Nose To Tail Eating
by Fergus Henderson.

So my question is - I have never even seen salt cod,
I'm assuming that it should be a cured and somewhat
flat fillet with no give to it.  Correct?  Every
reference I've seen describes salt cod as looking like
bark.  Mine look like air-dried fillets and still have
some flexibility.  I may end up tossing the experiment
and starting all over again for food safety reasons as
I'm concerned the salt has not reached the middle of
the fillet quickly enough for preservation.

Eibhlin
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