Bacalao (salt cod), a part of the gastronomic culture the Americas and inherited from the Iberian colonization, and is an ingredient steeped in history and religion. Salted codfish or saltfish is a Lenten staple and a popular inexpensive ingredient. Learn how to cook Bacalao.
By - Reviewed: . Original: May 31, 2022
Bacalao in tomato sauce with potato
Learn how to make this beloved salt cod stew that we love any time of the year, but it's traditionally one of the staple dishes of the Dominican Lenten season. With a rich tomato mixture of potato, red bell peppers, garlic, onion, and olives it's perfect with moro rice or white rice and avocado.
Codfish with Cabbage
Inspired by a now-lost traditional Lenten dish, check my recreation of Bacalao guisado con huevo, a dish that is perfect for Easter and Lent.
This juicy Bacalao con repollo is great over steamy Arroz blanco graneado, and some Fritos maduros pair wonderfully with it. If I had any avocado, I would have served some, too.
Bacalao fritters
You can serve these colorful, tasty, fluffy fritters as a side dish, a meat substitute, or an amazing appetizer. They are colorful little bites of battered codfish, peppers, and herbs that are quite easy to make.
Bacalao with egg
The perfect weekend late breakfast dish, this healthy, keto-friendly, flavorful combination of bacalao and eggs can be made even better with some chayote, or you can leave it out. I love it with boiled yuca.
Bacalao salad
Whether served as a hearty salad, or as a light meal, this flavorful, nutritious, easy-to-make bacalao salad will be a new favorite in your family. It combines a filling combination of garbanzo chickpeas, red peppers, black olives, boiled bacalao, and a few sprigs of parsley for extra color and flavor. It's drizzled with a healthy amount of extra virgin olive oil to finish it.
Cod fish cakes with potato
Let's combine two classic Lenten ingredients into an amazing fritter to serve all year round. Soft and flavorful, these cod fish cakes with potato can be a side dish or an appetizer to share with friends. You can enjoy them with dipping sauces (including the capers sauce shown as a serving suggestion).
Fresh cod fish balls
You and your guests will love these juicy bits of goodness made with unsalted codfish. Serve cod fish cakes with a dipping sauce as party food or with mashed potatoes as dinner.
Recipe
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How to Desalt Bacalao
Ingredients
- 2 pound bacalao (salted codfish), [0.9 kg]
- Water, for washing and boiling
Instructions
1. Desalting
Rinse the codfish in running water, scrubbing off as much surface salt as possible. Soak the codfish in abundant water overnight, or at least two hours. Change the water at least once if you leave it overnight.
2. Boiling
Rinse the bacalao again and discard the water. Place the codfish in a big pot or large dutch oven, and add about a gallon (2.5 liters) of fresh water to it. Simmer over medium heat until the codfish starts flaking, add a cup of water every so often to maintain a similar level as when it started, and stir to cook evenly. This may take 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the freshness and quality of the fish.
4. Cooking
Once the bacalao is flaking, remove it from the heat and the water, drain and discard the water. Taste the fish, it should have a pleasant saltiness, but not excessively so. If it is still too salty you will have to soak it again in clean water for about an hour.
5. Prep fish
- Once cooled to room temperature, flake the codfish into small, spoon-size pieces, and make sure to discard bones, fins, and skin.Continue cooking per the instructions on any of the recipes above
Cook's Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated automatically based on ingredients listed. Please consult your doctor if you need precise nutrition information.
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What is bacalao?
Bacalao is the Spanish name for codfish, fresh and otherwise. However, in the Dominican Republic, it is always assumed that when you say bacalao you mean the salted, dried variety. You have to order "bacalao fresco" to get non-salted bacalao. Be mindful that even "bacalao fresco" won't be fresh, but frozen, as all bacalao is imported.
Bacalao is nowadays used to commercialize a number of white fishes, one of the most common being haddock. It can be found as bacalao fillets but is more commonly available bone-in. Salted bacalao has a different taste and bite than fresh fish. They are not interchangeable.
You can see the nutrition facts further down.
Bacalao is an ingredient that was inexpensive, easy to store and cook, and steeped in our gastronomic culture and heritage.
We mostly associate it with the Lenten and Easter period, but you can find it in colmados and supermarkets year-round, and enjoy it in the many delicious ways that we present to you here.
Bacalao in English
Bacalao is cod or codfish in English. To find the salted kind, search for "saltfish" (as it's known in the English Caribbean), "salted codfish", "salt cod" or "salt codfish".
Where to buy bacalao
To buy bacalao, saltfish, or salted codfish a good place to start is with shops that cater to West Indian, Spanish Caribbean, and Portuguese-speaking communities. It's also available from Amazon [affiliate link].
How to make bacalao
Salted bacalao is extremely salty and very dry. The first step is to rehydrate it and get rid of as much salt as possible. Our preferred method is to rinse it thoroughly to get rid of superficial salt, soak it in plenty of water to rehydrate and extract more salt, then boil in abundant water to rehydrate, cook and desalt. Our recipes will give you detailed instructions on how to cook bacalao.
History of Bacalao
Salted bacalao is a food that was brought to our island by the conquistadors. By 1942 salt cod had already long been a traditional food in Catholic Spain, where bacalao was the fish of choice inland during the Lent season, and on days when Catholics were banned from meat consumption. It is very popular in Spain, Portugal, and, likewise, many of their former American possessions, including Brazil, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.
Saltfish is also a staple of Jamaican cuisine.
When Catholics were forbidden from eating meat on Fridays, and during Lent, fish was the obligatory option. Before Columbus set foot in the New World, the Basques had already established a large fishing fleet that traveled to present-day Canadian waters in search of this valuable fish. Salted cod thus became the official dish of the Lenten season, and one of the pillars of Iberian cuisine.
Second history lesson: no one has done more for cod in Spain than the Catholic Church. The endless days of abstinence that they imposed turned codfish, salted, or cecial --cured and air-dried like jerky-- in the king of fish of interior Spain.
Source (translation mine)
The ease of transport and the duration of salted fish in storage made it an easy item to use during long sea voyages. And that's how cod arrived in our country. From American waters to Spain, and then back to America.
Cod later became one of the pillars of the "triangular" trade with America: cod was transported in one direction and enslaved Africans in another. A food that went from America to Europe and back, with a history of blood, sweat, and tears.
Bacalao is also very popular in Portugal and Brazil, and known as bacalhau, and as baccalà in the Basque region of Spain.
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