Stockfish

Stockfisch (morue séchée)

What it is

In 1432 a Venetian merchant named Pietro Querini was wrecked on Røst, at the outer end of Lofoten, wintered with the islanders and sailed home with their dried cod — the account Italy still tells as the start of its baccalà. Nothing but wind does the work: the Lofoten winter is too cold to rot the fish and too mild to freeze it solid, and three months on the racks takes it down to about a fifth of its weight.

In the kitchen

Beat it with a mallet to crack the fibres, then three to five days in cold running or daily-changed water, in the coldest place you have. Even fully soaked it stays chewier than salt cod: cook it long and wet, never fast.

Goes with

Olive oil Garlic Potato Onion Tomato Parsley Taggiasca olive

Same species

Cod Cod liver Hwangtae (freeze-dried pollack) Cod tongues Mentaiko Salt cod

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