Fresh cod, which is mostly sold in Spain with the Skrei seal, is quite well priced these days at the fish market: in many cases around 9 euros per kilo.
It is a great claim for a type of fish that, until a decade ago, was practically unknown in Spain. He Norwegian governmentthe country where cod is caught the most, has made an enormous economic effort to make its Skrei brand known to the Spanish consumer, which is the one we find in most fishmongers.
This seal guarantees that it is a cod of more than 3Kgwhich is cleaned and eviscerated the same day it is caught, no more than 12 hours have passed between fishing and packaging for shipping and it is refrigerated between 0º C – 2º C throughout the value chain, among other things.
But, although we are talking about the same species of fish that we have used since the Middle Ages in Spain, We are not talking about the same product.
Recipes that it is better not to make with fresh cod
Cod, gadus morhuawas for centuries one of the few fish that was consumed in inland areas of Europe, but it always arrived in our country preserved in salt, a process that completely changes its organoleptic characteristics.
For centuries, salt cod was made by opening the fish, salting it, and allowing it to dry for several weeks on rocks or racks. At present, however, cures thoroughly for 15 dayssaturating the meat with salt (up to 25%), after which it is kept without drying for several months.
As it explains harold mcgee in cooking and food, during this time the bacteria Microccus they generate flavor by producing free amino acids and TMA, and oxygen breaks down the very few fatty substances by half into free fatty acids, and these into a variety of smaller molecules that also contribute to aroma. The final artificial drying is done in less than three days.
All these transformations mean that salted cod has little to do with fresh cod on a taste level. The flavor it leaves is totally different. But so is your texture: much firmer.
Although using fresh cod it’s much more comfortable since it prevents you from having to desalt the fish (a process that usually takes 48 hours), we would be wrong to apply the traditional Spanish recipe book, so rich in cod preparations, with this variety: they are not designed for their fresh version.
There are three main differences between fresh and salted cod:
1. It has less flavor
Although we have desalted the cod well, it always preserves a salinity point which are appreciated by many recipes, especially those in which the fish is integrated into a sauce.
“You will not have the salinity point that fresh desalted cod gives a Biscayan woman and the sauce eats up all the flavor of the fish, it is not fully integrated,” the cook explained to DAP Victor Martinchef of the Trigo restaurant in Valladolid.
2. It has less collagen
Fresh cod does not concentrate enough collagen to make the emulsion that requires a preparation as classic as pipil cod.
3. It is cooked before
Finally, it must be taken into account that fresh cod cooks even faster than salt cod: in less than 10 minutes it is ready. In the recipes in which the fish has to be integrated with a sauce, we are going to be very tight on time and, after these minutes, it will fall apart.
What to use fresh cod for
All this does not mean that the Skrei cod It is a fish to avoid, only that, when cooking it, we have to treat it in a way that is more similar to how we would cook it, for example, a hake, which is the fish that is most similar when fresh.
Fresh cod can be used like any other white fish, in stews or oven roasted, but it can also be eaten raw or cooked at a low temperature. It is rarely grilled, since its meat is too delicate and breaks up into slices (something that can be done with desalted cod).
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As the cook explained to DAP hung faiusual face of kitchen channel and ambassador of Norwegian seafood products, fresh cod has an advantage over salted cod, and that is that it has different flavors in its different parts, a nuance that is lost in the salting process: “The area of the head and the belly They have more fat than the tail, which has more muscle. It has another texture. The tail part is great for making a cod tartare. The center is grilled, baked, and in sushis and ceviches. And with the head you can make preserves or cook it on the grill”.
But if what you want is to make a good vigil stew or a cod with tomato, it is better to opt for the salted cod lifelong.
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