http://www.democraticunderground.com/115714403Oh my.
grasswire (35,060 posts) Sat Sep 15, 2012, 07:21 PM
Does anyone remember salt cod in a wooden box?
Used to be able to buy this in any supermarket years ago. A small wooden box, in the refrigerated meat section, filled with dried salt cod that had to be soaked in milk prior to using.
Have you seen it lately? I'd like to know what the brand name was/is.
Warpy (64,677 posts) Sat Sep 15, 2012, 07:40 PM
1. Not here in NM
but anywhere there are large French or Portuguese populations I've seen it.
Google turned up a place to order it: http://www.marinamarket.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=201795
Since it needs to be kept cool, it would be best to order it in winter. It keeps forever in the fridge until you rehydrate it for use.
^^the defrocked warped primitive, she with the face like Hindenburg's, and who's as mean and ugly as an old rattlesnake.
Stinky The Clown (47,347 posts) Sat Sep 15, 2012, 08:21 PM
2. It is still available here. No particular brands. It is a more generic, known also as bacala or ....
. . . . bacolo or bacalo or other similar variations. The last I had was labeled as
bacala
salt cod
A lot of it is available in plastic bags these days. Same product but less expensive. Most of what we get here is from Canada.
At Christmas, the local Italian importing stores carry whole dried, salted cod filets that are much dryer than the wooden box stuff. It needs to refrigeration and had to be soaked three or four days, with frequent water changes, to rehydrate.
^^the sparkling old dude, who likes franksolich but is afraid to say so because it might inspire the wrath of his trophy wife.
grasswire (35,060 posts) Sat Sep 15, 2012, 09:08 PM
3. when I was googling it I noticed that a lot of it is coming from China...
....so it's good to know that there's a Canada source. I'd sure like to know if the same company that sold it in wooden boxes still exists.
Hmmmmmm.
So like the now-gone hippywife primitive, Mrs. Alfred Packer, apparently Judy hates yellow people too.
Stinky The Clown (47,347 posts) Sun Sep 16, 2012, 01:54 AM
11. I recall a lot of companies sold it in wooden boxes
As I said, we see it in wooden boxes here from time to time. No brand stands out in my mind, though.
yellerpup (9,663 posts) Sat Sep 15, 2012, 09:19 PM
4. That would be bacaolo.
Salted cod that is soaked in milk before using. I used to see it all the time when we lived in Washington Htgs. in upper Manhattan. I have never personally tried to do anything with it so I'm intrigued... What are you planning?
grasswire (35,060 posts) Sat Sep 15, 2012, 09:28 PM
6. someone I know in New England is gearing up...
....to start a gourmet sea salt and salted fish company. There are two schools of use for salt cod, apparently. Mediterranean style, and the style that provided protein for prairie dwellers -- protein that could keep well over the winter.
Anyway, we are doing some research at this point.
Oh my.
So that's what happened.
Since her pie-and-jam shoppe couldn't come into fruition, Judy's now become a food consultant, like the sparkling old dude.
Star Member kestrel91316 (41,548 posts) Sat Sep 15, 2012, 09:24 PM
5. Last I saw, at least 10 years ago, the box went for $20+ - that's a pound.
Probably explains why nobody carries it anymore. That plus the fact that lutefisk is not very popular.
grasswire (35,060 posts) Sat Sep 15, 2012, 09:31 PM
7. My former FIL used to make codfish cakes from it.
He was from Kansas. And my mother remembered, fondly, codfish balls from her Connecticut childhood. I think it was ubiquitous a few decades ago, still.
Uh oh, floods forth franksolich's memory of things he'd rather forget.
My female ancestress of sacred memory a few times made codfish balls and codfish cakes when franksolich was a miniature lad.
I dunno why she did that; maybe she wanted to try it out from a cookbook or something, because cod wasn't anything in this family's cultural or ethnic heritage.
<<never partook; the odor was enough to make the eyes cross.
Gormy Cuss (25,662 posts) Sat Sep 15, 2012, 10:21 PM
8. Yes, growing up in Maine. Haven't seen it in the small wooden box in decades.
I don't remember a brand name. I do recall blue lettering and that the wooden lid slid off sideways/
I still use salt cod. The local Italian deli sells it dry or 'wet' with the latter being easier to use because of the shorter soaking period.
The empressof all (27,475 posts) Sat Sep 15, 2012, 10:37 PM
9. Baccala!
A staple for the Italian feast of the seven fishes in my hometown. It's also great in fishcakes.
I've never seen it in the Seattle Area Groceries.. I probably could find it if I looked. I haven't thought about it in years.
msanthrope (12,620 posts) Sun Sep 16, 2012, 12:25 AM
10. Baccala--any italian or spanish market would have it. Brand? I never saw it packaged, but buy the whitest pieces.
Lugnut (8,039 posts) Sun Sep 16, 2012, 01:57 AM
12. Yes.
My in-laws had an Italian importing company store until 1968. They sold baccala during the Christmas holiday season for Christmas Eve supper. My m-i-l used to soak the fish for several days in water then in milk before she would cook it in tomato sauce with potatoes for Seven Fishes. I make something similar for Christmas Eve but I don't use the salt cod.
Now, whoa, whoa, whoa there. Wait a minute.
This is one of those times franksolich wishes the sparkling old dude would use his membership here to comment, explaining how this is so.
The Italianate cuisine is loaded with all sorts of dead fish, the sorts of fish one assumes proliferate in the upper central Mediterranean.
As far as I know, cod doesn't float around in the Mediterranean; it appears to be strictly a north-western Atlantic phenomenon. And Italy's nowhere near Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, &c., &c., &c.
So how is cod an Italianate, or even an Iberian, delicacy?
