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I just watched a fascinating video on 18th century cooking where this same kind of fish (cod) is prepared: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdzAt6e1l-c https://w

I just watched a fascinating video on 18th century cooking where this same kind of fish (cod) is prepared: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdzAt6e1l-c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdzAt6e1l-c I thought the step where they beat the fish with a mallet was so wild. It's certainly led me down a rabbit hole of seeing how we used to prepare food a few hundred years ago.

mrighele 7y ago
Stockfish has been the main ingredient of a very traditional plate in north east Italy for more than four hundred years [1]. These days it is not used as much as in the past, but you can still find stockfish in a number of supermarkets. Preparing the fish for cooking takes 2-3 days, and the first step is of course beating it with a mallet :-) [1] It was in fact considered food for poor people which is quite strange since it was imported from far places.
- kbenson 7y ago
  > It was in fact considered food for poor people which is quite strange since it was imported from far places. Well, so was lobster at one point...
  - carlob 7y ago
    As a matter of fact the two stories are related, because code is one of lobster's main natural predators and overfishing of the former led to an overpopulation of the latter.
  - masklinn 7y ago
    Necessity being the mother of invention, that's a common theme to the more traditional cuisines.
tejtm 7y ago
wonder if this was for softening up or killing macro parasites and eggs
- lam 7y ago
  It's for softening. The process breaks up the meat fibers both for easier chewing and for absorbing your saliva into the fibers. The latter makes it tastier when you chew it longer. You can find similar dried fish / squids in Korean and Vietnamese grocery stores. Roast them slightly and they go really well with beers.
masklinn 7y ago
> I thought the step where they beat the fish with a mallet was so wild. Is it really so wild? Beating on it remains a common way of tenderising meat.

mrighele 7y ago

Stockfish has been the main ingredient of a very traditional plate in north east Italy for more than four hundred years [1]. These days it is not used as much as in the past, but you can still find stockfish in a number of supermarkets. Preparing the fish for cooking takes 2-3 days, and the first step is of course beating it with a mallet :-) [1] It was in fact considered food for poor people which is quite strange since it was imported from far places.

kbenson 7y ago
> It was in fact considered food for poor people which is quite strange since it was imported from far places. Well, so was lobster at one point...
- carlob 7y ago
  As a matter of fact the two stories are related, because code is one of lobster's main natural predators and overfishing of the former led to an overpopulation of the latter.
- masklinn 7y ago
  Necessity being the mother of invention, that's a common theme to the more traditional cuisines.

tejtm 7y ago

wonder if this was for softening up or killing macro parasites and eggs

lam 7y ago
It's for softening. The process breaks up the meat fibers both for easier chewing and for absorbing your saliva into the fibers. The latter makes it tastier when you chew it longer. You can find similar dried fish / squids in Korean and Vietnamese grocery stores. Roast them slightly and they go really well with beers.

masklinn 7y ago

> I thought the step where they beat the fish with a mallet was so wild. Is it really so wild? Beating on it remains a common way of tenderising meat.