Salt cod

“ It should be firm, though not tough; but the firmness has something to do with good cookery. Salt enough to make the water like weak brine, or a little vinegar, tends to make the flesh of boiled fish firm.
In choosing any shell-fish, the great thing to be considered is the weight in proportion to size. The heavier they are the better; the lighter fish are apt to be watery. Of lobsters choose those with broadest tails. The very large lobsters, hoary with white incrustations on the shell, are often old and tough.
Cod is a winter fish, flourishing best in the coldest waters. ”

“ Many fish are skinned before they are salted. It has been observed that a skinned fish will cure almost twice as quickly as an unskinned fish. This is because salt penetrates the meat of the fish at approximately twice the rate at which it penetrates the skin. It is desirable, therefore, particularly in hot climates, to skin the fish before salting. This, of course, is only commercially practicable with certain large kinds of fish such as cod. ”

“ When there is danger of their being attacked by flies, a wire safe, placed in a strong draught of air, is better adapted to the purpose. Soles in winter will remain good for two days when thus prepared; and even whitings and mackerel may be kept so without losing any of their excellence. Salt may be rubbed slightly over cod fish, and well along the back-bone; but it injures the flavour of salmon, the inside of which may be rubbed with vinegar and peppered instead. ”

“ Bertram's account, the greater part of the cod taken are eaten fresh, but considerable quantities of the cod and ling taken on the coast are sent to market cured. The process pursued is very simple: they are brought on shore quite fresh, and are at once split from head to tail, and by copious washings thoroughly cleansed from all particles of blood; a piece of the backbone is cut away; they are drained, and afterwards laid down in long vats, where they are covered with salt, and kept under heavy weights. By-and-by the fish are taken out of the vats ”

“ Continue to beat until all is quite smooth, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then add the flakes of cod, still continuing to beat. If becoming too stiff add more milk. When all is light and like a froth, pour on to a « 32 » dish and dot small bits of fried or toasted crusts about the surface.
Cod, Head and Shoulders Boiled.—A portion or the whole of a large fish, when intended for boiling, should be previously crimped, when it should receive some deep cuts as far as the bone on both sides. Afterwards it should lie in vinegar and water for half an hour. ”

“ The Historical Collections contain an interesting account of his experiments, which we read when we first saw the roofs of the salt-works. Barnstable county is the most favorable locality for these works on our northern coast,—there is so little fresh water here emptying into ocean. Quite recently there were about two millions of dollars invested in this business here. But now the Cape is unable to compete with the importers of salt and the manufacturers of it at the West, and, accordingly, her salt-works are fast going to decay. From making salt, they turn to fishing more than ever. ”

“ Their appearance is not prepossessing, giving one the idea of being all head, fins, and bones, as they lie gasping on the shingle; an error of the eye only, as you discover when testing the substance and quality of a large one, smoking hot from the fish-kettle. Three species are commonly offered for sale in the markets, one of which is also taken in Japanese seas. They vary in size; I have often seen a rock cod thirty inches in length. Biting greedily at any bait, they are constantly caught by the Indians when trolling for salmon. ”

“ The skil, or black cod, formerly known as the "coal-fish," is a splendid deep-water product. These cod weigh from eight to twenty pounds, and used to be caught by the Indians with hook and line. Already white men are driving the Indians out by superior methods. Trawls of 300 hooks a [279] re used, and the fish are found to be plentiful, especially off the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands. The fish is described as superior to the cod of Newfoundland in both oil and meat. ”

“ Next to the stability of this great fishery we may note the commercial value of the cod. Different from oily fishes, like the salmon and herring, its flesh is rich and gelatinous, without being fatty, and readily lends itself to a simple and efficient cure27 by salting and drying in the sun. The cured product is found to be the best of all the deep-sea fishes for use in tropical countries, and has never had a rival. ”

“ These flakes are formed by rough supports made of fir poles covered with branches of fir-trees. Each codfish is split, salted and laid open on these flakes. It takes six weeks of exposure to cure the fish, and there is a good deal of labour involved. Each morning the cod must be laid out on the flake. Each evening it must be gathered in, stacked and covered with bark, to which stones are attached to keep it down. This fish is then exported to Roman Catholic countries like Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Austria and Italy, where it forms the staple of food for the poorer population on fast days. ”

“ No one longer cared to fish inside, or, except in emergencies, to provision at Canadian towns. Convenient as would be the power to obtain bait near the fishing-grounds and to trans-ship fish home in bond, neither was indispensable. Cod are still caught with trawls and baited hooks. The best bait is squid, whose abundance upon the Banks is what causes the cod so to frequent them. The squid can be had freshest as well as cheapest from the peasantry of the Newfoundland and Nova Scotia coasts ”

“ Demersal fish, as they complete the larval stage of their development and descend into deeper water, have to rely for their food either upon the various species of young shellfish and crustacea that drop from the surface water as they develop, or hunt for their food amongst the small fish, mollusca, crustacea, worms and seaweeds of the sea-bottom. Plaice feed chiefly upon cockles and other mollusca, which in their turn feed upon diatoms. The cod is almost omnivorous, greedily devouring small fish, crustacea, worms or mollusca; its favourite food, however, is shrimps and prawns. ”

“ In winter the cod retire to the deeper waters, but they re-appear in March and April, when their pursuers hasten to the spot, not only from the bays and coves of Newfoundland, but from Great Britain, the United States, and France.
While fishing, each man has a space three feet and a half wide allotted to him on deck, so as not to interfere with his neighbor. The lines are from thirty to forty fathoms long—for the cod generally swims at that depth. The chief baits used are the squid, a species of cuttle-fish, and the capelin, a small salmon abounding on the North American coasts. ”

“ We obtained a better idea of the vast catch by the experience of one of our parties who spent part of a day at the traps, as the arrangement of nets along the shore is called, into which the cod swim and out of which they are too foolish to go. They are on much the same plan as salmon weirs, only larger, opening both ways, and being placed usually in over ten fathoms of water and kept in place by anchors, shore lines, and floats and sinkers. Once down they are usually kept in place a whole season. ”

“ The fins are enclosed in skin, and their rays are unarmed; the ventral fins are slender and terminate in a point; the median fins are large. The cod has three dorsal and two anal fins. It is a gregarious fish, and abounds in the colder waters of the seas of Europe and Newfoundland. The cod is caught by hand lines and hooks, baited with cuttle fish and shell-fish of various kinds, chiefly on the great banks of Newfoundland. ”

“ It is to the stomach of this species that I am most indebted for many of the rarer of the testaceous and crustaceous specimens which I possess. (For the cod’s bill of fare see p. 284.) The cod is extensively fished for along this part of the coast, and may be termed the poor man’s salmon. Great numbers are salted and dried, and in that state sent to the southern markets. I have occasionally met with a cod of a red colour, in all save the fins, which are generally of a yellowish tinge, and never larger than a common sized haddock. ”

“ It is exceedingly voracious, feeding on the smaller denizens of the ocean—fish, crustaceans, worms and molluscs, and greedily taking almost any bait the fisherman chooses to employ. The cod spawns in February, and is exceedingly prolific, the roe of a single female having been known to contain upwards of eight millions of ova, and to form more than half the weight of the entire fish. ”

“ The spawning season lasts from October to April, but the eggs of any given female do not all ripen at once. “Impelled by the spawning instinct, the cods seek the shoal waters of the coast or banks in shoals consisting of both sexes.” Here the eggs are extruded, float to the surface, and toss about until they hatch, and the fry escape to become the prey of innumerable foes. It appears, however, that many (some say most) cod void their eggs in deep water, whence they rise and drift toward the shore. The destruction of eggs and young through various agencies must be very large ”

“ They are presented simply in illustration of the immense possibilities of destruction when the fisheries are carried on at the spawning season. As a matter of fact, cod are just as abundant along our coasts as they ever were, and it has not yet been demonstrated that any kind of sea fish has ever been diminished in numbers by hook and line fishing or by netting them at a distance from the shore. ”

“ The sheepshead, the smelt, the catfish, the sturgeon, the halibut, are excellent; and so is the swordfish, which is far too little known among gourmets. Its flesh might be more tender, but it has a fine Flavor, suggesting a combination of salmon and halibut.
It is for the cod, however, that I wish to plead most earnestly. Some persons (usually persistent smokers, or individuals whose sense of smell is not well developed) maintain that the cod is "tasteless." As a matter of fact it has a subtle but most delicious Flavor which, when the fish is fresh, reminds me of the flesh of crawfish. ”

“ It is not always equally good, however, because much of the "live cod" is really live hake, which is far inferior in Flavor. The substitution of haddock for cod is less objectionable. Much of the salted and dried fish which goes into the typically American codfish balls, is also cod in name only. Dealers who use benzoate of soda or other chemicals to preserve it, give elaborate directions for soaking them out. ”

“ In November of the year 1855, the writer fishing with the “long line” some little way off the North Foreland, and with a “fleet” containing only 280 hooks, caught fourteen fine cod-fish (the largest weighing thirty-four pounds and a-half) , besides skate, large whiting, conger eels, &c., using sprats for bait, whilst a “professional” cod smack-fishing, not a mile off, and whose hooks amounted to upwards of 3000, caught but three fish, and of these not one was over ten pounds in weight!—the bait used by the smack being whelks. ”

“ The majority of the coast settlers will not eat them, being under the idea that, as they are all but scaleless, they are 'poisonous.' This silly impression also prevails with regard to many other scaleless fish on the Australian coast, some of which, such as the trevally, are among the best and most delicate in flavour. The black and white rock cod is also regarded with aversion by the untutored settlers of the small coast settlements, yet these fish are sold in Sydney, like the schnapper, at prohibitive prices. ”

“ It is not often, however, that sprats are found inside the mackerel; as that fish, like the salmon, immediately it finds itself in danger of being caught, disgorges the entire contents of its stomach. The river-perch has the same habit of disgorging; and of all fish, I think the trout and cod are oftenest found to contain a great variety of food. Both cod and trout in the death-agony will throw up the greater portion of the food in their stomachs, but the salmon and perch will do so as soon as they feel the hook. ”

“ We depend so much on their time of coming that we leave home every year at the same date. They must know their way in the ocean and recognize different marks on their journey, for they have to travel thousands of miles before they return to the fishing banks to spawn. The cod in their migration leave behind them a great many stragglers, which are caught all the year round. The number of cod caught on the banks of Finmarken and of the Lofoden Islands averages about forty to forty-two millions a year, and the total catch along the coasts of Norway amounts to about fifty millions a year. ”

“ The most important cod-fishery in the world is that which has been prosecuted for centuries on the Newfoundland banks, where it is not uncommon for a single fisherman to take over 500 of these fish in ten or eleven hours. These, salted and dried, are exported to all parts of the world, and form, when taken in connexion with the enormous quantity of fresh cod consumed, a valuable addition to the food resources of the human race. ”