Bacalhau (Salt Cod) Culture

Portugal consumes more salt cod per capita than any other country in the world, and Porto is the place where that relationship is most visible. The dried and salted cod stacked in wooden crates at the Mercado do Bolhão, the bacalhau preparations that appear on every menu, the specialist shops devoted entirely to different grades of fish — this is a culture that treats salt cod not as a nostalgic specialty but as a weekly staple.

The essential Porto preparation is Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá: flakes of desalted cod baked with potatoes, onion, and olive oil, topped with hard-boiled eggs and black olives. The recipe is named after its 19th-century Porto inventor and still appears on virtually every Portuguese restaurant menu in the city. Other recommended preparations include Bacalhau com broa (with cornbread crust), Bacalhau à Brás (shredded with eggs and fried potatoes), and the simpler Bacalhau cozido — boiled cod served with all the vegetables and dressings separately, which gives the best sense of the ingredient itself. The Tasca do Chico in Cedofeita and O Carujo in Bonfim do bacalhau particularly well.

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The Portuguese claim 365 ways to cook bacalhau — one for every day of the year — and the number is often challenged but never fully disproved. Porto's most beloved preparation, Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá, was invented in the city by a merchant named José Luís Gomes de Sá Jr. in the early 19th century. The recipe — salt cod, potatoes, onion, eggs, olives — is as straightforward as the man's intentions: sustaining, affordable, and good enough to eat every week.

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