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Brandade of Codfish
Remove skin and cut in pieces a two-and-a-half-pound piece salt cod and soak it in cold water eighteen hours, changing the water two or three times. Drain, place fish in a saucepan with cold water to cover fish and let slowly cook (but not boil) for twenty minutes. Drain on a sieve, remove all bones, place cod in saucepan and briskly shred it with a small spatula for five minutes, then squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, pour in drop by drop a half gill good olive oil, sharply stirring while adding it; then pour in also, little by little, a half gill cream, add teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, one saltspoon cayenne and mix well. (By this time the brandade should be creamy and consistent.) Dress on a hot, deep dish, arrange six slices toasted French bread around and serve.
A pounded salt-cod emulsion, closer to a Provencal brandade than to the potato-heavy version most people know. The whole dish rests on building an emulsion with warm fish, so keep the pan warm and add the fat slowly.
- The hinge: add the oil like mayonnaiseThe olive oil must go in drop by drop into fish that is still hot, with continuous vigorous stirring, or it will pool instead of emulsifying. If it splits, stop adding oil, work in a spoonful of hot cream to bring it back, then continue.
- A half gillA gill is half a cup, so a half gill is 4 tablespoons. You need 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup cream for a 2 1/2 lb piece of cod.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is about 1/4 teaspoon. With cayenne that is assertive but correct for this dish; add half, taste at the end, and adjust.
- Soaking the codEighteen hours is right for a thick, hard-dried salt cod. Soak it in the refrigerator, not on the counter, and change the water four or five times rather than two or three. Thinner modern fillets are often adequately desalted in 12 hours.
- Poaching timeTwenty minutes below a simmer suits a whole thick piece; cut pieces are done in 8 to 10 minutes, and longer only makes the flakes stringy and harder to work smooth. The water should barely tremble, never boil.
- ShreddingA wooden spoon or a mortar and pestle gives the right slightly fibrous texture. A food processor will do it in seconds but easily turns the fish gluey, so pulse briefly if you use one.
- SaltDo not season with salt before tasting. Depending on how thoroughly the fish was soaked, the finished brandade may need none at all.
- Yield and servingServes four to six as a first course. It must go out hot in a warmed dish; once chilled the emulsion stiffens, so reheat gently over low heat with a spoonful of cream if it sits.
- What is missingGarlic is common in Provencal versions, and potato appears in many of them. This is a plain-tasting version by comparison; a crushed clove worked in with the parsley is entirely in keeping.
Brandade de morue belongs to Provence and above all to Nimes, and the name is generally traced to the Provencal brandar, to stir or shake, describing the long beating that turns poached salt cod and oil into a cream. Its existence inland depends on trade: cod caught in the North Atlantic and preserved travelled south and east for centuries, and dried salt fish became the standard resource of Catholic fast days in regions that never saw a cod alive. The version here, without potato, is the older-looking one; potato is usually described as a later economising addition, and cooks in Nimes have argued about it ever since. Salt cod was ordinary in the United States too, and a French treatment of the same barrel-cured fish counted as something worth teaching.