There are a number of old fashioned salt cod vendors in Malaga and Cádiz but it is not easy to buy in Conil. We have discovered that we can buy desalted cod from Mercadona.
Traditionally desalting is carried out at home by soaking the cod in water from 24 to 48 hours, changing the water at regular intervals. The water the cod is submerged in has to be very cold to prevent the flesh of the cod from breaking open. If, even after all the changes of water, the cod still has too much salt it can be soaked again for two or three hours in cold milk, and garlic can also be placed on its skin.
Copesca Sefrisa based in Barcelona prepare desalted cod sold under the Royal brand either chilled or frozen. The cod is from Norway and is hand caught and desalinated in Spain using the traditional desalting process. The pieces are placed in tubs with refrigerated water in a room at a very low temperature. The number of times the water is changed and the length of time the cod is kept in the water will depend on the size of the pieces and the type of cod. After the desalting has been completed the cod for the desalted chilled product range is packaged in a protective atmosphere while the cod for the deep-frozen desalted product range is deep frozen in a modern freezing tunnel using liquid nitrogen.
The raw materials are cod, air and water, and the only preservatives are cold and salt.
