Nick Bramham’s Salt Cod & White Bean Gratin
This creamy, cheesy gratin is simple, decadent cooking of the highest order. Words and photos by Nick Bramham.
Good morning, and welcome to Vittles! Today, Nick Bramham shares his method for producing a quick cheat’s version of salt cod, plus a recipe for a salt cod gratin that comes together in under an hour but packs a complex flavour punch. He also discusses the historical links between the emergence of salt cod, European conquest and the transatlantic slave trade.
There are just twenty-five copies of Issue 1 available on our website — we will turn it off next week, so you have until Monday to grab one!
Despite the fact that cod are only found in the icy depths of the North Atlantic, salt cod has been a core part of Mediterranean cuisine since medieval times. Salt cod’s history is inextricably linked to Europe’s legacy of conquest, colonialism and exploitation. Plucked from the heaving seas of the recently settled ‘New World’, huge quantities of cod were beheaded, eviscerated, splayed open and rubbed with salt, before being air-dried until hard as planks of wood, packed into crates and shipped around the Atlantic.
Salt cod was a core commodity of the triangular trade for centuries, thanks to its ability to remain unspoiled for months, even in harsh conditions. It was sent first to Europe, where the best-quality fish were traded for wine, coal and iron. In the Mediterranean, the appetite for salt cod was due in no small part to Catholic observance of the many fast days in the religious calendar: while partaking of the flesh was forbidden, eating fish was allowed. The salt cod rejected by the Europeans was then transported to the Caribbean, where it was traded with rapacious plantation owners as a cheap, non-perishable form of sustenance for the enslaved population. This fish became known as West India cure, and it is a testament to the ingenuity and resilience of enslaved people that this apparently inferior product ultimately yielded the greatest salt cod dish on the planet: ackee and saltfish.
Salt cod in its raw state is bone dry and, as its name suggests, extremely salty – it’s essentially inedible. As a result, it needs to be rehydrated and desalinated in multiple changes of water over a couple of days before it can be used. Once this painstaking process is complete (in today’s Mediterranean food markets you can buy salt cod conveniently pre-soaked, saving you the time and trouble), there are a multitude of fantastically delicious dishes that can be prepared with it. I’ve yet to try one I didn’t like.
At Quality Wines we make our own cheat’s version of salt cod by sprinkling the fish liberally with salt and then curing it in the walk-in for just a couple of days. As it’s nowhere near as dry or salty as the real thing, it doesn’t need rehydrating before use, and while not quite as punchy as bona fide salt cod, it does share a similarly robust flavour and pleasingly firm texture. It’s savoury, pungent and extremely versatile. Having some to hand is a godsend when racking your brain for menu ideas (or craving a late-night snack).
We use our house salt cod in various ways: in a Portuguese-inspired salad of chickpeas marinated with coriander, parsley, red onion and vinegar, topped with pearlescent white flakes of steamed salt cod, sliced hard boiled egg and a big glug of good oil; or to make baccalà mantecato, the iconic Venetian preparation of salt cod poached in milk, then beaten with olive oil until ethereally light and smooth, to be scooped up with slices of fried polenta or garlic-rubbed toast. Or the Provençal feast that is ‘le grand aïoli’, in which we served (just the once actually) thick slabs of poached salt cod with heaving platters of raw and boiled summer vegetables, octopus stewed in Bandol rosé and an arsenal of pots of heady aïoli.
The following recipe is a riff on one of my favourite new dishes we served at Quality Wines this year: a salt cod, spinach and white bean gratin, in which the ingredients are bound in a lighter-than-typical béchamel made with white wine, milk and cream, with only a tiny pinch of flour in the roux. Topped with chunky breadcrumbs, a mix of gruyère and parmesan, and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper for a lick of heat, this is simple – yet decadent – cooking of the highest order. It is very easy to throw together on a weeknight, great with a good bottle of white wine, and could absolutely be scaled up for large groups and Christmas parties.
Salt Cod, Spinach & White Bean Gratin
Serves 2 generously
Time 1 hr, plus at least 24 hrs’ ageing of the fish