If you are like me, reading about food makes you think about food, which makes you hungry for a salty snack. By now, you've already been reminded of salt sauces, preserved hams, and salt cod. If you like to cook, you may be looking around for recipes that involve these historic ingredients. If you are interested in bringing historic ingredients to life in a palatable way, read on.

Miso Salt Cod:

The first ingredient that is brought up that we'll use is soy sauce. Everybody has had soy sauce and you can read all about that in the book. They take soy beans, layers of salt, and let the salt prevent rotting while fermentation kicks in. I buy the stuff and use it all the time as an ingredient rather than as a condiment. This recipe is no exception.

Next up is miso. This is a paste that is made by fermenting soy beans, salt, wheat and or barley. It adds tons of flavor to any dish and can be thought of as a vegetarian bouillon paste. You can buy it at asian markets or upscale grocery stores like wegmans or whole foods. I love this stuff because it makes meat taste meatier.

Mirin is a rice wine. It is not related to salt, but is very tasty. You can substitute 3 parts rice vinegar with 1 part brown sugar for mirin in dishes.

Salt cod: This takes some sourcing. They sell some in the refrigerated section of my grocery store, but that is weak sauce. It isn't fully salted and dried and, in my opinion, tastes fishier than dried cod. It also costs more than the slabs that I can buy at my local market. Heck, I can buy frozen cod cheaper from the same grocery store. Avoid the refrigerated wooden box cod unless you're afraid of walking into your local ethnic market.

This leaves some extra sugar and maybe some ginger, if you're feeling spicy. I have nothing to say about those.

So, this does take time. It is a project. It may not be worth it if you don't appreciate food and cooking and history as much as I do, but go ahead, it's awesome.

So, you have hunted down the miso, the soy sauce (you can go low sodium here, I'll allow it, but it may not be needed). You've wandered into a funky smelling ethnic market that sells salt cod like cords of wood. You even hunted down some miso, now what?

Rehydrating salt cod is a great deal like preparing a sea monkey tank. Only instead of sea monkeys, you're making dinner, and instead of filling the tank once, you do it 8 times. Yup. Take your salt cod, break out the butcher's cleaver or toothed utility knife and cut into 3" wide steaks. Maximize that surface area. Each steak will serve 1 person, so I buy my salt cod by length rather than weight. A foot will feed your average, adventurous family. A side will give a few second servings.

So you have these steaks, but they are salty and hard and not exactly pleasant smelling (they shouldn't smell too bad as they may have gone off, think beef jerky, but with fish). Rinse them in the sink and then put them into a large bowl with plenty of cold water. Let it sit in the fridge for 2 days and change out the water every 6 hours. I find it is enough to do it breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The goal is to similtaneously rehydrate the fish and reduce the amount of salt. Believe it or not, when prepared properly, salt cod isn't overpoweringly salty.

So, you have your rehydrated cod steaks, what do you do now? Drain them and then put them in a gallon bag with a marinade made from 1/3c light or blond miso paste, 1/4c brown or white sugar, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 2 tablespoons mirin, 2 tsp soy sauce (optional if you are afraid of salt), and some ground ginger (optional, if you are feeling spicy). Marinade for 1/2 hour to an hour.

Heat up a cast iron skillet with some peanut or canola oil to piping hot and drain the fish from the marinade. Toss in the filets and cook 4 minutes on one side and 3 minutes on the other. The goal is for the inside to be tender and flaky and the outside to get a good carmelized coating.

Serve with wilted spinach and rice.

The next set of chapters make me hungry for kippers and sardines, so I may post about those next week. Or maybe spaghetti carbonara if people want to try something besides fish.

Recipe:

• 4 cod steaks, re-hydrated in plenty of water which is changed every 6-8 hours over 2 days in the refrigerator
• 1/3c light or blond miso paste
• 1/4c brown or white sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tsp soy sauce (optional if you are afraid of salt)
• ground ginger (optional, if you are feeling spicy)
• Peanut or Canola oil for frying

1. Marinade the cod in the paste for 1/2 to 1 hour
2. Preheat a heavy pan with oil in it over high heat until the oil is piping hot
3. Brown the cod filets in the oil for 4 minutes on one side and 3 minutes on the other, or until the inside is tender and flaky.

EDIT: Yes you can use frozen or fresh, unsalted cod, just be sure you use regular soy sauce. Or if you're worried about cod not being a sustainable catch, go for some sustainable white fish, or salmon, or whatever.