The fish called "cod" in English is called cabillaud [kah-bee-YOH] in French. I remember it being considered as an inexpensive and not really high-quality fish back in the 1970s and '80s in Paris. Now it's held in much higher esteem and can be pretty expensive. Cabillaud is fresh cod, not the salt-cured version, which is called morue in France. Often, cabillaud is referred to as morue fraîche.
The latest (electronic) editions of the Larousse Gastronomique food and cooking encyclopedia describe cabillaud as having une chair délicate, blanche et feuilletée. (Chair means flesh, and feuilleté means flaky.) I think that, because cod is so flaky that it kind of falls apart when it is not handled gently and cooked very carefully. That might be why it was not considered a first-class fish in the past, at least among the Parisians I knew. It was not easy to cook at home and it was certainly not expensive.
I can't find any mention of cabillaud being a delicious fish in my 1967 edition of the Larousse Gastronomique. Other old cookbooks — for example, La Véritable Cuisine de Famille, written by a woman known as Tante Marie and published nearly 100 years ago — gives at least half a dozen recipes for cooking salt cod, but only one or two for fresh cod. For centuries, I believe, cod was sold mostly in its salt-cured form in France because it needed to be salted down to survive the long voyage from the cod fishing grounds in the northwest Atlantic Ocean back to France. Nowadays it can be kept fresh under refrigeration.
These days, the cut of codfish that is held in highest esteem in France is le dos de cabillaud. (Dos means "back" or dorsal.) It's not just a boneless filet (or fillet) but it's the thickest and firmest par of the cod filet. (In North America, we tend to use the spelling "filet" instead of "fillet", which is more used in the British Iles. Both are pronounced [fil-AY], I think. Do you say "fill-it" of fish?)
Later editions of the Larousse Gastronomique explain that le dos de poisson correspond à l'ensemble des muscles de la partie dorsale des poissons à deux filets, situé au-dessus de l'arête centrale. Il est plus charnu et plus ferme que le ventre. (Une arête is a fish bone in French. Charnu is related to chair and means meaty or fleshy. Ventre means belly.) I haven't found any reference to dos de cabillaud in other French cookbooks I have. I have seen it described in English as "loin of cod", "cod back", or "loin filet/fillet of cod."
Walt and I bought and cooked a loin filet of cod a few days ago. We cooked it gently in melted butter and white wine and enjoyed it with capers, shrimp, steamed potatoes, and steamed cauliflower florets. Those are the photos above.
In Anglais à la Reine we say a FillEt of fish.... only people trying to be posh would say Fillay and would probably be asked to repeat what they said by the fishmonger!!
ReplyDeleteAnd that hunk of cod looks absolutely delishhhh!
DeleteMy favourite cut of cod is a 1" steak, cross cut so you get the spine at the centre... that is then fried or, preferably, grilled on both sides, the second one getting a thick slice of tomato about hafway through.
In Canada and the US people use the French pronunciation, fillAY, and would be told they were mispronouncing it if they said FILLit. Whatever works, right? :)
DeleteBettyAnn
Yes, BettyAnn.
DeleteBritish English is interesting. There are so many accents and regional or social class varieties. And I say that as someone whose ancestors spoke it. Sometimes British people think American was stolen from the British Isles. It wasn't stolen. It was our ancestors and our native language. You should go to North Carolina sometime.
DeleteKen, a friend of mine is a comparative linguist and a historian. He is of the opinion that American English is probably closer to the actual English that was spoken at the time of the War of Independence and like the British English has evolved, but more slowly and with the input of other immigrant languages... not stolen.
DeleteAnd I would hate to think how many different dialects and accents there are in mainland Britain... even there it is often easier to read the English than hear a local telling you about something!!
What a beautiful meal. I love the delicate taste of cod anyway it's prepared. It's interesting how cod has risen in the world, sort of like kale maybe.
ReplyDeleteLooks delicious.
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
It's interesting that when we say florets here in the U.S., we pronounce the t (floor-etts)... at least I just did, in my head, reading your post :) But, filet is usually feel-ay... I guess because we're all used to hearing feel-ay mignahhnn ;)
ReplyDeleteMy parents, having grown up in New England, always looked forward to pan sauteed cod cooked at home, lightly dusted with flour and bread crumbs. It was a common Friday night dinner, when we were living in New Jersey all of my younger years in the '60s and '70s. Then, the grocery stores (out here in St. Louis, anyway) usually carried it under the name Scrod, which, they told my mom, was something like... young Cod? Ha! Then, the fashion came to be to sell Tilapia, so that's all you could find at the fish counter. We finally realized (probably thanks to Google) that who knows what fish you're actually getting when you order Scrod at the fish counter... could be haddock, cod, tilapia... they don't have to specify, and it just means that it's a tender white fish.
Here in St. Louis, fish is usually expected to be something heavily breaded and deep fried, like a McDonalds filet-o-fish LOL. My husband didn't know what to make of my pretty, delicate, lightly breaded, pan sauteed scrod, when I offered it up for dinner one night. Ha!
Judy, it's interesting that you mention filet mignon. Most Americans think that filet mignon is beef, but in France it's a pork tenderloin.
DeleteSince I grew up on the Carolina coast, I didn't ever see cod. We had our own (warm-water) species of fish: flounder, spots, hogfish, mullets, perch, drum, mackerels, sea trouts, and on and on.
Thanks for the clarification between cabillaud and morue. I never understood that before. Cod is the expected fish component in fish and chips I believe.
ReplyDeleteExcept up North in the UK** where Haddock is the norm! But they are all wonderful!!
DeleteGrew up down South with a choice... Cod, Plaice or Rock Eel [Dogfish].... moved up North no choice... just Haddock!
** Draw a line from Liverpool to the Wash....
" Cod is the expected fish component in fish and chips I believe." True, except now, as it's more and more fished out, other fish are often substituted. Haddock is one, and hake might be another.
DeleteCod - breaded* and oven-cooked or battered and deep-fried - was very common in the UK, until stocks declined precipitously and there was a moratorium or some other restriction on catching them for quite some years. It's back now, but not cheap any more, of course.
ReplyDelete*goujons is the posh word for what is sold here as "fish fingers" - reputedly the frozen food company that launched them back in 50s or 60s very nearly ended up trying to sell them as "cod pieces"......
LOL!
Delete"le dos de cabillaud. (Dos means "back" or dorsal.) It's not just a boneless filet (or fillet) but it's the thickest and firmest par of the cod filet. " There's a very good fish market here in Maine that often carries something called "Captain's cut" of cod. It's pricier than ordinary cuts of cod. I wonder if that's the same cut as you describe.
ReplyDelete