History of Cod in Catalonia: From the North Sea to Your Table

Cod, Inseparable from Human History

Few foods have had such a profound and silent impact on human history as cod. This cold-water fish, swimming in the icy currents of the North Atlantic — from Iceland to Newfoundland, from Norway to the coasts of New England — has for centuries been much more than a culinary ingredient. It has been a currency of exchange, a military ration, a driver of oceanic explorations, and, ultimately, the food that allowed Europe to expand beyond its borders.

The history of cod is, in many ways, the history of global trade. Before the spice routes or the triangular sugar trade existed, there was already a commercial network articulated around a single product: salted cod. A humble fish that, thanks to its almost limitless preservation capacity, became the perfect food for an era without refrigeration.

And nowhere in the Mediterranean is this history lived with such intensity as in Catalonia, where cod was not only adopted as a basic ingredient but also generated its own gastronomic culture, a unique profession — the bacallaner — and a relationship with the product that endures to this day in markets like the Mercat del Ninot in Barcelona.

Vikings and Basques: The Origins of Salted Cod

The relationship between humans and cod dates back to the Nordic peoples. The Vikings, those relentless navigators who sailed the northern seas between the 8th and 11th centuries, were the first to discover that cod could be preserved for months if dried outdoors on the wooden structures they built along their coasts. The dry cold of the Scandinavian winter did the work: the wind and sub-zero temperatures dehydrated the fish, turning it into a rigid, light board that they could transport on their long expeditions.

This dried cod — the Nordic stockfish — was the silent fuel of the Viking expansion. Without it, voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and the North American coasts would have been impossible. They did not have salt in abundance, so they dried the fish naturally, and that was enough for it to last for months without spoiling.

But it was the Basque fishermen who transformed cod into the product we know today. Basques fished in the waters of Iceland and Newfoundland since the Middle Ages — according to many historians, before Columbus crossed the Atlantic. Unlike the Vikings, the Basques had something that changed the game: salt. The salt flats on the Cantabrian coast and in southern France provided them with salt in abundance, and with it they developed the technique of salting cod.

Salted cod was superior to dried cod in several aspects: it kept even in warm climates, it withstood sea transport better, and when desalted, it regained a tender and juicy texture that stockfish never achieved. The Basques made salted cod their flagship product, and for centuries they jealously guarded the secret of their fishing grounds in the North Atlantic.

In the 19th century, the docks of Bilbao became the nerve center of the cod trade in the Iberian Peninsula. From there, it was distributed throughout Spain and Portugal, in a logistics network that supplied markets, convents, barracks, and homes alike. Bilbao was to cod what Amsterdam was to herring: the port where ships loaded with salted fish converged and where prices governing the market were set.

How Cod Conquered the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean, cradle of fishing civilizations, had its own prestigious fish from antiquity: red tuna, sardine, red mullet, sea bream. The Romans were crazy about garum, that fermented fish offal sauce that was the universal condiment of their cuisine. The Greeks venerated tuna and depicted it on their coins.

However, when salted cod arrived in the Mediterranean at the hands of Basque and Portuguese traders, it quickly displaced many of these fish in popular consumption. The reason was simple and compelling: no other fish combined preservation, versatility, and flavor so well.

Cod, once desalted and rehydrated, transforms. It loses the hardness of salting and becomes a tender and soft fish, with a unique gelatinous texture that flakes into silky layers. It absorbs the flavors of the ingredients with which it is cooked — olive oil, garlic, tomato, pepper — without losing its identity. It is a fish that combines well with practically everything, from the simplest sauces to the most elaborate preparations.

This versatility explains why each Mediterranean region developed its own culinary tradition around cod: Portuguese bacalhau à Brás, Italian baccalà alla vicentina, Provençal brandada, Catalan esqueixada and bacalao a la llauna. The same ingredient, hundreds of recipes, and all excellent.

Cod, Wars, and Empires: A Fish That Changed History

Having cod meant being able to feed armies, resist sieges, and sustain expeditions lasting months. In an era when fresh meat was a luxury reserved for nobility and clergy, salted cod was incomparably cheaper than meat for feeding soldiers and travelers. A barrel of salted cod could remain edible for a whole year without any refrigeration.

This logistical advantage made cod a strategic resource of the first magnitude. The great European powers did not fight only for territories and trade routes — they fought for cod fishing grounds. Control of the Newfoundland fisheries was one of the recurring causes of conflict between England, France, Spain, and Portugal during the 16th to 18th centuries.

The cod wars are not a metaphor. They were real conflicts, with armed fleets and international treaties that delimited fishing areas with the same precision with which land borders were drawn. Even in the 20th century, Iceland and the United Kingdom clashed in the so-called Cod Wars (1958-1976), a series of disputes over fishing rights that almost caused a diplomatic rupture between two allied NATO nations.

But the geopolitical impact of cod goes far beyond fishing wars. Many historians argue that cod was one of the drivers of European expansion into America. The Newfoundland fishing grounds, discovered by Basque and Breton fishermen before the great official expeditions, were one of the first economic reasons for Europe to look westward. Cod preceded gold and spices as an incentive to cross the Atlantic.

The Catalan Cod Route: From the Baltic to Barcelona

If cod reached the entire Iberian Peninsula through Basque ports, its definitive popularization in Catalonia followed a different and fascinating route. It was the Catalan ships trading with the Baltic that consolidated cod as a mass consumption product in Catalan lands.

The route worked like this: Catalan ships loaded barrels of wine and Caribbean brandy — high-value products that sold for good prices in northern European ports — in the ports of Barcelona, Tarragona, and other points along the Mediterranean coast. Once the goods were unloaded in the Baltic and Scandinavian ports, the ships' holds were empty. And the perfect ballast for the return journey was, precisely, salted cod.

Catalan captains filled their holds with barrels of cod bought at wholesale prices in Nordic ports and brought it back to Barcelona, where it was sold in markets at accessible prices for the population. It was a perfect business: money was made in both directions of the journey, and cod also served as natural ballast that stabilized the ships during the return voyage.

This trade route, active since the 18th century and especially intense during the 19th, was what flooded Catalonia with salted cod. It was not a cultural imposition or a gastronomic fad: it was the logical result of a trade route that brought cod to Barcelona in large quantities and at competitive prices. The market did the rest.

Cod and the Working Class: Food of Industrialization

The 19th century transformed Catalonia. Industrialization turned Barcelona and its metropolitan area into the economic engine of Spain, attracting thousands of workers from the Catalan countryside and other regions. The textile factories of the Llobregat and Ter, the workshops of the Raval, the shipyards of Barceloneta — all needed labor, and that labor needed to eat.

Salted cod became one of the fundamental foods of the Catalan working class during industrialization. Along with herring, sardines, potatoes, cabbage, bacon, and bread, cod was part of the basic diet of working families. It was a humble but nutritious food, rich in protein, that could be stored without refrigeration and yielded a lot: one kilo of dried cod was equivalent to almost three kilos of fish once rehydrated.

The working-class kitchens of the 19th century developed ingenious recipes to make the most of cod. Esqueixada — raw shredded cod with tomato, onion, and olives — required no cooking. Cod with mongetes was a hearty dish that filled the stomach. Cod fritters made use of every last scrap. These were recipes born of necessity, but over time they rose to the category of gastronomic classics.

This democratization of cod is one of the keys to understanding why Catalonia has such a special relationship with this product. It was never an elite food — it was the people's fish, the one that fed generations of workers, the one eaten during Lent because the Church forbade meat, but also the rest of the year because it was what was available. And precisely for that reason, it is held with an affection and respect that transcends the purely culinary.

The Bacallaner: An Exclusively Catalan Profession

From all this history emerges a unique figure in the world: the bacallaner. The bacallaner is the professional specialized in the sale of salted cod — and it is a profession that does not exist anywhere else in the world. Not in Portugal, with its veneration for bacalhau and its supposed 365 recipes. Not in Italy, with its long tradition of baccalà. Nor in the Nordic countries, where it is fished. Only in Catalonia does the figure of the bacallaner exist as a differentiated and recognized trade.

The bacallaner was born in the context of 19th-century Catalan industrial society. When cod consumption became widespread in Barcelona and the Catalan factory cities, demand was such that a professional who dedicated exclusively to this product became necessary. It was not just any fishmonger — it was someone who understood the varieties of cod, who knew how to distinguish Icelandic cod from Norwegian or Newfoundland cod, who mastered the desalting times according to the thickness and cut of each piece, and who could advise the customer on what type of cod they needed for each recipe.

The bacallaner selected the pieces at source, received them in the markets, cut them according to the customer's needs, and transmitted knowledge passed down from generation to generation. It was a trade of extreme specialization, comparable to that of the xarcuter (charcutier) or the formatger (cheesemonger), but focused on a single product.

In Barcelona's markets, cod stalls had their own identity. They were distinguished by the unmistakable smell of salting, by the opened and dried pieces hanging on hooks, by the piles of crumbs and trimmings neatly arranged on trays. The bacallaner knew his customers by name, knew what they bought every week, and saved the best pieces for them. It was a commercial relationship based on trust and mutual knowledge, typical of Catalan market culture.

This profession, which might seem anachronistic in the age of supermarkets, is still alive. And it remains alive precisely because salted cod is a product that requires expert knowledge: a thick loin from Iceland is not the same as fine flakes, nor is a two-centimeter piece desalted in the same way as a four-centimeter one. The bacallaner is the guarantor that this knowledge is not lost.

Bacalalo and the Mercat del Ninot: Living Tradition Since 1990

In the heart of Barcelona, in the Mercat del Ninot of the Eixample district, the tradition of the bacallaner has been alive for more than three decades. Bacalalo has been selling the highest quality cod in this historic market since 1990, keeping alive a trade and a culture that date back centuries.

When you enter Bacalalo, you connect with all the history we have covered. The Icelandic cod you see on the counter has made the same journey that Catalan ships made two hundred years ago: from the cold waters of the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean, passing through a salting process that the Basques perfected in the Middle Ages. The product is the same; only the ships and routes have changed.

What has not changed is the philosophy of the bacallaner: product knowledge, rigorous selection, and personalized attention. At Bacalalo, we select each piece of cod for its origin, its thickness, its salting point, and its texture. We know that cod for esqueixada needs a different firmness than one for a stew, and that desalted cod ready to cook is the perfect solution for those who want to enjoy the product without waiting the 48 hours of traditional desalting.

Today, with our online store, this tradition from the Mercat del Ninot reaches all of Spain. You no longer need to live in Barcelona to access cod selected by a bacallaner with decades of experience. Every order we prepare carries not only a top-quality product, but all the history, knowledge, and passion of a profession that only exists here.

Because that is what we are: the heirs of a tradition that began with the Vikings drying fish in the fjords, that the Basques perfected with salt, that Catalan ships brought to the Mediterranean, and that the bacallaners of Barcelona's markets turned into a unique trade in the world. From the North Sea to your table, the history of cod is also our history.

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