COD

Name: COD
Latin: Gadus morhua
English: Cod

Family: Gadidae

Species: 60 species

Trading forms:
frozen (-18º C): – whole B/E (beheaded / eviscerated); packed in ~ 20 kilo boxes
- fillet, with or without skin, interfoiled, IQF (individually frozen), packed in 10 – 20 kilo boxes

Origin: Norway, Canada, The Faroe Islands, Iceland

Size: – +300 -+1.200 g/piece
- fillets: +150 – 400 g/piece

Preparation: boiled, grilled, fried, coated in a breading mixture with different sauces, oven baked

Nutritional values: proteins 17%, fats 0,3%, calcium, phosphorus, selenium, sodium, unsaturated fatty acids Omega 3, vitamin B12,

Recipes: see www.DonMariano.ro

The cod is a marine fish of the Gadidae family, having a more or less elongated body, covered with small soft and jagged scales and a relatively large head with a prominent upper part of the mouth.
It is the fish with the largest consumption in the world, spread in the northern areas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
It reaches 110 cm in length, and weighs about 15 kilos.
Colours vary depending on the microclimate.

Cod itself or morhua (Gadus morhua), mainly in the Atlantic Ocean, reaches a length of 1.5 meters, has a gray back with round brown spots (English: Atlantic cod); the Pacific cod (Gadus macrocepahlus) is smaller in size and lighter in colour, yellowish with brown spots (English: Pacific cod, gray cod). It is marketed as tainted cod.
Quite often other species of Gadidae are sold as cod: haddock, whiting, southern hake, hake, leng, pollack (Pollock).

Cod feeds on crabs, small fish and ringed worms.
Cod reach sexual maturity after 6 or 15 years. Spawning season is spring and a female may deposit from 500,000 to 5 million eggs.

Cod (all species) represent 14% of total world fishing.

It lives in cold waters, preferably, 2-10 degrees C, in the Atlantic Ocean, Arctic areas, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea.
From the time of the Vikings, cod was a basic product on the trade among the Nordic countries.
The major producing countries: Norway, Iceland, Russia, the Faeroe Islands, China, Ireland.

In Romania the varieties sold are: the saithe cod, Silver Smelt (Silver Cod) Blue Whiting (whiting), Alaska Pollack, red fish, Haddock.

The cod contains very little fat and is known for its firm and, at the same time, tender flesh. It has a pleasant, slightly salty taste.
The classical method of preparation of the cod is boiling.