The appearance of this kind of fish, which has been the standard- bearer for all the other kinds of fresh cod that have flooded Spain, has caused a linguistic problem. This is because we Spaniards, who have so many names for every kind of fish and can identify just about every species, lack words to refer to these varieties of newly arrived cod.

In France, for instance, salted codfish is called morue, whereas they say cabillaud if it's fresh. In the north of Europe they also distinguish between the two kinds. I don't know if our Portuguese neighbors, who pride themselves on having a rich and extensive cod repertoire, have different words for it. We'll have to find out.

Is cod the same as pollack?

A distinguished food writer named Fernando Point has recommended calling this kind of fresh cod abadejo, or pollack, but this would only cause confusion. On one hand, pollack is also called green cod because it is a subspecies of cod. Furthermore, the fish that make it to our markets these days are not usually of the green-skinned variety. These usually don't show up until after spring.

Furthermore, people over 45 will probably remember that abadejo was the name given to lower-quality salted cod. These fish were caught at the end of their migratory route when they had already spawned. So they were less fatty and drier.

Need for a new name

So should we come up with a new name for this fish that is both the same as what we know and at the same time different? Many people may find the debate pointless, but it is not.
Indeed, we are talking about the same fish. But the main difference is that one of them needs to spend several hours being salted, then dried and packaged again in salt. Most of the time we have to soak it in water or milk in order to eat it -there are, however, recipes in which the cod is eaten salty-.

This process turns a fish that is by nature bland into one with a characteristic flavor that has permeated cookbooks both traditional and modern in many geographic areas. In that sense we must remember that cod was the dish par excellence of inland people who had to eat fish when meatless meals were called for. It helped if the fish was not rotten. For that matter, have you ever tried to make a bacalao al pilpil with fresh cod? You can't. It just doesn't turn out right.

So, after this discussion of the differences between the two kinds of fish, I'd like to suggest a name for fresh bacalao. Since it is more delicate and subtle (and because there is someone who reminds me of this all too often) we should call it bacalado instead of bacalao. That's right, let's add a big ugly letter D that eliminates all doubt. Or, we can keep saying what we have always said: simply bacalao for salted cod and bacalao fresco for the fresh kind.

Codfish recipes
Desalted cod can be roasted over fried vegetables without tomato, and served over fideroi angelhair pasta that is one the dry side, in other words, finished off in the oven.

You can also make a sauce of tomato, onion, garlic, thyme and oregano, and add pieces of green apple, pepper (also green for the color) and a bit of black pepper. Then, cook the pieces of cod gently over this mix.

Other tasty options for desalted cod include:
- Cut it into pieces while still salted, saut�e with onion, garlic and paprika and finish it off as with a dish of scrambled eggs with a bit of milk and fried potatoes.
- Stuff a well-cooked pig's ear with cod and roast it in the oven with pur�ed peppers.
- Stuff the codfish with grapes and soft cheese, and add a pur�e of roast tomatoes with cumin.
- You can also cook the cod with honey, or following any of the traditional recipes.

If, on the other hand, we are going to cook fresh cod, which is blander than salted cod, we must forget the traditional cod recipes unless we modify them and think more in terms of recipes for fish such as hake.

The following are ways to prepare fresh cod:
- With breaded pig's feet and a light herb sauce.
- Roasted with potatoes and tomatoes.
- In an omelette.
-�In parsley sauce.�
-�In sauce made from shellfish.
-�Breaded with vegetable rice, or with prawns on the side.
-�Raw with caviar, diced tomato and chopped coriander.