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Bacalao a la Vizcaína

Bacalao a la Vizcaína reads umami 7.5, salinity 6.6 and richness 5.3 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Basque · Hegoalde (Spain) main, about 51 hr 51 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 7.5 · Salinity 6.6 · Richness 5.3 · Marine & Briny 3.6 · Funk & Ferment 3.2 · Fruity 2.5 · Sourness 2.5 · Citrus 2.5 · Sweetness 2.4 · Allium 2.4 · Smoke 1.7 · Floral 1.6 · Bitterness 1.5 · Earthy 1.3 · Herbaceous 0.9 · Warm Spice 0.8 · Nutty 0.8 · Heat 0.7

What's in it (12)

Time & effort: about 51 hr 51 min (1 hr 51 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 21.5 kcal, 1 g protein, 0.2 g fat, 3.3 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

  1. Start two days ahead. Put the salt cod skin side up in a deep bowl of cold water, cover, and refrigerate for 48 hours, changing the water three times a day. Thick loin needs the full two days; thin tail pieces need about half that. Taste a shred at the end — it should be gently seasoned, not salty and not washed out. Drain, and keep the last change of water if you have no fish stock.
  2. Cover the choricero peppers with very hot water and leave them 2 hours until they are soft and floppy. Open them out, lay them skin side down, and scrape the flesh away from the skin with the back of a knife. You want the pulp only. This red pulp is the whole identity of a vizcaína — there is no tomato in a strict one and no pimentón either, so nothing else is going to supply that flavour.
  3. Warm the olive oil with the diced ham fat in a wide heavy pan over low heat until the fat renders and turns translucent, about 5 minutes. Add all the sliced onion with a pinch of salt. Now cook it for 70 to 80 minutes over the lowest heat you can hold, stirring every 10 minutes. It will collapse, then release water, then dry out again and go the colour of dark honey. This is the longest step and the one people cut short; a pale onion makes a thin sauce.
  4. Add the sliced garlic and the guindilla and cook 2 minutes more until the garlic smells sweet rather than sharp. Tuck in the slice of bread and let it toast into the onions for 3 minutes, turning once — it will drink the fat and thicken the sauce later.
  5. Pour in the white wine, raise the heat, and let it bubble hard for 3 minutes until the sharpness is gone. Add the choricero pulp and the fish stock, bring to a bare simmer, and cook uncovered for 20 minutes.
  6. Blend the sauce until completely smooth, then push it through a fine sieve — this is not optional, the choricero skins leave grit. You should have a sauce the colour of brick that just coats a spoon. Stir in the sherry vinegar and season with salt.
  7. Return the sauce to a wide pan over the lowest heat. Lay the cod in skin side down, spoon sauce over it, and let it warm through for 8 minutes without ever letting the sauce bubble — above a simmer the cod goes stringy. The fish is done when the flakes just begin to separate under gentle pressure. Serve straight from the pan with bread.
  8. Substitutions: unsmoked streaky bacon can stand in for the fat trimmed from a jamón serrano bone; the last of the cod soaking water can stand in for the fish stock.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.