Italian · Venice · appetizer

Baccalà Mantecato

Baccalà Mantecato reads salinity 4.0, allium 3.9 and richness 3.8 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Italian · Venice appetizer, about 49 hr 36 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 4.6 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 3.2 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 0.8 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 2.3 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 4.2 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 4.3 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Salinity 4.0 · Allium 3.9 · Richness 3.8 · Umami 3.6 · Sweetness 3.0 · Herbaceous 2.7 · Bitterness 2.0 · Warm Spice 1.7 · Marine & Briny 1.7 · Earthy 1.3 · Nutty 1.3 · Heat 1.0 · Floral 0.9 · Fruity 0.7 · Citrus 0.6 · Sourness 0.6 · Funk & Ferment 0.6

What's in it (11)

• stoccafisso — 500 g
• cold water — 3000 g
• regular milk — 500 g
• bay leaf — 1 g
• garlic — 3 g
• extra virgin olive oil — 230 g
• flat-leaf parsley — 10 g
• salt — 5 g
• freshly ground white pepper — 3 g
• yellow corn meal — 200 g
• water — 800 g

Time & effort: about 49 hr 36 min (1 hr 36 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 48.7 kcal, 3.7 g protein, 0.1 g fat, 8.1 g carbs

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

How it's cooked (7 steps)

1. Venice makes this with stoccafisso, cod air-dried on Norwegian racks, not with salt cod. The name says baccalà and the fish is stockfish, which confuses everybody outside the Veneto; the difference is real, because dried fish gives the fibrous, stringy texture that whips into a cloud, while salt cod gives a wetter, saltier paste. Buy stockfish from a Venetian, Norwegian or Portuguese supplier and ask for it already beaten and part-soaked if you can.
2. Soak the stockfish in the cold water for 48 to 72 hours in the fridge, changing the water twice a day, until it is fully rehydrated, plump and flexible.
3. Drain it and poach it in the milk with the bay and the garlic, barely trembling, for 20 to 25 minutes, until the flesh flakes at a fork. Lift the fish out and keep the poaching milk.
4. While it is still hot, pick the fish over with your fingers, taking out every bone and every scrap of skin. This is tedious and there is no shortcut; a single bone ruins the texture.
5. Put the warm flesh in a bowl or a stand mixer and beat it on medium with a paddle. Dribble in the olive oil in a thin thread, exactly as you would make mayonnaise, for 8 to 10 minutes. The fish will take the oil, whiten, swell and turn into a pale glossy cream. If it looks oily and split, it is going too fast; stop, beat hard for 30 seconds and resume more slowly. Loosen with a few spoons of the warm poaching milk if it gets too stiff.
6. Season with the salt and white pepper and fold in the parsley. Taste carefully: stockfish varies wildly in saltiness.
7. For the polenta, whisk the grain into 800 ml salted boiling water and cook 40 minutes on low, stirring often, then pour it out to set for 30 minutes, cut it into fingers and grill them until scorched. Serve the mantecato heaped on the hot grilled polenta, at room temperature, as a cicchetto with a glass of white.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Bacalhau à Brás (Bacalhau à Brás) — Portuguese
• Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup — American
• Polvo à Lagareiro — Portuguese
• Chicken Jalfrezi with Peppers and Onions — Indian
• Broccoli Cheddar Soup — American

Keep reading: what salinity, allium, richness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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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.