Brandade de Morue

Christianity brought many tests of faith to its adherents in Europe. Among them, one less bloody than the Crusades but with a more lasting effect on human life around the world was the commandment to eat fish on Fridays and many other days of meatless penance. Because cod, a member of the haddock family (Gadidae), spawned and flourished so greatly in the Atlantic, it fed the pious millions. And in a world without refrigeration, it was preserved in salt and later rehydrated.

Salt cod