The bacalà alla vicentina, as the name suggests, is instead a specialty of Vicenza. The Vicenza chefs have managed to make tender (as well as delicious) a fish that by nature is stodgy and woody. The secret? A long soaking (we are talking about days) and a long cooking in which the fish must not be touched.
But what is cod? Once the cod has been fished, the head, fins, tail and intestines have already been removed from the boat, it is immediately put into barrels with plenty of salt to ensure that it dries out and is preserved for a long time. This is the codfish.
When instead it is unloaded to the shore and brought to dry for months on the wooden grates at a temperature that is around the zero degrees, exposed therefore to the cold air and to the weak rays of the sun of the northern sky, we have the stockfish, that is stock, wood or stick of fish, of fish, such appearing for form and for hardness.
Why then this different treatment? The reason must be referred to the environmental conditions of the fishing periods, in function of the conservation of the fish. It is clear that cod, fished in winter, at higher latitudes and in colder waters, lends itself easily to drying because it is exposed to cold air. In summer, however, when the temperature rises and yet the fishing continues, this procedure, for obvious reasons due to the alteration of the meat, the difficult preservation, is no longer feasible, the problem is solved with the system of the barrel and the salt.
The cod is opened and cleaned, abundantly salted inside the barrels already ready on board of the fishing boats.
