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I bought a dried and salted cod (aka Bacalhau) and cut it into pieces, used some of those and left about half of it in a dry, dark area in the kitchen cabinet for a month.

Salted cod should last much longer than that, what got me worried is when after re-hydrating and desalinating the remaining pieces in water (about 48 hours). I saw the outside of the fish became light-brown instead of white.

The cod smells perfectly, it's just the appearance. I asked several restaurant cooks and they said it's fine to consume, which I did.

My question, why did the salted cod become brown? Did I make a mistake in the re-hydrating and desalinating process?

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Vickel
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1 Answers1

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I suppose, the reason why the cod got brown, was that after storing the several pieces, the cut face, despite dry and salted, was not covered by the skin of the fish anymore and started to oxidation, hence the brown color.

That is the reason in my opinion.

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  • what I do now: to avoid the oxidation start desalinate right away and freeze the piece when done – Vickel Dec 30 '21 at 00:57