Cod as food facts for kids

Cod and other fish like haddock and pollock are popular foods. They belong to a fish family called Gadidae. These fish are known for their mild taste and white, flaky meat.

Cod Fish: A Popular Choice

Canned cod liver

Cod is a very popular fish to eat. It has a mild flavor and its meat is white, firm, and flakes easily when cooked. Young cod or haddock, cut into strips for cooking, are sometimes called "scrod."

Cod is also used to make other products. Its soft liver can be canned or turned into cod liver oil. This oil is a great source of important vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin E. It also provides healthy fats called omega-3 fatty acids.

In the United Kingdom, Atlantic cod is one of the main fish used in the famous dish fish and chips. Cod is very versatile and can be used in many different recipes.

Other Fish Like Cod

Haddock: A Close Relative

Haddock is another very popular fish for eating. You can buy it fresh, smoked, frozen, or dried. It's also used in fish and chips, especially in Scotland where it's often the top choice for a "fish supper."

Fresh haddock has clean white meat. You can cook it in the same ways you cook cod. To tell if a haddock fillet is fresh, check if it feels firm. Fresh fillets also look a bit see-through, while older ones might look chalky.

Unlike cod, haddock doesn't salt very well. So, it's often kept fresh by drying or smoking it.

Smoking haddock is a special skill in Grimsby, England. Families there have been smoking fish for many generations. They get their haddock from places like Iceland, Norway, and Faroe, where fishing is managed carefully to keep fish stocks healthy.

One famous type of smoked haddock is Finnan haddie. It comes from a Scottish village called Findon. This haddock is cold-smoked over peat (a type of fuel). People often eat Finnan haddie for breakfast, gently cooked in milk.

Another special smoked haddock is the Arbroath smokie from Arbroath, Scotland. This one is hot-smoked, meaning it's already cooked and ready to eat.

Smoked haddock is naturally off-white. But it's often dyed yellow, just like some other smoked fish. Smoked haddock is a key ingredient in an Anglo-Indian dish called kedgeree.

In 2010, Greenpeace International added haddock to its "seafood red list." This list includes fish that are often sold but might come from fishing practices that are not good for the environment.

Pollock: The Versatile Fish

Atlantic pollock is also considered a whitefish, though it has a slightly stronger flavor than cod. For a long time, it was a popular food in countries like Norway. In the United Kingdom, it was often a cheaper choice instead of cod or haddock.

Recently, pollock has become more popular. This is because there has been too much fishing of cod and haddock, making them harder to find. Now, you can find pollock in most supermarkets as fresh fillets or frozen items. It's often used in fish fingers or to make imitation crab meat.

Because pollock can have a slightly gray color, it's often prepared in ways that hide this. For example, it's used in fried fish balls. In Germany, pollock can be salted and smoked to look orange, like salmon. In Korea, pollock is prepared in many ways, like being frozen and melted repeatedly to make hwangtae, or dried to make ko-da-ri or book-o.

In 2009, a UK supermarket called Sainsbury's tried to make pollock more popular by renaming it 'Colin'. They hoped this new name would encourage people to buy it as an environmentally friendly choice instead of cod.

Dishes Made with Cod and Similar Fish

Name	Image	Origin	Description
Ackee and saltfish		Jamaica	This is Jamaica's national dish. It's made with salt cod cooked with boiled ackee, onions, tomatoes, and spices. It's often eaten for breakfast or dinner with other foods like breadfruit or dumplings.
Bacalaíto		Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic	These are fritters (fried dough) filled with minced salt cod. They are a traditional snack, often eaten at beaches or festivals. They are crispy outside and chewy inside.
Baccalà mantecato		Italy	A Venetian appetizer made from whipped salt cod.
Cabbie claw		Scotland and Orkney	Made with young fish like cod, haddock, or whiting. Other ingredients include parsley, horseradish, and mashed potato. The sauce is made with butter, flour, milk, eggs, and nutmeg.
Bacalhau à Brás		Portugal	This dish uses eggs, thinly sliced onions, matchstick-sized potatoes, and salt codfish. It's cooked with garlic, olive oil, fresh parsley, and black olives.
Crappit heid		Scotland	This dish means "stuffed head." It comes from fishing communities where the more expensive parts of fish were sold, and the less attractive parts were kept for meals.
Cullen skink		Scotland	A thick soup made with smoked haddock, potatoes, and onions. An authentic version uses finnan haddie. It's often served as a starter at Scottish dinners.
Fish and brewis		Newfoundland	This meal combines cod and "hard bread" (a type of cracker). The salt fish and hard bread are soaked overnight, then boiled separately until soft. It's traditionally served with "scrunchions," which are fried pieces of salted pork fat.
Fish ball		Widespread	Usually made from white fish like cod or haddock.
Fishcake		British	Similar to a croquette, this is a patty made of filleted fish and potato. It's sometimes coated in breadcrumbs and fried. Traditionally, salt cod was used, but now other white fish like haddock are common.
Fish finger		United Kingdom
Fried fish		Widespread
Lutefisk		Nordic countries
Pescado frito		Spain
Scrod		New England and Atlantic Canada
Shirako (milt)		Widespread
Taramosalata		Greece
Traditional Grimsby smoked fish		Grimsby, England

Images for kids

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  Preserved codfish