Bacalhau à Brás (Christmas Eve — Portuguese Tradition)

Lisbon, Portugal; Bacalhau à Brás attributed to a Lisbon tavern keeper named Brás, c. late 19th century; Christmas Eve bacalhau consumption predates this particular preparation by centuries.

In Portugal, Christmas Eve (Consoada) is the most important meal of the Christmas celebration, and bacalhau — salt cod — is the essential ingredient. Bacalhau à Brás is perhaps the most beloved of Portugal's 365 documented bacalhau preparations: shredded salt cod mixed with fried potato straws and onion, bound with lightly scrambled eggs and garnished with olives and parsley. The preparation is fast (once the salt cod has been properly desalted), deeply savoury, and produces a texturally complex dish — the crisp potato, the yielding cod, and the barely-set egg create three distinct textures that meld in the eating. The salt cod's desalting is the preparation's most time-consuming element and the most critical: 48 hours minimum in cold water, changed three times daily, is required to reduce the salt to the correct level — still salty, but not inedibly so.