Cod is king in Portugal at Christmas

Employee Jose Martins, 81, chooses a salt cod slab for a costumer at the Manteigaria Silva grocery shop in Figueira square, downtown Lisbon on December 16, 2024. Grilled, fried, in a salad or with cream: according to popular saying, there are as many recipes for dried cod as there are days in the year in Portugal, the world's largest consumer of "bacalhau" and where it is the traditional Christmas dish. — Photo: Patricia DE MELO MOREIRA/ AFP

Salt cod has long been a national staple in Portugal, where it is said there are as many recipes for this humble fish as there are days in the year.

And at Christmas the dried and salted fish is central to meals at family gatherings in Portugal, the world's biggest consumer of "bacalhau" as it is called here, just as turkey is at Thanksgiving in the United States.