To be honest i didn't know such a thing existed until recently but after seeing it on a TV chef show (in the UK) where he rated it very highly i thought why not at least try it once?... after all, i have stopped buying fresh fish from the supermarket because it's nowhere near as fresh as it ought to be, add that a good quality fishmonger near me is now harder to find than hens teeth.

It's not cheap and certainly isn't fast food, at least 24 hours is needed to reconstitute the dried fish and remove the salt, but the claims that it should be as fresh as the day it was caught intrigued me

The cost and preperation time doesn't faze me if it's as good as it sounds, being shipped from Shetland to Edinburgh i didn't expect it to be cheap, if it's as good as it sounds it will form a part of my occasional treats and worth every penny

Anyway, what do i plan to do with this Salt Cod?

Initially something very simple, you don't get much more simple than fish & chips but you do need good quality fish... something that in my opinion is very lacking in store bought fish these days.

The Salt Cod i bought is this one, bought from here:
https://saltcod.co.uk/collections/thule-ventus-dry-products/products/250g-new-salt-dried-cod


The recipe i'm going to use is very simple to the point i can't see how it could go wrong:
https://www.christinascucina.com/deep-fried-battered-salt-cod-baccala/

After the year i've had and now that i appear to be in a recovery phase where i can carry out tasks so long as i don't over-stretch myself, all i can think of is the Cod has been in water and recycled for 24 hours so far... YUM YUM i can't wait to cook you tomorrow!

Don't expect your fish and chips to be the same as you are used to when using salt cod. Yes, when hydrated, it will be as fresh as to safe to use but it will fall far short of actual fresh fish as to flavor. You will not get rid of all the salt so be cautious when cooking... don't add additional salt.

The above said it can be very good if done properly. Just don't expect it to turn out exactly as what you are used to.

Fish is a touchy thing with me as I love it but can't eat it. Well I CAN eat it but it just does not seem right. I got spoiled by fishing in cold water lakes in Canada as a teen. I'm talking about fresh to the point of catching a small mouth bass or pickerel (walleye) and hitting shore and throwing in a cast iron pan. Take my favorite, small mouth bass. When truly fresh it has a lemony taste naturally. Even when on ice that lemon flavor goes away in a couple of hours. I have a problem with buying fish in a store or restaurant as it just does not taste fresh to me.

Something else I learned in Canada is that Northern Pike makes for an excellent milk based chowder. Think of New England clam chowder but with the Pike instead of clams. It is a very oily fish which lends well to a cream based chowder. You MAY know Northern Pike as Muskie. They are quite similar but not actually the same fish.

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Actually cod for me is a bane that i live with to this day, when i was about 12yo my dad (who was a merchant navy officer at the time, sadly long deceased) took myself and my sister out on a small lobster boat in the Firth of Forth, his friend who owned the boat was more than happy to have us aboard... it was a small boat probably no more than 30ft?

He hauled his pots and along with crab and lobsters he also caught cod in the pots.... when we got back ashore his wife cooked one of the cod for us, to this day i have never tasted anything like it, it was amazing to taste cod caught straight from the sea.

Short of finding some way of getting access to a fishing boat that can catch and land cod in the same day again i doubt i'll ever experience the same taste again, that said, i do hope that Salt Cod that is caught and landed on the same day will go a long way to helping me live that taste again... time will tell

I could not agree more with you that store or restaurant fish is not the same as freshly caught and landed fish, like you i can eat it but it's not the same.

Blimey! You weren't kidding about the taste, i really didn't like it at all, i expected it to be salty but that wasn't the issue, i just found the taste really odd and didn't like it at all... oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained.

My next venture is to try the spice formula for a well known US chicken franchise that the Chicago Tribune shared circa 4 years ago... just waiting on the herbs and spices to be delivered tomorrow... surely chicken can't go as wrong as Salt Cod?

The Chicago Tribune still has the page available on their website so for that reason alone it would probably be safe to share here, but because i don't want to fall foul of something that i'd expect to be copyright protected i won't share the link... it's easy to find if you want it though.

Don't worry about such a link as no copyright is involved. I imagine that the chicken is KFC. I have three such recipes along with their coleslaw. The reason that it isn't an issue is that these 'copycat' recipes are not exactly the same as that in the store. They are put together by people that just try, as best as they can, to mimic the taste. If it is KFC I'm sure it contains buttermilk. Everything they do includes buttermilk including the slaw.

I've never used it myself but salt cod does have its purpose in many recipes but I wouldn't consider fish and chips to be one. From what I've seen it is often used in casseroles.

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Yes, KFC, the recipe reported in the Chicago Tribune was apparently taken from a family album (pic included in the article) that belonged to the second wife of Col. Sanders and was shown to the journalist by a nephew of Col. Sanders.
That said the nephew does say it isn't his uncles handwriting, so who knows?

How much truth is in that i have no idea but reports are that if it isn't the original recipe then it's damn close... for that reason alone i want to try it... add that what i get from a KFC in Scotland today is nothing like what i used to get back in the 80-90's so if this even close then i want it

The Chicago Tribune article:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ct-kfc-recipe-revealed-20160818-story.html

I don't know about buttermilk as this is presumably only for the seasoning/flour mix?... maybe buttermilk is used to bind the mix to the chicken, i don't know?

I forgot to add the following that does indeed touch on buttermilk (my bad!)... it's kind of hidden in the above link so in case you missed it:

KFC recipe challenge: Tribune kitchen puts the 11 herbs and spices to the test
https://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/recipes/ct-kfc-recipe-test-20160818-story.html

Note also that KFC have since confirmed that MSG is also in their current recipe, i would like to try it without MSG but if i feel its lacking something then i will order and try adding MSG.

Doddie, you made your last post while I was typing but I'm going to post this as is anyway...

In deep frying buttermilk is used to soak the chicken or whatever, usually at least a couple of hours but up to overnight. The enzymes in the buttermilk break down the proteins making for a more tender bite. It also adds some acid. With just having the herbs I'd suggest soaking in buttermilk then doing a double dredge. Take out of the buttermilk and dredge in the flour mix. Then do an egg then flour to finish. Let it sit for a few minutes if you want the batter to stick better.

Here is a fried chicken tip from an old lady I used to know. Cut up some onions and put in the hot frying oil. When the onions turn black the onion flavor has been leached to the oil. Another oil tip is to make it hotter than what you want to cook at. Remember that when you add the product it will lower the oil temperature.

LOL! Cooking is my second hobby.

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LOL, i know all that, just surprised that KFC might have used buttermilk... live and learn

I have a 3.5 litre deep fat fryer, actually i've had many over the years but none have come close to the one i own now, i love the filtration system because it means i can filter out residue that normally spoils the oil, i can reuse the same oil for many different purposes... with the greatest of respect to your lady friend i'm not sure that even with the greatest filtration system in the world adding onions to the oil would be a good idea

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01I06PEBU/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_ZJJFHEXV1ZHEQYT26WCX?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Here is my fryer. It is 4 liter.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Farberware-4L-Deep-Fryer-Stainless-Steel/635296283
It is nice except that I didn't notice the max temperature. The max is 350 degrees which is too low. One of these days I'll get another and either give away or sell cheap the one I have. The one you linked looks decent and I may consider... Hmmm on a quick search I don't seem to see a U.S version.

What kind of oil do you use? Peanut is the most popular but I prefer safflower. What I like about the safflower is that it imparts no flavor to the food and has a smoke point of 500 degrees. Well, if you get the right kind of safflower it has a smoke point of 500 degrees. There are two kinds and the wrong one has a smoke point of around 300 degrees if I remember right.

As to the lady and onions her situation was different as she owned a restaurant and did a LOT of chicken. She changed her oil every day so there was no issue as to filtering out onions although it could probably be done with a strainer and cheese cloth.

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To be honest i have no idea what safflower oil is, possibly beacuse we label things that are the same with different names?

The most common type of oil used in the UK today is vegetable oil, this is the one i use:
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/254918073

Another point worthy of note but likely not important is that on your side of the pond you still talk in Farenheit where as we tend to only use Celcius these days... i wish we still used F because it often causes confusion.

I'm surprised you can't buy the same deep fat fryer on your side of the pond, Tefal is a very well respected product on this side of the pond, my fryer has a maximum temp of 200C, which unless i'm mistaken is circa 390F.

Intigued to know what you cook that needs anything near 500F

I cook nothing that requires 500 degrees but the higher the smoke point the slower the oil will break down. Just means that the oil will survive more times of use. My main like for safflower is that it imparts no flavor.

Your oil is a form of what we call Canola oil which would be my second choice. I NEVER use corn oil as it just imparts too much flavor to the food. I just don't like it. Doing another quick search it seems that the closest to safflower oil on your side of the pond is the canola oil you use.

I may be able to find the fryer you have on this side of the pond but it may go by a different model number.

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Apparently what we know as Tefal in the UK is called T-FAL on your side of the pond.
https://www.t-falusa.com/Kitchen-appliances/Fryers/Ultimate-EZ-Clean-Fryer/p/7211001726?scc=fryers

The above link isn't quite like for like but it's very close to the point that only minor cosmetic changes seem to exist, as is the case on the US Amazon website (other sellers exist):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NQ7QFGM/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_512B864B5JSD948FG4GB?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I'm a bit mystified about the negative feedback compared to the UK feedback but maybe that's due to the where the fryer is manufactured for the US market?

Should add that after reading some of the feedback on the US websites there is a button on the underside of the filter that when cleaning opens the filter to flush and clear the filter, i suspect many who complain they can't clean the filter didn't read the manual?

Just like MANY perfectly good hard drives being returned as DOA due to the user not knowing that they need to go to Drive Management to activate the drive...

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RTFM is not used widely enough, happily it means we can get many perfectly good products that are so called refurbished for knock down prices

I was just going to post the link that Doddie had posted, well not the same link but for the same fryer. It's the one I used to use and it was really good and did a good job of filtering the oil.

Since being on my own now I got rid of it as it was too big and I'm not cooking at the moment, I can't stand long enough to make a meal, but I'm very well fed in fact better fed now than before and fed healthier.

I use a firm over here called Wiltshire Farmfoods and their meals are delicious and not too expensive, I have one of their puddings after as well and couldn't be happier.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

@ Joan: There are several residents in my apartments that have meals brought in. As to myself I still like to cook for myself.

@ Doddie: I have two or three hard drives that are refurbished/re-certified along with my router and laptop.

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My deep fat fryer, along with xmas tree and Dyson vacumm cleaner are all refurbished by Amazon from their Warehouse section... what i like about Amazon Warehouse is they grade the products and list any cosmetic faults etc... in most cases the product has never been used, likely opened by the original buyer and just reboxed by Amazon... there are some great bargains if you don't mind the fact that you won't be the first person to have handled the product since it left the factory.... in the case of my Dyson it was clearly opened but never assembled, presumably whoever ordered it couldn't (or didn't want to?) assemble it so sent it back because all the component parts were still in their original sealed Dyson packaging

As for my PC products i've lost track of how many are refurbished, if memory serves me right Amazon Warehouse products come with a 30 day no quibble guarantee with free returns shipping... i have no issue such a short warranty, if it works then whatever it is would likely out live the original warranty anyway.

It's a risk of course but i've had nothing let me down so far except for SD cards & memory sticks, which seem to be a bit hit and miss no matter where i buy them from.

As an aside, the KFC recipe i was going to try today is on pause until tomorrow, my local supermarket was sold out of Ground Cinnamon so rather than try the recipe without cinnamon i've ordered some from Amazon that is scheduled to arrive tomorrow

You may want to look at Newegg.com and Tigerdirect.com along with Amazon when looking for something refurbished/re-certified. From your saying a 30 day warranty the other two MAY offer better. It was years ago but my laptop carried a 90 day warranty and my drives, I think, a year. Yes, going this route is a risk but I have yet to have a bad experience.

Another good source is B&H Photo and Video. They sell just about everything but I don't know if they are international.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/
They also offer a number system on used item condition. In fact I got my 300mm telephoto camera lens from them. It is a $650.00 lens new that I got for $300.00. Condition was shown as a 9 with 9.5 being the highest. The thing didn't even have a single scratch or blemish. I'm still using the lens 7-8 years later without issue.

There ARE some things that I would not buy refurbished or re-conditions some of which are CPU, video card and memory. My reason is that I have no way of knowing if they have experienced a thermal shock.

Hmmm, Ground Cinnamon for KFC? I have, I think, three copycat recipes but don't remember that being included. Then again I've never actually done any of them so can't be sure. I go on recipe hunts now and then but never seem to use them. To be honest I can't remember the last time I actually used a recipe. I'm one of those cooks that looks at what is there and thinks about what can be done. When my mother taught me how to cook she never really leaned toward recipes. What she taught me was to not be afraid to experiment. It is just like what I'm having today which is boneless beef short ribs. Right now I have no idea as to whether the sauce will be BBQ, Mandarin teriyaki or sweet chili.

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Newegg and Tigerdirect i know i have seen you mention before, i don't think they have UK websites so i've never looked at them as a serious alternative for me... i've been bitten by import taxes before, not for PC stuff but when i imported a secondhand fuel (gas) tank for a bike i owned years ago and couldn't find one in the UK, i bought one from California and was hit with (if i recall correctly) £30GBP in import taxes for a tank that only cost $60USD. That was a lot of tax given that at that time the exchange rate for GBP to USD was circa $1.60.

Absolutely agree about a CPU and memory, especially memory... a video card i will take a punt on if the price is right though and at least has a short term warranty.

Yup, the recipe on the Chicago Tribune website lists Ground Cinnamon, sounds very odd i know but look at the other spices and herbs and it looks even stranger but i won't know if it works until i try it... add that if i don't add cinnamon it could ruin the whole spice mix?

I haven't quite given up on fish quite yet so today i ordered some fish from an Edinburgh fishmonger... until the pandemic hit very few, read as none, did online deliveries, but now that that is pretty much their only source of income due to lockdown and small businesses (inc restaurants) not allowed to open their doors to passing trade a lot do... especially the ones with a reputation (read as mostly those in affluent areas, so not cheap).

I've ordered some Lemon Sole Fillets,
Smoked and peppered mackerel fillets.
Arbroath Smokies.

The sole filets i am really looking forward to, as a commis chef i worked in a classic French restaurant and i absloutely loved the simplicity of the sole fillets... rub with a clove of garlic, place on a baking tray, place into a hot grill, wait a couple of minutes until the fillets rolled up into a ball, remove from the grill and eat... simply delicious!
There was i think a beurre blanc poured over the fillets but in my opinion they didn't need it
My only issue with that is i can't remember if a knob of butter was placed on top of the fillets before placing under the grill but i guess if i mess up one fillet i'll know soon enough

Peppered smoked mackerel is another favourite of mine, i actually like to eat it cold but it can be eaten hot... i used to buy this from
the supermarket but lately they have come so full of bones that i haven't any for at least 2 years, my hope is that a decent fishmonger does better at de-boning the fish.

Arbroath Smokies are legendary in Scotland, ideally i'd be able to travel to Arbroath to buy them but with the travel restricions as they are that's not possible.

I don't mind the cost if what i get is fresh, i like this mongers delivery strategy...

Time will tell if the quality is what is claimed, i hope it is but if i don't try i'll never know!

I hope that you don't mind but I edited your last post Doddie. The issue was putting the link in a quote in the last line. The thing about a quote is that it does not leave a space on either end. This is needed for a quoted link. As you posted the link was inactive but it now works. Please check that the link still goes where you intended.

I LOVE fresh mackerel, or as is commonly called here, walleye. It is probably my favorite fish to do as a beer batter fry with perch as a close second. Striped bass is also very good for a beer batter fry, possibly better than the perch. I remember when I lived in Ft. Worth Texas I went to a bar that did "group dinners". The manager and his brother would go fishing for striped bass and do a big batter fry. Regular customers would bring side dishes and we would chow down. Another bar I went to did similar but with smoked pork. The owner had a huge smoker that was actually mounted of a trailer. three or four times a year he would bring it out and smoke a whole quartered hog. Again regulars would bring the side dishes. In both cases it was free and awesome eats!

Here is a fond memory about a walleye. When I was a young teen (13-15 years old) my grandfather would send me to a YMCA based camp in Ontario Canada. MAN! The stories I could tell from those camps! Anyway, they had a fishing contest which I happened to win with a walleye that ~7.5 pounds. It got me a complete Shakespeare fishing rig. To this day my favorite open faced reel is still Shakespeare. As to possible stories about my Canada trips consider that we were seldom in the base camp. Most of the time we were out in the wild in canoes. The last year I went we followed the Hudson Bay Explorers course of around 750 miles ending up in James Bay which is an outlet of Hudson Bay. This is far enough north that it is where Canada is bordering the Arctic Ocean. We actually 'rolled' a Beluga Whale off of a sand bar. Also were visited by a pack of Timber Wolves at a camp site and "politely" escorted out of his area by a bull moose.

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It does go where i intended and thank you for editing it.

Male formative years are indeed strange and unique to every one of us who is male!

My sister to this day does not understand why i got away with things that she could not, to a degree i agree with her but she can't understand why the women in our family went out of their way to shield me from life... e.g. she was expected to go to funerals etc wheras i was not... i don't really get it myself but given the history of what the women in my family had lived through i sort of get it... two world wars and not knowing if a third was coming, i sort of get how the matriarchs felt boys should be boys before being sent to war.

A different time in a different era, in the same way that in the 70's you wouldn't join the US Marines and dance along to this in the barracks! LOL
Village People - YMCA OFFICIAL Music Video 1978
https://youtu.be/CS9OO0S5w2k

I got my current mobile phone via Amazon, it's the iPhone 7 Plus and came with a 12- month return guarantee if it didn't work as it should.
It's a great phone and came with 128GB storage and the battery life is great, I like the bigger size as it's much easier for me to do texts etc.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

I was going to have a chinese takeaway delivered tonight but because the weather decided to dump almost 3 inches of snow within an hour where i am, and it's still snowing, it was becoming increasingly likely that unless delivery drivers have access to snowmobiles i had no chance of a home delivery.

So, instead i decided to try the KFC recipe from the Chicago Tribune website... the first attempt didn't start very well because i completely messed up the spoon sizings but fortunately i realised that before the chicken went near the spice mix, binned and try again.

The second attempt went really well for the spice mix but i forgot to whip an egg into the buttermilk, by the time i realised that mistake the chicken was already in the buttermilk... oh well, push on, the coating might not be as crispy as i would like but as this was all about how the spice tasted i pressed on...

OMG, it was actually VERY tasty, not convined it's KFC but the lack of egg probably didn't help with that, that said it's not far off and with a bit of tweaking (e.g, adding MSG i guess it could be?).

For a first attempt i was amazed at how good it was, bonus being even my wife loved it... a definate win!

@Jay, not sure what made me think last night that i needed Cinnamon, it's not in the recipe!