Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá is the aristocrat of the thousand cod recipes — and one of the few with a birth certificate: created by José Luís Gomes de Sá, a cod merchant’s son, at the Restaurante Lisbonense in Porto in the late 1800s. His handwritten recipe survives, complete with the warning that substitutions would produce “a good dish, but not bacalhau à Gomes de Sá.” Duly noted, sir.
His genius move: soaking the flaked cod in hot milk before baking, which turns it impossibly tender. The cod then bakes with golden onions, potatoes and olive oil, and arrives crowned with hard-boiled eggs, black olives and parsley.
Readers working through the site’s bacalhau collection — à Brás, com natas, à lagareiro, Zé do Pipo — will find this one the most elegant of the family, and possibly the best introduction to salt cod there is.
Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá Recipe
Prep time: 30 minutes (plus 24h soaking and 1h in milk) · Cook time: 40 minutes · Total: about 2 hours active · Servings: 4 · Calories: ~420 per serving
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds salt cod, soaked 24 hours (water changed several times)
- 2 cups hot milk
- 1½ pounds potatoes, boiled in their skins, peeled and sliced
- 2 large onions, sliced into thin rings
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- ¾ cup olive oil, divided
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
- Black olives and chopped parsley, to garnish
- Salt and white pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Pour boiling water over the soaked cod, cover, and rest 20 minutes. Drain, remove skin and bones, and flake into large chunks.
- Cover the flaked cod with the hot milk and let it soak 1 hour — the Gomes de Sá signature step.
- Meanwhile, cook the onions and garlic slowly in half the olive oil with the bay leaves until golden and sweet.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- In a baking dish, layer the potatoes, drained cod and onions. Season lightly, pour the remaining olive oil over everything.
- Bake 20 minutes, until golden at the edges and fragrant throughout.
- Garnish with the eggs, olives and a flurry of parsley, and serve straight from the dish.
Recipe Notes
- Thick loin pieces of cod flake into the meaty chunks this dish wants — avoid thin tail cuts.
- The milk soak is non-negotiable; it is the difference between good baked cod and Gomes de Sá.
- A drizzle of raw olive oil at the table honors the Porto original.
- Leftovers are excellent — gently reheated, never microwaved to death.
