How to Store Cod Fish: The Complete Guide

If you have managed to find a fresh piece of cod, you might be wondering how to store it safely.

To store cod fish, you can use five methods: freezing, salt curing, pickling, smoking, and canning. Ensure that your cooking temperatures are over 240°F (115.55°C) when canning and 180°F (82.22°C) when smoking. Pickling solutions must have a pH below 4.6, and freeze cod below 0°F (-17.78°C.)

As a Certified Health Coach I’m asked about storing healthy fish, like cod, all the time. I also purchase and consume cod almost once a week. I have researched this topic extensively.

With the correct procedures and guidelines outlined below, you may even extend your cod’s shelf life to a year.

Guidelines on Storing Fresh Cod

Fish is one of the most perishable meats on the market, and you should store them accordingly. As a rule of thumb, you should eat fresh fish within two days of bringing it home.

You can safely increase the storage time to three days before consumption because cod is a lean fish. Bear in mind that if you don’t intend to eat it within this time, consider freezing it.

Between the market and your plate, you should follow some basic guidelines to ensure that your fish remains safe.

cod fish wrapped in plastic. — Storing cod fish

Keep your cod on ice even when in the refrigerator. You may notice that even supermarkets display their fish on ice, and this is because they are highly perishable and may rot even in your fridge. Fish like cod have evolved to live in icy waters, and the warmer air spoils it quickly.

Fish is the most susceptible to decomposition, rancidity, and microbial spoilage, so maintaining a cold temperature is critical to ensure that your cod is safe to eat. The pathogen growth rate is slow considerably at temperatures below 50°F (10°C), and 40°F (4.4°C) is below the minimum growth temperature of most pathogens¹.

On the other hand, pathogens can begin to grow above 70°F (21.1°C), so ideally they should only spend time above this temperature for brief periods.

According to the University of Minnesota, the ice to fish ratio should be one pound of ice for every two pounds of fish². Try to find a cooling rack that can fit in a large tray and ensure that the rack is perforated so your cod can drain well.

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Check out Amazon for all different sizes of cooling racks, cooling racks. The process you should follow with raw fish is:

Remove the fish from its packaging, rinse it thoroughly under cold water and then pat dry with clean paper towels.
Place the fish on the rack without it overlapping and place in a larger tray packed with ice. The fish should not touch the ice, and the ice should reach just under where the fish rests.
Cover the container in plastic wrap or foil, making sure that you seal it tightly
Replace the ice when it melts if you are not planning on eating the fish that day.

Freezing Fresh Cod

If you are not planning to eat the cod within three days, you should consider freezing the fish. There are two options for optimal freezing of raw fish, ensuring that the fish is appropriately gutted and cleaned after catching or store purchasing ((University of Minnesota Extension: Preserving Fish Safely)).

The first option is to:

Prepare the fish as you would for cooking, cut larger pieces into steaks or fillets, or freeze smaller fish.
Wrap the fish in two layers of sealed heavy-duty freezer bags (the second layer enables easier thawing).
Date and label the fish and store at temperatures below or at 0°F (-17.78°C.)

You may freeze smaller fish or small servings of fish in ice.

Place fish in a shallow pan or airtight container, cover with ice water and freeze for 8 to 10 hours until solid.
Remove from the container and wrap in plastic.
Label and store at 0°F (-17.78°C) or lower.

cod fish on a wood cutting board. — Cod Fish for storage

How Long Can You Store Frozen Cod?

Any frozen fish will be safe indefinitely if frozen at 0°F (-17.8°C) or less, but the flavor and texture will suffer from too lengthy storage³.

You should use frozen fish within 3 to 8 months for the best quality and ensure you do not remove it from the freezer for longer than 2 hours.

Salting Cod as a Preservative

The history of salted cod is interwoven with the history of humanity. From about 800 AD, the Vikings traveled and explored with the dried cod as reserves. Norweigan’s based their communities on the Atlantic cod’s seasonal migrations and brought the delicacy to Europe in trade.

The Portuguese and the Basques also have histories interwoven with this remarkable fish.

This salt-cured fish market has endured over 1000 years, and we can still use these ancient methods to preserve our modern-day cod. Salt preserves the fish because it reduces the water activity of food or the amount of water available to allow microbial activity.

Salt decreases this activity by sodium and chloride ion’s ability to interact with water molecules⁴.

Salt causes osmotic shock in microbes causing the cells to die or to impede their growth.

How to Salt Cod

Bacalhau or bacalao is a traditional dish that cures dry cod by a salting process. You need to put aside a week or two to prepare your cod properly and ensure that it is properly cured and dried.

Remove backbone in large fish by cutting lengthwise.
Rinse your gutted cod under clean running water thoroughly and pat dry with a clean dish towel or paper towels.
Spread a half-inch layer of medium grain sea salt in a glass or stainless steel container. Plastic is not recommended as it may contain a BPA called bisphenol which can be harmful.
Lay your fillets in a single layer skin side down, making sure that they are not touching each other and lay another half-inch layer of salt on top of the fish. If you have multiple fillets, you may repeat the same process and layer them above your first layer ending with the skin side up.
Ensure that you complete the top layer with another half-inch of salt.
Cover the container and place it in your refrigerator for 48 hours.

In the old days, the fisherman used to dry their stokvis on rocks of the cold Norwegian cliff faces. You might not have a cliff face handy, but this alternative should be fine. After salting your cod for two days:

Remove your fish from the fridge, rinse properly under cold water and thoroughly pat them dry with paper towels.
Wrap the cod in cheesecloth and place it on a rack above a container. Leave it in your fridge for up to two weeks.
When your cod is dry and hard, place in containers or wrap in foil or butcher’s paper.
Store in your fridge for up to three months or freezer for a year.

Pickling Cod as a Preservative

Brining and pickling cod are specialized fields that need to be professionally executed, lest they cause harm. These are a means to store your cod but under advisement.

One can preserve seafood with acids such as vinegar (acetic acid) or citrus juice (citric acid), one of the earliest fish preservation methods.

All pickling recipes have one thing in common. They have enough acid to prevent Clostridium botulinum, a potentially fatal fish borne pathogen⁵.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture has published guidelines if you wish to use it⁶.

Most good fish pickling recipes call for salt curing before brining in an acidic pickling solution. This step removes some unwanted bacteria and slows the growth of others, reduces the water content, firms up the muscle protein for a good texture in the final product, and reduces the level of activity of some of the enzymes in the fish that can cause spoilage.

Salt Curing

Always cure your fish with salt before brining in a pickling solution, remove bacteria, and slow potential pathogens. Curing also reduces the water activity of pathogens mentioned above in the salting process ((National Center for Biotechnology Information: Preservation and Physical Property Roles of Sodium in Foods)).

This process also prevents certain enzymes within the fish from breaking down proteins during storage, reducing water and firming muscle. Follow the salting method above but extend the salting to 5 to 8 days.

Brining

Place cod in saturated brine using 1 part fine kosher salt to 31/2 parts water. Submerge entirely with a clean weight or a container that has a lid to submerge the fish.

The brine and fish should be equal in volume with the top layer of cod skin side up. Brine cures the fish for 5 to 8 days, preferably under 50˚F (10°C).

Preparing Brined Cod

Rinse your brined fish thoroughly in a process called freshening and soak in a freshwater tub for no longer than a day. The flavor depends on the brining’s length, the amount of salt, and your taste.

Rehydrating Your Salted Cod

For salted cod, first, ensure that the fish is rehydrated properly before pickling. In bacalhau, this process may take 2 or 3 days, depending on the cod’s thickness.

Rinse the cod in cold water to remove the salt and then place it completely submerged in water in the refrigerator.
The following day, rinse the cod thoroughly, drain out the water, and replace it with fresh water at least twice. Leave in the refrigerator for a second day.
On the third day, drain and rinse your cod. Cut a small piece from the thickest section to decide if you have found the right salt level to your taste. It is safe to taste because it is cured.
Repeat step 2 if your cod is unduly salty. It should have a salted flavor that is not unpalatable.

The Pickling Solution

Although your organic acids, vinegar, lime, lemon, limit pathogens, and inhibit bacteria that cause food spoilage, it will not preserve the fish indefinitely⁷. The acidity must be high enough to prevent botulism by maintaining a pH of below 4.6. It should never be less vinegar than water in the solution or one or more parts of 5% vinegar to one part water.

Besides the acids, the other components are about taste and do not alter the solution’s preservative quality in any measure. If you aren’t enamored of intense vinegar flavors, you may substitute part of the vinegar for lemon or lime juice. Alternatively, you may up the sugar levels to compensate for the vinegar tartness.

Items	To make about 1 gallon	To make about 2 liters
Water	3 pints	750ml
Vinegar 5% White	4 pints	1000ml
White sugar	2 cups	240g
Salt	4 tsp	30g
Pickling Spice (Mixed)	¾ Cup	110ml
White Onion (Chopped or rings)	2 small	1 Small
Garlic (Chopped/dry)	¼ to ½ tsp	2 to 4ml

You may add more sugar for sweetness, but never the vinegar to water ratio. After you place the fish in pickling brine, it should be refrigerated, preferably at 38˚F (3.33°C) temperature or lower. This method should give you a 4 to 5-month shelf life on your pickled cod.

This is a basic solution and you may add other spices to taste:

1 gallon of pickle solution should be sufficient for 6 to 7lbs (3kg) of fish
2 liters of pickling solution should be adequate for 1.5 kg (3.3lbs) of fish

The Pickling Process

Remove skin if desired. Skin prolongs storage life in the salting process.
Cut fish into strips or bite-sized pieces according to your preference.
Place the fish in sterilized glass jars. The jars, caps, and lids, and the tongs for handling them must be placed in boiling water for 5 minutes to be sterile.
Place the fish in the sterilized jars ensuring that you do not pack them too tightly.
Cover with the pickling solution, replace lids, and keep under refrigeration until the bones soften (about 1 to 2 weeks).

Smoking Cod as a Preservative

smoking cod fish for storage. — Smoking cod fish

Smoking is another method that you can use to increase the shelf life of your cod⁸. Once again, ensure that you use fresh fish that is whole or filleted and thoroughly washed.

Brine your fish first.
Remove from brine and rinse the fish, patting the meat dry with paper towels.
Place your meat thermometer in the thickest part of your cut in your largest portion of meat.
Place your fish in a smoker when it reaches 100°F (37.77°C). You will need another thermometer to measure this.
During smoking, the air temperature should rise to 225°F (107.22°C)
The fish flesh should reach 180°F (82.22°C) and remain at this temperature for at least 30 minutes⁹.
You may store your smoked cod in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Canning Your Cod

Because cod is a leaner meat fish, they do not lend themselves to canning as readily as the more fatty type fish such as salmon and tuna. You may remedy this dryness by placing one tablespoon of olive oil to each pint of lean fresh when you are canning your cod.

You must ensure that your fish is processed safely at temperatures above 240°F (115.55°C) or higher to destroy botulinum bacteria. You will need a pressure canner to reach the temperatures required. Use standard heat-tempered glass jars of 1 pint (473ml) for the method below.

Your home-canned cod will last you about a year, according to the USD ((USDA: How long can you store fish)).

Preparing

Cut your cleaned fish into 3 ½-inch lengths (about 9cm).
Place your fish with the skin facing the glass leaving a 1 inch (2.5cm) gap at the top of the jar.
Adjust lids and process.

Processing

The processing times vary to altitude, and The National Centre For Home Preservation¹⁰ gives the process times and pressures as the following:

Style of Pack	Jar Size	Process Time	0 – 2,000 ft	2,001 – 4,000 ft	4,001 – 6,000 ft	6,001 – 8,000 ft
Raw	Pints	100 min	11 lb	12 lb	13 lb	14 lb

Canner Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of 0-2000 ft, 2,001-4,000 ft, 4,001-6,000 ft, 6,001-8,000 ft

Style of Pack	Jar Size	Process Time	0 – 1,000 ft	Above 1,000 ft
Raw	Pints	100 min	10 lb	15 lb

Table 2. Recommended process time for FISH in a weighted-gauge pressure canner. Canner Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes 0-1000 ft & Above 1,000 ft

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