What Sound Does A Cod Fish Make When Having Its Tongue Cut Out?

The answer: "Hmmm!" Cod Tongue is delicious but let's start at the beginning. We wanted to experience real Newfoundland cooking and maybe learn how to cook a few dishes. We signed up with Lori who is the owner of Cod Sounds. What an awesome way to learn the local cuisine. There were four of us in the class and the personal instruction was a nice touch. The conversation was lively, mainly about the food business in Newfoundland and the way life was before modern communications and transportation opened up smaller communities to larger markets and processed foods.

Menu for the Day
Raisin Scones with Tea

Toutons with Molasses

Homemade Bread

Fish Cakes

Pork Pie

Cod Tongue

Homemade Relishes and Pickled Beets

Molasses and Raisin Biscuits

Tip of the Day: When measuring out molasses put a little bit of oil in the measuring spoon or cup and when you pour the molasses into your bowl it just slides off the spoon so easy and there is no wasted molasses left in the spoon. Great idea!

We started with scones and tea

Lori on the right with her mother, Shirley, who are leading the class

Raw Cod Tongues

Lightly breading the Cod Tongue and frying in pork fat. Delicious!

Bev working on her pork pie

The cooked pork pies

Fish Cakes made with salt cod, potatoes, onion and sage

Frying the Fish Cakes

Al working on the molasses and raisin biscuits

Biscuits before going in the oven

Al and Bev with finished bread and pork pies

Meal time: from upper left: freshly baked bread, pork pie,
 fish cake with homemade relish, cod tongue and homemade pickled beets

Al and Bev enjoying their meal

It was an wonderful day!. Wonderful cooks, great conversation, lots to learn and delicious food. What more could you ask for? We were absolutely full. If it sounds like these recipes are high in fat and calories, you are right, but it was explained that back in the olden days, the fishermen and their families needed the high energy meals.  This did not result in a lot of fat people because it all got worked off during the course of the day.

We even left with the recipes and a small cookbook called Fat-Back & Molasses: A Collection of Favourite Old Recipes from Newfoundland & Labrador. We would highly recommend this activity as a must-do while in St. John's. Lori at Cod Sounds also has other cookery classes, restaurant tours, wild foraging and on the beach boil-ups.

More information on Cod Sounds can be found here: www.codsounds.ca