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Kokt Torsk
Vestlandet · Western Fjords

Kokt Torsk

Poached winter cod served the coastal way — with its roe, liver, boiled potatoes and melted butter.

40 minEasy
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Cultural Context & History

When the skrei cod run into the western fjords each winter, the classic reward is kokt torsk: fish poached whole in salted water and served with its own roe and liver — nothing wasted, everything celebrated.

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg fresh cod cutlets, thick, sliced on the bone
  • 5 tbsp salt per litre of water, for the cure
  • 2 tbsp salt per litre of water, for poaching
  • 1 tbsp vinegar21 kcal · 0 g protein · 0 g fat · 0.9 g carbs per 100 g
  • Melted butter and chopped flat-leaf parsley, to finish
  • Boiled potatoes, to serve

Per-100 g values shown for ingredients verified against Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central (snapshot 2026-09-11). Ingredients not yet verified show no nutrition line.

Recommended Tools

  • Wide stockpotHolds the cutlets in one layer for even, gentle poaching.
  • Slotted fish sliceLifts the delicate cutlets without breaking the flakes.

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Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. 1

    Sprinkle the cod cutlets generously with salt and leave to cure at room temperature for 30 minutes to firm the flesh, then rinse well.

  2. 2

    Bring a large pot of water to the boil with 2 tbsp salt per litre and the vinegar, then lower the heat until the water sits just below a simmer.

  3. 3

    Slip in the cutlets and poach gently for 8–10 minutes, until the flesh flakes easily from the bone.

  4. 4

    Lift out carefully with a slotted spoon and serve at once with melted butter, chopped parsley and boiled potatoes.

Chef's Tip

Keeping the water just below a simmer is the whole art here — a rolling boil toughens the cod and shakes the flakes off the bone before they reach the plate.

Chef's Tip

The 30-minute salt cure is worth the wait: it draws out water and firms the flesh so the cutlets hold together in the pot.

How this page was made

Written by
The Norcook editorial archive. No individual author is named yet — see the editorial and food-safety policy for what that means and what has to happen before a byline appears.
Content last checked
— “checked” records an editorial check, not a qualified review. Where one exists, the recipe-specific review record appears in the food-safety callout.
Regional context
Vestlandet — the hub carries the wider background, the ingredient glossary and its own sources.
Sources
No page-level sources are recorded for this recipe yet. The cultural background above is written as general context, not as a sourced historical claim.

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