Classic Canadian Dishes: Cod Au Gratin

By Gabby Peyton

By the grace of cod, Canada’s east coast, in particular Newfoundland and Labrador, holds that Atlantic whitefish up on a pedestal. The codfish has had a long and storied life as the main ingredient on many people’s tables.

The fish of legends

Legend has it that when John Cabot sailed towards Newfoundland’s craggy coastlines in the 1490s, the sailors lowered baskets into the water and pulled them out overflowing with codfish. To say it was an abundant resource would have been an understatement, and from that moment, the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese were returning every year to fish off the Grand Banks and along the coastline of Canada’s most easterly province, and later the Maritime provinces and eastern Quebec. They would do so for hundreds of years.

But by the time the settlers had arrived with their baskets, the Indigenous peoples had already been eating cod for thousands of years. In Newfoundland, it was the Beothuk; in Labrador, it was the Inuit and First Nations and in Nova Scotia, the Mi’kmaq.

The European settlers dried and salted the fish on flakes (a platform for drying cod) to ship it back to the continent and by the 1800s, they had switched up their boats to longliners and their homes to permanent settlements across the Atlantic provinces.

But all fountains run dry — the 1992 cod moratorium shifted the whole economy of Newfoundland and Labrador, wreaking havoc on the province’s main industry and livelihood both in the boats and in the kitchen. The stocks have still not recovered, nor has the economy, but the love of cod remains.

Cod is versatile

But today, cod is still king in the kitchen. Not only is it a versatile whitefish, but Newfoundlanders and Labradorians know how to make it taste darn good. Any dish with “fish” in the title is made with cod: Fish and chips, not to mention dishes like Fish and Brewis, a delicious mash-up of salted cod, hard bread and scruncheons (fried pork fat). Fried cod, baked cod, you-name-it cod. And then there is Cod au Gratin.

While some culinarians might scoff at the idea of fish with cheese, Newfoundlanders love a good scoff of Cod au Gratin indeed (a scoff is a meal, in NL vernacular of course), and have been doing so for generations. So, get flaked and enjoy this meal.

Hungry for more? Check out these Classic Canadian Dishes:

• In a Jam(Jam): The History of Jam Jams in Canada
• Meat Pie Magic: The History of Tourtière
• Triple Threat: A History of the Nanaimo Bar
• Delicious Squared: History of Date Squares
• The History of the Iconic Jiggs Dinner
• The History of Pea Soup in Canada
• The History of Baked Beans in Canada
• Classic Canadian Dishes: Pouding Chômeur
• Classic Canadian Dishes: The Lobster Roll
• Classic Canadian Dishes: Saskatoon Pie