Processing of Cod

Processing of Cod
At the processing pant, the cod are washed and filleted, skinless.

Fillets that are to be frozen for the retail trade are packed in 1 lb (454 kg) waxed carton with or without being first wrapped in moisture vapor-proof plastic.

The fillets may have been passed through a weak brine (10 – 45% saturated salt solution) prior to packaging. For purposes of freezing, retail sized cartons of fillets may be placed on trays, the trays placed on racks, and the racks wheeled on top a blast freezer where very cold air is blown over the product, or the cartons may be plate frozen by being placed in trays in contact with refrigerated plates at -28 degree F (- 33.3 degree C).

Some cod fillets are frozen, usually in a plate freezer, and then cut into fish sticks or fish portions that are then breaded in a batter of flour, dried milk solids, egg solids, spices, and flavoring.

The product is then packaged in retail-sized units and held frozen until sold to customers.

Salted cod was once a major export commodity of the United States, only very little cod is now salted in this country. To produce salted cod, the fish are beheaded and split longitudinally; the backbone and the abdominal cavity lining are remove, washed and layer salted in closed casks (brine salting), in open tubs, or simply in open piles on a low platform (dry salting).

Most of the salted cod is produced by dry salting that is done to produce either a lightly salted product or a heavily salted product. The lightly salted product requires many days to complete, has a relatively low salt content (less than 10%), has better organoleptic properties than the heavily salted once, but it is not shelf stable, the heavily salted product requires week to complete, has a high salt content (about 30%) and is shelf stable.
Processing of Cod

The Cod

The Cod
Cod are found on both sides on both sides of the Atlantic and are most plentiful around Norway, Iceland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and on Georges Bank off Cape Cod. In the Western Atlantic, they range from Greenland to North Carolina. Molluscs (clams, oysters, scallops, etc) are said to make up an important part of the diet of the cod, but cod also eat small fish.

By far the largest quantities of cod are caught with otter trawls in waters ranging from 300 to 1500 ft in depth. Small quantities of this species are caught with long lines, hand lines, or grill nets. When caught with otter trawls, the fish are gutted and washed on the deck of the boat. During summer months, the gills must be removed, but the head is left intact. The fish are stored in boxes or pens, in either case layered with ice.

At the processing plant, the fish are washed and filleted, skinless. The fillets are then candled (observed over a bright light) to locate and removed parasites. Fillets to be sold as fresh precooled, placed in metal tins of 10, 20, or 30 Ib, and the tins are refrigerated (mechanically or in ice) until they reached their destination. Some fillets are precooled, packed in small trays. Overwrapped with the transparent plastic, and shipped to their destination in insulated containers.
The Cod

Otter Trawls

Otter Trawls
Otter trawls are used to catch cod, haddock, flounder, and other bottom fish. The otter trawl is large, cone-shaped net that is towed behind the fishing boat along or just over the bottom. The mouth of the net is fitted with floats at the top and weight at the bottom that serve to keep it open vertically.

Attached to the towing lines, near each side of the mouth of the net, are “doors” or large rectangular wooden frame that keep the mouth of the net open in the horizontal direction. The far end of the otter trawl has a mesh small enough to retain fish of edible size but large enough to allow very small fish to escape.

After the net has been towed for some time, it is pulled up to the boat and the “cod end” is tied off with a strap. This portion of the net is then hoisted out of the water to a position over the deck, and the bottom end is opened by a line attached to a special closing mechanism which allows the fish to fall onto the deck of the boat.
Otter Trawls