Cod on the tables of the lower class in the Modern Period

A food choice from outside that became a success story

Abstract

 The aim of this article is to make it known the importance of cod on tables of the lower class since it was first fished by the Portuguese in the Modern Period (late 15th and 16th centuries).With the help of coeval documentary sources, we tried to attest to its importance within this social group, analysing the references made to it and, after certifying its importance, looking for the reasons for this appetite, which was always growing, even when the Portuguese stopped fishing it and started buying it from foreigners in the mid-17th century.
The results of our analysis allowed us to conclude that this consumption was due not only to its affordable price (as was the case with sardines), but also to the great importance given at the time to the dietary restrictions advocated by religion, with several days of abstinence a year, particularly during Lent, when the consumption of meat was seen as a serious sin and condemnable in the eyes of society as a whole.
We also tried to understand the negative connotation that this fish had at the time among privileged social groups, which was frequently mentioned in the sources, and investigated the reasons for this. We found that the very association of this fish with the lower classes was at the root of this connotation, in addition to the fact that it was linked to days of abstinence (which called for sacrifice and deprivation, so undesirable among the more privileged), and also the fact that it wasn’t fresh fish (favoured by the elites since the Ancients).