Bacalhau à Brás — salt cod with eggs and potatoes, finished with flor de sal

Seafood · Main

Bacalhau à Brás com Flor de Sal

Name: Bacalhau à Brás com Flor de Sal
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4

1 hr (+ 48hr soak) Serves 4 Artisanal Sea Salt + Flor de Sal

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The most beloved dish of the Portuguese coast — salt cod shredded fine, folded slowly with eggs and matchstick potatoes, finished at the table with flor de sal.

Serves

The fish

Salt cod, desalted Soaked 48hrs, water changed every 12hrs
600g
Silva Salt artisanal sea salt
2 tbsp

The base

White onions, thinly sliced
3 large
Garlic cloves, sliced
4 cloves
Good olive oil Esporão Reserva recommended
6 tbsp
Bay leaves
2

To finish

Matchstick potatoes, fried Straight cut, fried until just golden
300g
Eggs
6
Black olives, pitted
80g
Fresh parsley, finely chopped
handful
Silva Salt flor de sal To finish at the table
to taste

Rinse the desalted cod well and pull it apart into rough shreds, checking carefully for any remaining bones. Pat dry.
Warm the olive oil in a wide, deep pan over medium-low heat. Add the onions, garlic and bay leaves. Cook low and slow for 25–30 minutes until the onions are completely soft, sweet and just starting to turn golden.

Chef Maria's note: do not rush this. The onions are the soul of the dish. If they brown too quickly, lower the heat and add a small splash of water.
Add the shredded cod to the onions and stir gently to combine. Season with artisanal sea salt — taste first, the cod carries salt from the curing. Cook for 3–4 minutes.
Beat the eggs lightly with a fork — do not overbeat, you want them to stay slightly streaky. Pour into the pan over very low heat. Fold gently with a spatula, pulling from the edges. Stop while the eggs are still barely set — they will continue cooking off the heat.

The eggs should be creamy and just cohesive, not scrambled. Pull the pan off the heat a moment before you think they're ready.
Fold in the matchstick potatoes and olives. Transfer to a warm serving dish and scatter generously with parsley.
At the table, finish with a pinch of flor de sal over each portion. Serve immediately.

The flor de sal crystals melt on contact with the warm dish, releasing a clean burst of mineral flavour that lifts everything. This final pinch is not optional.

The salt makes the difference

Why flor de sal elevates this dish

Bacalhau has been cured with salt from Figueira da Foz since the 15th century — the connection between this dish and our coast runs deep. Our artisanal sea salt seasons the cod gently through cooking, while flor de sal at the table delivers a final clean burst of mineral intensity that cuts through the richness of the egg. It is a small thing that changes everything.

Get the salt →

Maria Conceição

Head Chef, Casa do Mar · Figueira da Foz

Maria has cooked on the Figueira da Foz coast for over thirty years, feeding fishermen, farmers and the families who gather around the salt pans each summer. Her cooking is built on patience, the best local ingredients, and the knowledge that salt — real salt — is not seasoning. It is flavour.