Pollack and saith are similar fish to cod, but their stocks are under much less pressure.The picture for cod is not entirely black. Production levels of up to 40,000 tons of cod per year from fish farms in Norwegian waters have been predicted within the next decade. To conserve stocks, you should try to make sure that any cod you buy comes from Icelandic waters, which are relatively well-stocked. Though the fish lives to 50 years of age, almost half the cod aged between two and eight is removed from the North Sea each year by fishing.However, only one-fifth of Britain’s cod comes from this area.

According to the Marine Conservation Council, North Sea cod is “on the brink of collapse”. In 1994, Canada’s Atlantic cod fisheries were closed, involving the loss of more than 30,000 jobs. After sustaining a voracious fishing industry for 500 years, Canadian cod was commercially extinct.This warning inherent in this decline is particularly relevant to the UK, since we consume more cod than any other nation on Earth. But it has among its predators man, an open-mouthed species greedier than cod.” This greed has resulted in the fishing-out of Newfoundland’s Grand Banks, once the richest cod fishery in the world. Rick Stein uses it in a cassoulet with Toulouse sausages and in a stew with chickpeas and parsley. Mitchell Tonks insists that salt cod grilled with oil and wine vinegar tastes “like the best fish and chips that I have ever had” and raves about a salt cod lasagne with onions, mozzarella and parsley: “A cracking family supper.” He suggests that you are better off salting your own cod since much of that sold in the UK is too hard.Whether we yearn for it in the form of fish and chips or brandade de morue, our cod is under threat.As Kurlansky points out: “If ever there was a fish made to endure, it is the Atlantic cod – the common fish.

Gordon Ramsay advocates baked cod with lentils and leeks in a mustard dressing or in a butter-herb crust. Sophie Grigson recommends roast cod with a crust of breadcrumbs, lemon, garlic and parsley. She also says that a cod soup with vegetables and cream was “something of a saving grace” when she spent 10 days in northern Norway.The concentrated flavour of salt cod is a particular favourite of chefs. In any fish cookbook, there are a host of recipes for this versatile seafood The big-flaked cod roasts superbly. In Sweden, the fish is simmered with butter, dill and parsley In Russia, it is served with a cherry and red-wine sauce. In Iceland, whose territorial waters contain the world’s richest cod fishing grounds, they prefer haddock to cod, a view shared by fish and chip fans in Yorkshire.Since cod has sadly become a rarer and more expensive fish, we have come to recognise its fine qualities.