On a Sunday morning in Bermuda, one pot holds salt cod, halved potatoes and whole eggs together, and steam comes off it. Next to it a skillet of bacon and onion turns golden before the tomatoes go in. Then the plate comes together. There's pale flaked cod with a slick of olive oil, potatoes, sliced hard-boiled egg, and, beside the fish, slices of ripe banana and avocado. The cod is firm and salty. The banana and avocado are soft and mild, and every forkful plays one against the other.
A Sunday Plate of Salt Fish and Fruit
Codfish breakfast is Bermuda's traditional Sunday-morning dish. Its core is salt cod, boiled or steamed, served with boiled potatoes, onion, sliced bananas, hard-boiled egg and avocado. A tomato sauce or a butter-onion sauce goes over the top if you want one. The same dish also goes by the plainer name codfish and potatoes. Since that name could describe salt cod dishes almost anywhere, it helps to say "Bermuda" in front of it.
It takes time to make, because the fish has to soak from the night before. That's why it belongs to Sundays and holidays rather than ordinary weekdays. It also shows up at Easter. Some cooks set the plate out neatly, with each part in its own group. Many locals also mash everything together in one bowl with a fork, so the cod, potato, egg, banana, avocado and sauce turn into one coarse, salty-sweet mix. On the side you might find johnny cakes or corn bread cakes, and a few households add slices of green pepper.
Bermudian cooking mixes Caribbean, British, West African, Native American and Portuguese influences, and this plate shows several of them at once. Where the tradition started isn't settled. One travel article traces it to the 18th century and to cod shipped in from Newfoundland, but that history hasn't been confirmed. Salt cod with tropical fruit also turns up elsewhere in the Atlantic world. Jamaica's ackee and saltfish is another salt cod breakfast, but it's a different dish. In Bermuda the fish is boiled and served plainly, and the fruit sits raw beside it. For more of the island's food, see the Bermuda country page.
The sauce is where households differ most. A tomato sauce with bacon and onion is the version made in the steps below. Butter-onion sauce is the mild alternative, and a creamy egg sauce made from white sauce and chopped egg is a third style. The fish, potatoes, egg, banana and avocado stay the same underneath.
Ingredients
This dish contains fish (cod) and egg. The butter-onion sauce, white sauce and egg-sauce variations add milk, and white sauce and johnny cakes add wheat. Banana and avocado can cause reactions in people with latex-fruit syndrome.
Equipment
- Large food-safe container with a lid, for soaking the cod in the refrigerator
- Large pot
- Skillet
- Slotted spoon
- Wooden spoon
- Skewer
- Kitchen scale
Choosing the Fish and the Fruit
The salt cod decides the dish. The closest match is hard-salted dried cod, sold as bacalhau or bacalao at Portuguese, Spanish, Caribbean and Latin American shops and online. Buy it boneless and skinless so you can flake it straight onto the plate. Lightly salted cod fillets from a supermarket fish counter carry much less salt. They need far less soaking, so follow the package instructions for those and don't soak them overnight. They give a softer, milder plate with less of the salty bite the banana is meant to answer.
Everything else comes from an ordinary supermarket. Choose a banana that is fully ripe, yellow with a few brown flecks, because its sweetness is what balances the fish. Pick an avocado that gives slightly when pressed. Use ordinary bacon. Canned chopped tomatoes keep the sauce simple, and plain stewed tomatoes give a softer, sweeter sauce.
What has to stay is the pairing of salty fish with sweet, soft fruit. You can skip the sauce, swap tomato for butter-onion or leave out the green pepper and it still tastes Bermudian. Leave out the banana or the avocado and it becomes plain boiled fish and potatoes.
Method
The work starts the night before, when the cod goes into cold water in the refrigerator. In the morning, one pot does all the boiling. The fish, potatoes and eggs simmer together, and that's your hands-off stretch for making the sauce in a skillet. Slice the banana and avocado last, just before plating, so they stay bright.
Keep the banana and avocado raw and at room temperature. The contrast between the hot, salty fish and the cool, sweet fruit makes the plate. Warming the fruit dulls it.
When It Goes Wrong
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The cod tastes harshly salty | It soaked too briefly or the water wasn't changed enough | Serve with more potato and banana, and leave the sauce unsalted. Next time, soak longer and change the water more often |
| The cod is soft, watery and bland | A lightly salted fillet was soaked like hard-salted cod | Season the sauce more firmly. Next time, follow the package instructions for that fish |
| The potatoes are still hard in the middle | The pieces were large | Leave them in the pot after the cod comes out and keep boiling until a skewer slides in |
| The avocado and banana have browned | They were sliced too early | Slice them only once the cod is flaked and the plates are ready |
| The sauce is thin and runs across the plate | The tomato hasn't cooked down | Keep it bubbling, uncovered, until it holds on a spoon |
Serving and Variations
On the table
Serve codfish breakfast as the whole meal on a slow Sunday or a holiday morning. Johnny cakes or corn bread cakes on the side soak up the sauce, and slices of green pepper add a crisp, fresh bite. Put everything out and let people choose. Some will keep each part separate, and others will mash the whole plate together in a bowl, the way many Bermudians eat it.
Butter-onion sauce
Replace the tomato sauce with onion cooked gently in butter. It's milder and sweeter and lets the cod taste more of itself. It suits anyone who finds tomato and bacon too strong first thing in the morning.
Tomato sauce with ketchup
For a sweeter, softer sauce, cook the bacon and onion in 1 tbsp olive oil. Add stewed tomatoes in place of canned chopped tomatoes, then stir in ketchup and season with salt and pepper. It comes out rounder and slightly sweet, closer to a breakfast relish.
Egg sauce
For a creamy version, stir 3 chopped hard-boiled eggs, ¼ tsp mustard and ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce into 1 cup (240 ml) white sauce. Pour it over the cod, banana and potato. In this version the soaked cod is first brought nearly to a boil, then drained and rinsed and simmered in fresh water for about 20 minutes. That extra change of water takes out more salt before the rich sauce goes on.
Salt the sauce only after you've tasted a flake of the cooked cod. The fish decides how much salt the plate needs, and with well-salted cod the sauce often needs none.
Frequently asked questions
Does banana with fish really work?
Yes, and it's the point of the dish. The ripe banana softens the salt of the cod the way a sweet chutney softens a salty curry. Eat a bit of fish and a bit of banana in the same forkful.
Can I eat it on a day other than Sunday?
Of course. Sunday and holidays are simply when people have time for the overnight soak and a slow breakfast. It works just as well as a weekend brunch or a light supper.
Can I skip the sauce?
Yes. The sauce is optional. Cod, potatoes, egg, banana and avocado with a drizzle of olive oil and black pepper make a complete plate. It's lighter and puts more weight on the fish itself.
Should I peel the potatoes?
Halve them so they cook alongside the fish. The recipes this plate is based on don't say whether to peel them, so it's your call.
