Cod roe are the eggs of cod fish. The egg sacks are sold fresh, frozen, or canned. The fresh sacks may be burst and the eggs eaten fresh or salted and preserved as a type of caviar. The simplest preparation is to boil the sacks, and just slice it up and eat it. It is a very rich food, which I guess is what one would expect from a plate of eggs. The cooked flavor is mildly fishy, not as strong as some other fish roe. Cod roe is enjoyed from Scotland to Korea, and many places in between. I think it is a treat.

My recent encounters with cod roe have started in Asian markets where they sell the frozen product. The egg sacks in my sample ranged from about three to eight inches. I thawed the roe and boiled it for about 15 minutes.

At that point it can be served up, but I sliced it on the flat and sauteed the slabs to give it more flavor. The whole sacks can be fried up directly, but I was worried about getting the large pieces cooked through. A cook more skilled than I could adjust the frying temperature to get them cooked through without overcooking the outside.

Be careful not to damage the sacks. If they burst early on you will have a soup of the small eggs. After boiling for a a few minutes, the sacks solidify like hard-boiled eggs and they can be sliced up neatly. They could be breaded and fried, but I just did them plain. (Pardon the dark bits from potato in the fryer. Arrgh.)

The texture is a little on the dry side, so they can benefit from a sauce. I improvised a preparation with celery, onion, and mayonnaise, similar to tuna salad and made a sandwich of them. Not fancy, but tasty.

You may be thinking, “Surely this ingredient deserves a more elaborate preparation.” If you are not thinking that, I am. For example, there is Tara no Oyakomushi, (Steamed Cod and Soft Roe) a specialty of Kanazawa, Japan. The recipe calls for leeks, hen’s eggs, ginger, sweet sake, and fried cod fillets. Don’t overlook the link to “Final preparation” on the recipe site.

Our LinkstoFood.com search engine finds about 75 recipes for cod roe, including pasta sauces and smoked cod roe pate.

If you are in the UK, frozen cod fish roe can be obtain over the web from frozenfishdirect.co.uk I could not find a web vendor that sells fresh or frozen cod roe to the U.S. In the San Francisco Bay area it has been available recently at Han Kook Supermarket in Sunnyvale and Foodnet Supermarket in San Leandro. I understand that fresh cod roe is in season from December to April.

Actual I did find a source for delivery in the US, but the minimum order is 19 tons, shipped in a 40 foot container from Russia. Be good for a party.