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Detail of the 1739 draught of the Bilbao river estuary, by Gabriel Baudwin (British Library), lent by courtesy of Jabier Aspuru. The Olabeaga area, with 5 sailing ships moored, is in the centre.

World Pizza Day has been marked on 9 February for half a dozen years or so. It seems the day started in the USA and has gradually spread to the other countries, and is even celebrated in Bilbao. But this article is not going to be about the culinary heritage of pizza, but of something rather better known: salt cod or bacalao in Bilbao, which has been part of our culture for nearly 5 centuries, but still does not have a specific day to honour it. Our culinary heritage contains several recipes and much has been written about salt cod; if we resort to a hackneyed phrase, we could claim that salt cod has been here “forever or from time immemorial”, a phrase that is widely used for something that we believe has always been with us. Eels (txitxardinak) are one such example, and the oldest and specific document I have come across referring to their consumption dates back to the early 19th century and not before. When somebody claims that something is from time immemorial, we can only usually find evidence of two or three generations of time, and reliably no more than 100 years. Anybody is free to argue otherwise, but they should provide some documentary proof.

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