Bacalhau a Bras
Photo: Fpenteado at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

Bacalhau a Bras is a signature dish of Portugal; we have verified places to eat it in Lisbon and Porto. Shredded salt cod tossed with thin-fried potatoes, sweet onion, garlic and scrambled egg, finished with black olives and parsley, eaten hot.

Bacalhau a Bras · Lisbon

Shredded salt cod tossed with thin-fried potatoes, sweet onion, garlic and scrambled egg, finished with black olives and parsley, eaten hot.

Invented by a Bras family tavern keeper in Lisbon's Bairro Alto in the late 19th century as a thrift dish, combining the new fad of potato chips with leftover bacalhau and bound with creamy scrambled eggs. The dish travelled the country in 20th-century cookbooks and now anchors lunch menus from family tascas to chef-led rooms, with Solar dos Presuntos plating the canonical classical version that Bairro Alto regulars cite as the benchmark.

Where to eat in Lisbon:

Where to eat Bacalhau a Bras in Lisbon: the editor picks

Bacalhau à Brás · Porto

Shredded salt cod sautéed with onion, matchstick fried potato and beaten egg, finished with olives and parsley. The most-ordered cod dish in Porto trattorias.

Bacalhau à Brás was invented in Lisbon's Bairro Alto in the 19th century by a tavern-keeper named Brás, but the dish travelled to Porto early and is now equally canonical to the northern cod tradition; the Portuguese say there are over 365 ways to cook salt cod, one for every day of the year, and à Brás is the everyday weeknight standard. Adega Sao Nicolau and Cafe Santiago serve the trattoria version; the city's modern restaurants reinterpret it but rarely improve.

Where to eat in Porto:

Where to eat Bacalhau à Brás in Porto: the editor picks

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