The production of salt cod dates back at least 500 years, to the time of the European
discoveries of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. The drying of food is the world's oldest
known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. Traditionally,
salt cod was dried only by the wind and the sun, hanging on wooden scaffolding or lying on clean
cliffs or rocks near the seaside. Drying preserves many nutrients, and the process of salting and
drying codfish is said to make it tastier. Nowadays bacalao dishes are common in Portugal and Galicia,
in the northwest of Spain,
and to a lesser extent in former Portuguese colonies like Angola, Macau, and Brazil.