Authentic recipes

Bacalaítos Recipes

Puerto Rico’s salt-cod fritter, thin, crispy, with cilantro and garlic.

Bacalaítos are salt cod fritters mixed with flour, garlic, cilantro, and a touch of pepper, fried in hot oil until thin, golden, and leaf-crispy. They’re eaten as an appetizer (with cold beer), as Friday lunch (when many Catholic families didn’t eat meat), or as street food at coastal kiosks alongside alcapurrias.

Don Luis documents 9 bacalaíto versions, from the traditional recipe with desalted cod to modern shortcuts with canned cod, garlic-free, vegetarian, and baked. Each recipe has the exact desalting method and precise dough consistency.

All 14 of Don Luis’s bacalaíto recipes

Why Don Luis

Part of a collection spanning 100+ years of family recipes across three generations, collected and tested over 30+ years in the kitchen. The salt cod desalting process, batter consistency, and oil temperature are tuned to the crispy standard of Puerto Rican kiosks.