Cabillaud and Rockfish are different fish, but they're close enough in the kitchen to stand in for one another.
Gadidae
Cabillaud
Fresh Atlantic cod (*Gadus morhua*) as it's sold in French and northern-European fishmongers — firm, white-fleshed, mild, and flaking into large pearly leaves when cooked. The same species that becomes salted Morue (Bacalhau in Portuguese) when cured for months, but treated as a different culinary entity in fresh form: cabillaud rôti with hollandaise, cabillaud poché à l'huile d'olive, dos de cabillaud en croûte d'herbes, and the bistro classic cabillaud sauce vierge are built around its mild profile and clean separation. Once cured into Morue, the fish reaches a different shelf in the same shop; the recipes change too — brandade, accras, bacalhau à brás. The naming convention reflects this: in modern French, cabillaud always means fresh, morue almost always means cured.
Full guide →Sebastidae
Rockfish
Rockfish is the market name for roughly seventy species of the genus Sebastes, the dominant nearshore catch of the US Pacific coast from California to Alaska. Colors range from the bright orange-red of yelloweye and canary rockfish to the mottled browns and blacks of gopher and blue rockfish, but all share the same kitchen behavior: lean, white, medium-firm flesh in small flaky sheets, mild enough to take almost any treatment. It is the default fish-taco and fish-and-chips fish of the West Coast, and it holds together in a stew better than cod. Buyers should know two things. First, Pacific rockfish is very often sold in the United States as "Pacific red snapper" or "Pacific snapper" — it is not a snapper, and the substitution is restricted under California law. Second, "rockfish" means something else entirely in the Chesapeake Bay and Mid-Atlantic, where it is the local name for striped bass, an unrelated fish. Across the Atlantic the same genus is a mainstay under different names: Rotbarsch is one of Germany's most familiar frozen fillets, cantarilho is standard in Portugal, and the deep-water Sebastes norvegicus is sold in Britain as redfish or ocean perch.
Full guide →Both are lean, mild, white-fleshed fish used interchangeably for frying, tacos and chowder — rockfish flakes smaller and holds its shape better in a stew, cod breaks into larger, softer sheets.
| Country | Cabillaud | Rockfish |
|---|
| 🇺🇸United States | Cod | Rockfish |
| 🇬🇧United Kingdom | Cod | Redfish |
| 🇫🇷France | Cabillaud | Sébaste |
| 🇪🇸Spain | Bacalao fresco | Gallineta |
| 🇦🇷Argentina | Bacalao | — |
| 🇲🇽Mexico | Bacalao | — |
| 🇵🇹Portugal | Bacalhau fresco | Cantarilho |
| 🇧🇷Brazil | Bacalhau fresco | — |
| 🇮🇹Italy | Merluzzo | Scorfano di Norvegia |
| 🇩🇪Germany | Kabeljau | Rotbarsch |
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