It was 1432 when Pietro Querini, due to a storm, landed on the island of Rost in Norway, beyond the Arctic Circle, and noted that the locals feed on a fish unknown to him, the stockfish. So he decided to take a load with him on his return to Venice. Venetians changed the name of this fish to "baccalà", from the Latin "baculus" (stick), probably due to its characteristic of being as hard as wood.
Baccalà becomes a main ingredient for the Venetian culinary culture and is proposed, during festivities, in different guises.