Developed a thousand years ago as a method of preserving fish, salt cod is still popular for its flaky texture and full flavor.

Find out more about cooking with salt cod — including how to rehydrate it for use in salads, dips or the deep-fried croquettes (Brazilian bolinhos de bacalhau) pictured here — in this week’s Root Source: Salt Cod.

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Tequila comes in many guises. So how do you know whether to go with silver, gold, aged or rested? It depends on how you’re drinking it — straight up or in a mixed drink. Or how you’re planning to cook with it — in spicy marinades or steamed dishes, or unheated and blended straight into ice cream.

Reference: How to choose tequila (Cookthink)

Once hidden only in margaritas or obscured by swigs of beer, tequila has aspired to savoring and sipping status over the past decade.

Find out more about the infamous agave-based Mexican spirit (including how to choose it, drink it, and cook with it) in this week’s Root Source: Tequila.

And if you’re not yet subscribed to the Root Source, our free weekly newsletter, sign up here!

Photo: Sparkling Margarita (Cookthink)

Looking for that famous tequila worm? You’ll only find it in one of these Mexican spirits, which are both made from the distilled juice of the agave plant.

Reference: What’s the difference between tequila and mezcal? (Cookthink)

Tangy and creamy, with a sharp finish from the tequila, this lime-flavored ice cream is an adult treat. Since the alcohol is not heated in this recipe, it’s worth using an aged tequila, which elevates the ice cream’s delicate flavor to the ethereal.

Recipe: Tequila-Lime Ice Cream (Cookthink)
Reference: How to choose tequila (Cookthink)

To line a margarita glass, we like to run a lime wedge along the rim and dip it into coarse sea salt. Kosher salt has light, flaky and irregular crystals that play nicely off the cocktail’s flavors. Or you could use fleur de sel for a slightly more delicate taste and feel. Steer away from fine table salt, which is too concentrated and lacks texture. And don’t bother falling for the marketing gimmick of branded “margarita salt”.

Recipe: Sparkling Margarita (Cookthink)
Reference: What is kosher salt? (Cookthink)
Reference: What is fleur de sel? (Cookthink)
Reference: What is Maldon salt? (Cookthink)

Like tequila, sangrita is from the Mexican state of Jalisco and has become the traditional tequila chaser in most of Mexico.

Sweet and savory with big tomato and citrus flavors, the spicy and acidic notes in sangrita  play off of the complex, smoky flavors found in aged tequilas much like Bloody Mary mix plays up the neutral flavor of vodka.

Recipe: Sangrita (Cookthink)
Reference: What is tequila? (Cookthink)
Reference: How to choose tequila (Cookthink)

I think tequila tastes like a hot penny. That’s what my grandmother would tell me I smelled like whenever I returned from Gus’s Hot Dogs as a kid. Lance Cutler, tequila expert and author of The Tequila Lover’s Guide to Mexico, compared the taste of tequila to “the smell of freshly poured concrete, or a hot street after a quick summer cloudburst.” That also seems right.

What does tequila taste like to you?

Feijoada is a hearty and complex Brazilian stew starring pork and black beans. It includes bacon, chorizo, shredded pork chops, jalapeño and serrano peppers, tomatoes and squash. It’s usually served with rice, stir-fried collard greens, a cassava flour dish called farofa and sliced oranges.

While feijoada is the traditional Saturday meal in Brazil, we could eat it every day.

Recipe: Feijoada (Cookthink)
Reference: Root Source: Black Beans (Cookthink)
Reference: How to cook pork (Andrew Schloss)

Cuba’s lively answer to rice and beans is enhanced with onions, garlic, serrano chile and fresh marjoram — a great side dish, but no wallflower. Moros Y Cristianos literally means “Moors and Christians” for its mix of black beans (the Moors) and white rice (the Christians) that is a nod to the Moorish invasion of Spain and the mélange of Caribbean, African and Spanish cultures reflected in the dish.

Recipe: Moros Y Cristianos (Cookthink)
Reference: What are black beans? (Cookthink)
Reference: Dried v. canned beans (Cookthink)
Reference: Root Source: Black Beans (Cookthink)