Dictionary of Ichthyology  

 

cod liver oil = 1) oil extracted by boiling the livers. May be made from other gadoids such as haddock. Once used as a basis for paints, to tan leather, and as a dietary and medicinal supplement as it contained vitamins A and D (tastes awful from long personal experience (BWC) in the 1940s and 1950s when taken in liquid form, only marginally better when encapsulated).  

Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, Lunenburg. Photograph by Brian W. Coad.

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