Episode 47 Fish For Everyone - For Now

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Listen to "047 Fish For Everybody - For Now" on Spreaker.

Link to the Episode:
Episode 47 Fish for Everyone - For Now


The British, Dutch and German colonists showed up on the East Coast, they were astounded by the nearly unbelievable bounties of fish.  They appeared endless and infinite.  So they proceeded to toss sawdust into the streams and catch and export fish to Europe with abandon.  So the bounties were seen to wane even in the 17th century.  

But before they scourged the fish populations - these were some of the ways fish were cooked.

Whole (cleaned) fish on a plank:

from Seeking the Historical Cook

Native hot smoked split salmon:
Tillicum Village - A history recreation tourist site in Elliot Bay, Seattle, WA

In the thick of a Smelt Run


1970's Cookbook helpfully displays the 18th C propensity to put one kind of fish
inside another kind of fish.
The use of aspic/calves foot jelly would only have happened 
in the very richest of homes

Practical fish for Hard-Working Practical People - 

Dutch Matjes - or barreled salted and self enzyme cured herring

Modern Salt Cod
18th Century salt cod would typically have been larger
This needs to be soaked - with many changes of water before it can be used,
but it is stable, portable protein like no other. 

Media:

Moss, Kay. Seeking the Historical Cook: Exploring Eighteenth-Century Southern Foodways. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, 2013. 





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