A Seven Fishes Menu
How about your own fish feast at home?
Pick a piece of salted cod from its vinegary marinade, then dip a poached shrimp into pineapple tartar, nibble on a squid ring, spoon up an oyster, have a pri...
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Fish Tales: Salted Cod is Traditional in Many Christmas Eve Traditions
A Christmas Eve seafood feast wrapped in stories and tradition
The eve before Christmas isn’t typically a big dinner night in my house. We often just gather around a fondue pot, dipping cubes of day-old baguette pricked on a pointy fork into gently bubbling cheese. There have been other meals, other dishes, but never anything meaty. Not for any religious reason. It’s just an unspoken accord to not overdo it while a turkey or goose is brining or game meat is marinating in anticipation of that big Christmas dinner the next day.
But for Roman Catholics, abstaining from meat on Christmas Eve is an old tradition. It is a vigil, and as a religious observance there will be no meat on the table, at least not before midnight Mass.
That’s where fish come in. And as they do, the fish tell stories. Stories of different cultures and traditions.
Take salted cod. Fished from the cold waters of the Northern Atlantic, codfish is cleaned and filleted and preserved in layers of salt. As salted cod, it enters cuisines around the world.
There is bacalao a la Vizcaina in Mexico, a Basque-style salted cod that in itself chronicles the travels of salted cod from Spain via the Caribbean to Mexico. In Portugal, bacalhau is a staple food throughout the country, and as synonymous with Portuguese cuisine as sardines.
There are said to be more than 365 bacalhau recipes, including a hearty stew of bacalhau, potatoes, cabbage and hard-boiled eggs. It’s a Christmas Eve favorite that lines the stomach for next day’s feast. Or what about ackee and saltfish, the national dish of Jamaica? You can eat it any time, but on Christmas day it is a breakfast tradition.
In Italy, salted cod goes by baccalá. Preparations vary greatly per region, and many different dishes exist. All along the boot to the heel, you can find it simmered in milk with onions and anchovies, folded in batter and fried as frittelle, whipped creamy like butter, or simmered in a tomato sauce rich in olives and capers.
What all these variations on salted cod have in common is that they are Christmas Eve staples.
In southern Italy, La Vigilia de Natale, or Christmas vigil, is a veritable fish feast. It is a tradition that immigrated into the United States, where it became an American- Italian celebration of Christmas Eve known as the Feast of Seven Fishes—a seven-course dinner (not counting dessert) built around seafood that traditionally includes among others clams and calamari. And whatever other fishes may be featured in those seven courses, baccalá is the feast’s star.
A Seven Fishes Menu
How about your own fish feast at home? Pick a piece of salted cod from its vinegary marinade, then dip a poached shrimp...
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