Fish recipe for Pilgrims?

[jderrick]

Hello,

I'll be cooking fish for a Thanksgiving dinner this year and I'm wondering -- are there any suggestions for recipes that are Pilgrim-period appropriate?

Thanks,
JD

 

[Woods Dweller]

What kind of fish do you plan to cook? Is it whole fish or, is the fish Flayed?

Here is my recipe for Smoke Salmon.

Salmon flays, or flay whole Salmon. Cut Salmon flays up as wide as your hand. [This recipe is for 3lb of Salmon]

1 cup unsulphured Molasses
1 & 1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 Onion cut into ¼
4 or 5 crushed garlic cloves
Juice of 1 lemon

Soak Salmon in brine for; 1 hour per pond.

Brine: 1gal warm water; add salt till a raw egg- (in shell) floats.

Add to this brine, Molasses, brown sugar, Onion, garlic, and lemon juice. Let cool before placing Salmon into brine. Place a plate on Salmon to keep it submerged in brine.

After 3hr rinse well, then pat dry with a towel.

Smoke with Hickory or Oak wood. About 1hr.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Salmon? I love it but would the Pilgrims have had it?


Common Saltwater Fish Caught in MA, might be a good place to start.

(LD it's a dinner not a living history event)


Sorry :redface:

This is a "fun" dish...,
Stargazy Pie. I'd make it a little more modern with any fish that you wish (that rhymes!)

Here are modern recipes, first from Food Network and another from The British FOOD Trust. Most folks don't want to contend with the bones, and sardines or herring aren't super popular in the USA... so...., In truth, when we made it we bought whole, gutted trout, and removed the heads and tails, and filleted the fish while removing the skins, and so we made the pie into a sort of fish-pot-pie, but when we made the top crust we put the heads and tails on the edge of the pie tin to look like authentic Stargazey Pie.

LD

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I'm sure not an authourity on the 1st T-giveing but I'm guessing lobster (practically crawling on the beach then), crab, clam and flounder (gigged and/or speared) were all easy to come by at that time.
flounder and clams would make a fine chowder.

 

[Black Hand]

Salt Cod may have also been available.

 

[cynthialee]

No need to limit yourself to salt water species. I spent a number of my growing years in Maine fishing with my dad and there are plenty of places to fish for fresh water species like trout, perch, big mouth bass, pickerel, (smaller cousin of the pike for those unfamiliar with this fish) and sunfish.
My favorite is a simple baked pickerel and served next to Maine grown spuds.

 

[jderrick]

Thanks ya'll for all the input, and I'll let you know how the dish comes out!

 

[Woods Dweller]

I dont remember where I had read this buy many years ago I had read a story where the Natives in the Eastern states would catch Salom, smoke it and store it for winter.

"Land-locked salmon (Salmo salar m. sebago) live in a number of lakes in eastern North America and in Northern Europe, for instance in lakes Onega, Ladoga, Saimaa and Vänern. They are not a different species from the Atlantic salmon, but have independently evolved a non-migratory life cycle, which they maintain even when they could access the ocean."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_(fish)

 

[Blizzard of '93]

that's right now that I have read of it there was atlantic salmons.
and striped bass aplenty.