“A parcel of Newfoundland Cod-Fish, just arrived, To be Sold by John Merrit and Robert Harris, and to be seen at the Warehouse of William Warner, Cooper, at the North End; in Boston.”
-The Boston Gazette: May 2-9th, 1737
The Sacred Cod
The humble cod had been a valuable trade item in Europe since the early Middle Ages. Cod was so essential to European food traditions, that the demand for the fish was a main driver for English colonization. The origins of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were based in the cod fishery, shipping their first catch to Bilbao, Spain in 1623. It was not the only species the early English fishermen caught, but it was by far the most important, often just being listed as “fish” in early landings records.
Cod was food, but it was also an accepted form of currency due to the scarcity of English coinage. Town ministers throughout the colony were often paid in part with salt cod and a class of Massachusetts businessmen became known as the “codfish aristocracy.” The catch of cod was vital to the local economy, so much so that the fish became known as the “Sacred Cod” but its importance was not just local. Cod was so essential to the young American economy that John Adams ensured American fishing rights were included in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
Cod in the North End
When it comes to North End foodways, the cod has the distinction of being important to every ethnicity that has lived here. From Native Americans, to English colonists, the early African community, Irish, Jewish, Portuguese, Greek and Italian immigrants were all consumers of cod.
When cod is properly cured with salt, it becomes a long-lasting and affordable source of protein. For Catholic (Irish, Italian, Portuguese) and Orthodox Greek people, salt cod was a traditional fasting food during the religious calendar. For Jewish immigrants, salt cod was a familiar sight, and also kosher if separated from non-kosher seafood.
The rise of the fresh fish industry, thanks to block ice in the 1840s, turned T Wharf into the hub of fresh fish until the creation of the Boston Fish Pier in the Seaport. Newly arrived North Enders could now adapt traditional recipes to use fresh cod and the closely related haddock.
Traditional recipes from the “old country” often called for Baccala or air-dried cod known as Stoccofisso. The stacks of these cured cod products, with the unmistakable aroma of dried fish, were found throughout the North End, especially during Lent. Some fishing families still buy fresh cod and salt it themselves in preparation for the traditional Christmas Eve seafood dinner.
The true essence of Italian cooking is to adapt by using the best and freshest ingredients available. In a short time, Italian mothers and grandmothers, who never saw a fresh cod, let alone a cod’s head, were using these new ingredients to create a new genre of Italian-American seafood.
How to Prepare Salt Cod
Salt fish should be put in a deep plate, with just water enough to cover it, the night before you intend to cook it. It should not be boiled an instant; boiling renders it hard. It should lie in scalding hot water for two or three hours. The less water is used, and the more fish is cooked at once, the better.
Water thickened with flour and water while boiling, with sweet butter put in to melt, is the common sauce. It is more economical to cut salt pork into small bits, and try it till the pork is brown and crispy. It should not be done too fast, lest the sweetness be scorched out.
- Lydia Marie Child: The American Frugal Housewife (1832)
North End’s Kosher History
Early immigrants were astonished at the sheer abundance of beef, poultry, pork and lamb a short distance away at Quincy Market. However, for the North End’s growing enclave of Eastern European Jews, kosher dietary laws forbade these products. Pork of any sort is forbidden, while beef, poultry and lamb need proper slaughtering and processing to be fit to eat. Luckily, there was also an endless supply of acceptable fish species that require no special preparation.
There were already kosher butchers and slaughter houses in the Boston area by the 1860s, but not convenient to the fast-growing Jewish enclave in the North End. This first generation of Jewish housewives would have to walk long distances to the few kosher provisioners and importers in Boston. It would not be long before supply would arrive to meet this demand.
Chicken was the first kosher meat prepared within the North End. Early Jewish immigrants recalled how chickens were raised in a backyard on Salem Street. The women would pick one out and it would be brought to a local shochet to be killed and prepared according to Jewish dietary rules. Chicken was historically an expensive protein and was reserved for the shabes (Sabbath) meal.
As the Jewish community grew in the 1880s, kosher butchers and markets were established in the North End, most of them centered along Salem Street. The earliest of these may have been run by one of the Wyzanski Brothers. These meat markets did brisk business with local Jewish and gentile customers. Even after the arrival of modern refrigeration, small kitchens and big families saw North Enders making multiple visits per week. The Jewish owned meat markets, kosher or not, were known for quality and stayed in business even after most of their Jewish customers had moved out of the neighborhood.
Jewish Delicatessens and Restaurants
In Salem, Cross and Parmenter streets the restaurants are popular meeting places for the Jewish observers of the Biblical injunction against leaven. At one eating house, it is said 200 persons are fed in a single day in Passover week.
- Boston Post: April 18, 1911
Boston’s Jewish restaurants grew out of the Jewish grocery stores and meat markets that began to serve prepared food to eat on site. They added table seating and expanded their offerings to create Boston’s first true kosher restaurants by the 1890s. These dining establishments were often the site of holiday meals, where customers could partake in both kosher favorites as well as a shared sense of community.
The idea of a Jewish “deli” usually conjures up images of New York City, but the North End and neighboring West End had numerous delicatessens. Observants, non-observants and gentiles could enjoy corned beef, pastrami, knishes and other Jewish comfort foods in an informal setting. As demographics changed in the North End, these delicatessens and restaurants gave way to Italian variations of the same theme. By the early 1900s, the term “delicatessen” had been incorporated into English to a level that Italian salumeria shops often advertised themselves as Italian delicatessens.