Katy's Codfish
Soak pieces of codfish several hours in cold water, or wash thoroughly, heat in oven and pick fine, and place in skillet with cold water; boil a few minutes, pour off water and add fresh, boil again (if not very salt the second boiling is not necessary), and drain off as before; then add plenty of sweet milk, a good-sized piece of butter, and a thickening made of a little flour (or corn starch) mixed with cold milk until smooth like cream. Stir well, and just before taking from the fire drop in an egg, stir very briskly, and serve. - Mrs. Helen M. Stevenson.
A creamed salt cod, of the kind that fed New England and the inland states through winter. The whole dish turns on getting the salt down to a pleasant level before any milk goes in, and on not letting the egg scramble at the end.
- What "codfish" means hereNot fresh fish but hard salt cod, sold dried in boxes or as thick planks at fish counters and Italian, Portuguese and Caribbean groceries. Reckon on about 1 lb of dry salt cod for four people; it swells considerably as it rehydrates.
- Soaking is the real work"Several hours" is the minimum for thin flakes. A thick bone-in piece wants 24-36 hours in the refrigerator with the water changed three or four times. Taste a sliver before you commit to the boiling steps.
- The oven trickHeating dry cod briefly in a low oven makes it brittle enough to shred by hand. The recipe offers this as an alternative to soaking rather than an addition, and it leaves the fish saltier, which the changes of boiling water then address.
- Boil briefly, taste between changesA few minutes at a bare simmer per change of water is plenty; salt cod that is boiled hard and long turns stringy. As the recipe says, skip the second change if the first has already brought it right.
- Sweet milkPlain fresh whole milk, unsweetened and unsoured. Nineteenth-century books specify it because sour milk and buttermilk were equally ordinary in the kitchen. About 2 cups of milk suits 1 lb of soaked fish.
- Butter and thickening in modern amounts"A good-sized piece of butter" is 2 to 3 tablespoons. For the thickening, whisk 2 tablespoons flour, or 1 tablespoon cornstarch, into 1/4 cup cold milk until smooth, then stir it into the simmering milk and cook two or three minutes so it loses its raw taste.
- The egg is the hingeBeat the egg first, thin it with a spoonful or two of the hot sauce, then stir it back in off the heat, working briskly. Add it whole into a boiling pan and you get threads of scrambled egg instead of the glossy enrichment intended. Serve at once; it will not hold or reheat well.
- ServingThis is a breakfast and supper dish, ladled over toast, split biscuits, boiled or baked potatoes. Serves four. Salt only at the table, if at all.
Salt cod was among the cheapest proteins in the American larder for generations: dried on the Atlantic coast, shipped inland by barrel, and kept without ice in any dry corner of a house. Creamed salt cod on toast or potatoes was common breakfast fare from New England through the Midwest, and Buckeye Cookery (first published in the late 1870s, with Minneapolis and Marysville, Ohio, connections) prints it as such books usually did, as a named contribution from a subscriber rather than an anonymous formula. The double boiling in changed water reflects the period's product, which was cured harder and saltier than most of what is sold today. The "Katy" of the title is unrecorded; the credit line goes to Mrs. Helen M. Stevenson, one of the many women whose kitchen names ended up in print through this kind of collective book.