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Hashed Codfish
Take a cupful of cooked cod, pick in pieces and soak in cold water for twelve hours. Boil some potatoes and add them to the finely chopped fish, a little at a time, put in a pan and stir. Heat some butter, put the hash in it and let it cook gently.
A terse Waldorf-kitchen note that assumes you already know what salt cod is and how it behaves. The soaking step is the giveaway: fresh cooked cod would not need twelve hours in cold water.
- What the fish actually is"Cooked cod" here means salt cod, either poached leftovers or dried salt cod that has been simmered. Fresh cod needs no soaking at all; if you use fresh, skip straight to the potatoes and salt to taste.
- The soak is the hingeTwelve hours in cold water is what makes the dish edible rather than punishing. The original does not say to change the water, but changing it at least once at the halfway point helps; taste a shred before you commit — it should read as seasoned, not briny.
- ProportionsThe original gives no potato quantity. A workable ratio is roughly equal volumes of flaked fish and cooked potato, or two parts potato to one of fish if you want it milder. A cupful of picked fish plus its potato feeds two.
- Potato handlingBoil the potatoes whole in their skins and let them cool before peeling and chopping, or they will slump into paste when stirred. Waxy or all-purpose potatoes hold their edges; a floury baking potato will disintegrate.
- "Put in a pan and stir"This is a dry pan, off the heat or barely warm, used only to combine the fish and potato in stages so the fish stays in shreds. The butter comes afterward.
- Cook gently means slowlyMedium-low heat, a generous film of butter, and patience. Press the hash into an even cake, leave it undisturbed eight to ten minutes until a crust forms underneath, then turn it in sections. Constant stirring gives you no browning, which is the whole point of hash.
- SeasoningNothing is specified. Black pepper is essential; salt only after tasting. A little grated onion softened in the butter first, or chopped parsley folded in at the end, is entirely period-appropriate.
- ServingA poached egg on top and buttered toast alongside is the usual American treatment for codfish hash.
Salt cod hash belongs to the New England kitchen long before it reached a Fifth Avenue hotel: dried salted cod was one of the region's great exports and a staple of the winter larder, and the pairing with potatoes and butter is the same logic that produced codfish balls and creamed cod. That a book otherwise thick with terrapin, canvasback and elaborate sauces should include it says something about the Waldorf's range — plain American dishes had their place alongside the elaborate ones, and hashed and creamed codfish were common enough on hotel and club bills of fare of the period. The twelve-hour soak reflects how heavily fish was salted when curing was the chief means of preservation; commercially packed salt cod today is generally less aggressive, which is why tasting matters more than following the clock.