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Codfish and Cream
Codfish and cream can be served for either breakfast or luncheon. Shred two-thirds of a bowlful of salt codfish, wash it several times with fresh water, and drain off the water, and put it into a saucepan with a pint of sweet cream, or milk will do. Let it come nearly but not quite to the boiling point. Beat together one egg, a tablespoonful of flour and two tablespoonfuls of milk. Add it to the fish and stir constantly until it is done. Put the mixture in a hot dish and add a large spoonful of butter, stirring it thoroughly.
A creamed salt cod, thickened with egg rather than a roux. The whole dish turns on two temperatures: never let the cream boil, and never let the egg mixture boil after it goes in.
- The hinge: no boiling"Nearly but not quite to the boiling point" is literal. Keep the pan below a simmer once the beaten egg goes in, and stir constantly; the tablespoonful of flour beaten with the egg gives some protection, but a hard boil can still curdle the sauce into grainy threads.
- "Two-thirds of a bowlful"Genuinely vague: a 19th-century kitchen bowl might hold a pint or three. Read it as roughly 8 oz (a scant 2 cups) of shredded salt cod against the pint of liquid, though the recipe gives you no way to check that.
- Salt cod needs longer than a rinseModern salt cod, especially the boneless boxed loins, is heavily cured. Several changes of fresh water will not draw the salt out of thick pieces; soak shredded fish at least 1-2 hours, or overnight in the refrigerator for whole slabs, changing the water two or three times. Taste a shred before you commit it to the cream.
- "Sweet cream"Simply fresh cream, as opposed to the soured cream a farm kitchen also had on hand. Light cream or half-and-half is closest; whole milk works, as the recipe allows, but the sauce will be thinner.
- SeasoningNo salt is called for, and none should be added until the end — properly soaked cod still carries plenty. Black pepper and a little nutmeg are period-appropriate and welcome.
- The butter at the endA "large spoonful" is probably a tablespoon or more; the recipe says "tablespoonful" elsewhere, so the vaguer phrase may well mean a bigger spoon. It goes into the hot serving dish, off the heat, where it enriches and glosses the sauce rather than cooking into it.
- Yield and servingProbably serves 3 or 4. This is a dish that expects a base: buttered toast, split baking-powder biscuits, boiled potatoes, or a mound of rice. A poached or hard-boiled egg on top is a common accompaniment.
Salt cod was a staple fish of the American household long before refrigeration made fresh fish practical inland -- dried, boneless, shelf-stable, and cheap enough to be a weekday breakfast rather than a treat. Creamed salt cod appears widely in American cookbooks of the period under names like codfish and cream, creamed codfish, or picked-up codfish, and it belongs to the breakfast chapter, where the morning meal was a hot, substantial affair built around eggs, fried mush, hash and chipped or salted meats. The egg-and-flour thickening gives a lighter, custardy body, at the cost of demanding a cook who watches the pan.