American Diet was [Sca-cooks] Re: Anchovette

Wed Jul 6 17:47:01 PDT 2005

On Jul 6, 2005, at 7:45 PM, Radei Drchevich wrote:

> would have to say that is not the case in my Family.  We are
> English/Dutch/German I grew up in Denver, but parents are from Omaha,
> grandparents from Champaine/Urbana Illinois, greatgrandparents from
> Ohio.  Most of our cooking forms have an Eastern European or  
> Scandanavian
> influence.  Lots of Germans/Bohemians/Swedes and a few other pre- 
> soviet
> eastern europians.  Anchovies are pretty common in a lot of our  
> cooking.
> I have recipes from the last 5 generations and they are used quite
> often.
>
> Middle America, I would assume more than a few are going to have  
> similar
> experiences.  Chicago is the central immigration site for eastern  
> Europe.
> So lots of immigrants ended up there.
>
> Some of my favorite memories from childhood are the yearly  
> pilgrimages to
> "Joe Tess's" for Deep Fried Carp, and "The Bohemian Cafe" for a full
> Heavy Eastern Europian Dinner<Kielbasa, Roast Pork with brown
> gravy, bread dumplings, sweet kraut with caraway, fried cabbage with
> apple>, and the whole weekend polish and german Polka music playing on
> every radio station on the dial<g>.  Ah, to be a child again<sigh>

Uuuurrrhhh, yes, this is true to some extent. But what you're  
describing is basically ethnic food from Central and Eastern Europe,  
and while it certainly is eaten by Americans, so is a good Salade  
Nicoise. I think if you were able to find exactly how many homes in  
America this evening (bearing in mind different time zones) had  
roasts and gravies prepared in them (okay, so today isn't Sunday, but  
work with me here), I think you'd find those with anchovy slivers  
studded into them like lardons or mashed into the gravy are in a  
distinct minority when compared to those that don't. Ditto the  
hamburger casseroles, the Hunk Of Meat Plus Potatoes, and a lot of  
the other stuff Americans, overall, tend to eat. We on this list  
probably aren't a very good cross-section of American tastes.

Another consideration is the narrowing spectrum of little fishy  
products available not only to Americans commercially, but around the  
world. Anchovies have been adopted into some recipes that didn't  
originally include them, in part because things like sardellen (very  
big in German cookbooks prior to the 1950's or so), or the sweet  
pickled anchovies that have been supplanted by salted anchovy fillets  
in oil for the Swedish (or possibly Swedish-American) dish known as  
Janssen's Temptation, are no longer as readily available as they were  
50 years ago. I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of the German  
dishes you mention called for things like sardellen in some  
previously-written-down incarnation. After all, think about living on  
a farm in North Germany or, say, Upper Silesia in the 19th century,  
and think about which type of fish you're probably more likely to  
find: little salted sprats from the North or Baltic Sea, or anchovies  
from the Mediterranean? Moving to America certainly does level the  
playing field to a great extent, of course.

I'm certainly glad to hear there are more Americans than Urtatim and  
myself who love anchovies, though. I wouldn't want them going the way  
of the dodo and the sardelle... ;-)

Adamantius

>
> joy
>
> Radei
>
>   <snip> I'm not sure if there _is_ an American version, to be honest.
>   I'd
>
>> say (and others may or may not agree) that for the most part, the
>> anchovy hasn't made much headway into American cookery, at least
>> not in this century. Plenty of anchovies get eaten in the form of
>> tapenade, Caesar Salads, Salades Nicoise, pissaladieres and
>> pizzas, and in other more-or-less Mediterranean venues (and Caesar
>> Salad in its original form has almost completely vanished in favor
>> of something _called_ Caesar Salad, but which is merely lettuce
>> with croutons, grated Parmigiano and a non-descript creamy "Caesar
>> Dressing" [pfooey! double-bleh pfooey!]).
>>
>> However, thinking about common Angliski uses of anchovy, such as
>> stirring a mashed fillet into a gravy, studding a roast with them,
>> or making little sandwiches for tea, we pretty much never do that.
>> More's the pity.
>>
>> What this all comes down to is that when we buy anchovy paste, it's
>> pretty much made from anchovies. There may be preservatives,
>> although with the oil present in the fish itself and the salt, it
>> scarcely seems necessary, but as far as I know, there's nothing
>> else in the way of bulk ingredients; no other fish, no salt (or at
>> least no more than would otherwise occur if you mashed up a tin of
>> anchovies with a fork), no sugar, etc.
>>
>> Essentially, it sounds like what you're describing as anchovy paste
>> is a prepared food, rather than what we'd think of as an
>> ingredient. Perhaps the difference is not on the same scale as the
>> difference between tinned tuna and prepared tuna salad, but there
>> will certainly be differences in relative properties.
>>
>>
>>> (Generally, I'd say we probably don't go for huge amounts of
>>> preservatives in things).
>>>
>>
>> I wish we were better in that regard, although this particular
>> matter may be a reversal of prevailing conditions.
>>
>>
>   <snip> What, ME get into a long and endlessly detailed conversation
>   about
>
>> food anthropology? Never!
>>
>> Adamantius (eyeing the one-pound jar of anchovy fillets in olive
>> oil and saying, "Hmmmmm...")
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils mangent de la
>> brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let
>> them eat cake!"
>> -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques
>> Rousseau, "Confessions", 1782
>>
>> "Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on
>>
>   Prozac?"
>
>> -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry
>> Holt, 07/29/04
>>
>>
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>>
>
> -- 
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"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04