American Diet was [Sca-cooks] Re: Anchovette

[Bill Fisher]

On 7/6/05, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:

> 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.

The only odd fishy product from when I was growing up was 
Worchestershire sauce, and I think if my parents knew it was 
made from fishies it wouldn't have been in the fridge.

> 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.

My grandfather (who grew up in Summit Hill PA, a very multi-ethnic
area)  and he had pickled herring, and would talk about Janssen's
Temptation but didn't know how to make it.
 
> 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


I'd say I'm pretty rare for the area I grew up to have any tolerance for
unusual foods at all.  


Cadoc


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