Historical Feasts Podcast - Episode 2
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EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM)Transcript
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Welcome to historical feasts. A look at some of humanity's most interesting and delicious celebratory meals. I'm your host, Leslie Zuckerman. Today we'll be delving into the Italian American Christmas Eve extravaganza known as the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Hearing about the feast of the Seven fishes was what inspired me to make this podcast in the first place such an interesting and unique celebration. I had to learn more and to try to cook it myself if I could. Theo Southern Italian tradition of making the Feast of Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve has gained in popularity over the past century. Across America, many families with Italian roots still eat the traditional meal the day before Christmas, as well as many households like my own that have picked up the custom more recently. Before the pandemic, even restaurants in New York City and in major American cities were serving Feast of the Seven Fishes menus on Christmas Eve. In today's episode will discuss the origins of this holiday meal and what would have traditionally been on the menu. No one is sure where the name Feast of the Seven Fish is really comes from. It was reportedly first used in a Philadelphia advertisement from 1983. Food writer Michelle Shook alone claims this title might be the work of a clever editor of the Philadelphia newspaper. But there are other origin stories as well. There are those who attribute the name to the Seven Hills of Rome. The seven sacraments, the seven days of creation, or the seven days it took Mary and Joseph Toe Walk to Bethlehem. The immigrants from southern Italy who came over during the late 18 hundreds and landed in New York, would have called the feast by a different name. Italian families who brought the Feast of the Seven Fishes to America would have called it by the traditional name Lava, Julia the IV or the visual to represent the visual waiting for Christ's birth at midnight on December 24th. Wherever the Americanized title comes from, it doesn't actually relate to the number of fish dishes families consume on Christmas Eve. Many Italian families and interviews with travel writers and food blog's have been quoted as saying that their family had no set number of dishes that they would serve. There may have been seven, 89 12, 13 or even more. It wasn't so much about the number, but that this was the largest seafood feast of the year. Let's trace the origins of this feast. In practicing Christianity, Italian families honored the tradition toe hold visual on December 24th to represent Waiting for the Birth of Jesus at midnight, the Romans, who are ruling over the Christian populations, allowed this practice to go on and introduced a few of their own customs, such as the practice of meatless Fridays. The Romans would also abstain from eating meat during the days leading upto all major holidays, including Christmas. From these practices, the peasant population began abstaining from meat on Christmas Eve and instead gorging on fish the day before. The biggest holiday of the year and the feast have been activity. However, this was not a Roman Catholic holiday. It seems that this Christmas Eve tradition was circulating among the families of southern Italy before it arrived in America. The people of southern Italy who created the seafood centric feast were often poor than their neighbors to the north, so they were used to abstaining from much meat. They were also surrounded by coastline and had access to many types of fish to feast on. In 18 61 Italian unification took place, and the kingdom of the two, Sicily's in the south was no longer. While the new Italian government spent money and developed the regions to the north of Rome, the south was left to fall into poverty and crime. Up to four million people emigrated from southern Italy right before and after the turn of the 20th century. Those families settled in Little Italy, inside New York City, as well as other communities across the state and mid Atlantic Seaboard. These families brought their traditional feast with them as well as many classic recipes. Because so many families celebrate this feast. Now, fishmongers have a very busy day on Christmas Eve. The best piece of advice I've heard from those celebrating this holiday is to put your order in ahead of time at whatever fishmonger you use. Showing up on the morning of December 24th and expecting to find a wide selection of seafood is a recipe for trouble. With all the mixing of these practices, the people of southern Italy created a delicious table setting that have moved away from the origins of abstaining from food on Christmas Eve. Instead, now we get to gorge ourselves on a pesky Terrian meal with multiple courses and desserts. So let's set the table. While one could imagine that seven courses of fish are served, the actual number of seafood dishes ranges widely. As we know in a large family feast, there might be appetizers, salads, soups, hearty main courses, palate cleansers, desserts and drinks. With multiple kinds of each being served, we're going to talk about some of the most common menu items from the Feast of the Seven Fishes. In the book The Eve of Seven Fishes, author Robert Germano lists a collection of seven fishes that he says would be on the menu in a traditional Southern Italian home. This list certainly doesn't incorporate many of the other types of seafood that I have found in researching this episode, but it does provide a dainty list for those afraid of some of the more adventurous seafood types that Americans don't often have on their dining room table. For the purely fishy, Germano advises anchovy cod, tuna, whiting, haddock, smelt and squid, which he admits is not really a fish. We'll keep an eye out for these as we walk through some traditional dishes for an appetizer, one might serve a marinated anchovy or a smoked fish spread made of salmon or trout. A more hardy appetizer could include fried calamari, a more ubiquitous squid dish that American families might know. If you really wanted to save your squid eating, you could make a seafood salad, which would be the traditional next course in Salata de Mari, or salad of the sea is made from chilled calamari and vegetables. After this, there might be Ah, Hardy third course, where you can show off a seafood main dish. This might be where the most famous fish dish of the feast of the seven fishes comes in the Bakala. The Bakala is a salted cod that has been reconstituted with water and served on salad in soup or fried. If this isn't your main course, you might prepare a baked fish, grilled shrimp, stuffed calamari or even baked lobster tails. Of course, it wouldn't be an Italian dinner without a pasta dish. Ah, fish themed pasta like clam linguini or spaghetti gam. Boretti could be there after pasta. There could be a seafood stew with fish, shrimp mussels or clams. This would most likely be a tomato based stew with various kinds of seafood thrown in, then a palate cleanser. After all of that, eating, a serving of limoncello or limoncello flavored ice can help you transition to the dessert course. Deserts could be Justus. Varied is the main course, with Connolly being a classic item. Connelly are those traditional Southern Italian fried pastries stuffed with a ricotta filling. There might also be a panna Tony. A classic Italian Christmas yeast cake containing all kinds of dried fruit, cookies and breads would be there a swell. Like so many great feasts, this one might take days of preparation. After working so hard to make such a spread, family members would come from all around to join in the festivities. Everyone will do their part to consume all of the overflowing amounts of food before taking off together for midnight mass. Of course, the feast of the seven fishes was designed to get everyone ready for a much more important holiday. Christmas day. It might seem daunting to stay awake for a midnight mass service after so much decadent food. But for many southern Italian and Italian American families. This is tradition. Once your table is set, you can check out pictures from this episode on Pod Bean, which you can stay on or be directed to my website. There I've posted recipes and pictures from my own feast of the Seven Fishes. Many Oh, with more information about the historical accuracy and connections to the food I've included. My list of references here is well, finally, if you're an avid food historian and have any suggestions for links, books or other podcast to listen Thio, please let me know. I'd love to hear from you until next time happy feasting.