Cape Cod Turkey, the humorous name for a popular old-fashioned salted cod dish, pairs the fish with potatoes, cream sauce, egg, and bacon.
By Aimee Tucker|May 09 2018|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine Keenan
When is turkey not turkey? When it’s really salted cod! A curious old-fashioned New England dish, “Cape Cod Turkey” is the humorous name for salted codfish served on a bed of boiled potatoes and topped with a creamy white sauce, hard-boiled egg, and crumbled bacon or salt pork.
“Cape Cod Turkey” is actually a potato and salt cod dish. Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
Or at least that’s one way to make it. The are others, of course. The salt cod is a constant, but the potatoes (boiled or mashed), cream sauce, and egg seem to be up for debate, as is whether the ingredients should be layered or mashed together. Some variations call for beets or turnips, and one commenter helpfully divided the versions into two Capes, saying “Cape Ann Turkey is beets, potato and salt cod all mashed together. Cape Cod Turkey is the cream sauce and eggs.” So maybe that’s it?
If I’ve learned anything here at Yankee, it’s that Cape Cod Turkey is like so many other old-fashioned recipes (I’m looking at you Clam Chowder and Baked Beans), meaning each family has their own take on it, and each one is (of course) correct.
Today’s recipe comes from the 1972 Yankee Magazine’s Favorite New England Recipes cookbook. About ten years later, we ran a whole story on salt cod titled “In Praise of Cape Cod Turkey,” where the writer reminisced on his salty, fishy childhood memories. Accompanying recipes included salted codfish balls, cakes, hash, and even pie.
This recipe for Cape Cod Turkey first appeared in the 1972 “Yankee Magazine’s Favorite New England Recipes” cookbook. Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
Cape Cod Turkey, however, is the classic way with salted cod. Did it get its name because it was eaten around Thanksgiving? Because cod was so plentiful along the shore it was eaten as often as poultry was inland? Nobody knows for sure, but with a name that catchy, it’s stuck around.
So has salt cod, for the most part. It’s getting a bit harder to find the preserved fish days, but I found a 1 lb. box next to the refrigerated smoked salmon and jars of pickled eggs in the grocery store. Inside, two fragrant pieces of heavily salted fish sat waiting.
A box of salt cod is a familiar sight to many Yankees. Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
The instructions on the box said to rinse the fish thoroughly, then slowly heat in a pan of water (not letting it boil), repeating as many times as necessary until “fish is no longer too salty to taste.”
The recipe instructions, however, said to cover the fish with water, bring it to a boil, then drain and repeat a 2-3 times before a final “simmer until tender.” I must have boiled and drained the fish 5-6 times before the super salty taste went away, but I’m still not quite sure I did it right. The “fragrance,” I mentioned, which (it must be said) was slightly unpleasant to begin with, didn’t improve much by the end, but maybe it wasn’t supposed to…
Old-fashioned Yankee thrift in a bowl. Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
Still, once everything was in the bowl, the final presentation was remarkably more appealing than I had anticipated. The colorful sliced hard-boiled eggs and crisp, crumbled bacon added a nice burst of color and texture to an otherwise bland-looking (albeit flavorful) dish. Suddenly, I could see why Cape Cod Turkey remains a nostalgic favorite for so many New Englanders.
Did you grow up eating Cape Cod Turkey? What was in your family’s recipe?
FABULOUS: How can one beat “Marjorie Mill’s Lobster Pie from the book. My mother gave me the book one Christmas, probably back in 1972. Treasured recipes. Thanks for the ‘walk down memory lane’.
My father and I loved Cape Cod Turkey. My mother, perhaps not so much, but she would make it occasionally to our great delight. Ours was a simple Codfish in a cream sauce served over mashed potatoes with a side of green beans and cranberry sauce. Your article brings back so many fond memories of growing up in southeastern Massachusetts where Cod and cranberries were a staple.
Looking for a dense sweet brown quick bread recipe that was in a cookbook about adaptations to early settlers (pilgrims) recipeYankee magazine gave to subscribers back in about 1980. Can’t find my copy. The cover was pale yellow w/ picture of pilgrims on it. Any ideas in your archives?
…and we knew it as Marblehead Turkey Dinner. No eggs or sauce, just the salt cod, boiled potatoes and onions, beets for color and flavor, and the crunch of finely diced fried salt pork ‘croutons’. That and Finnan Haddie ( smoked haddock) were the only fish I would eat growing up.
I grew up in a large Finnish family on the Cape. We always called it Finnan Haddie. I remember those Wooden boxes which became full of toys and old salvaged nails and screws. We had it with mashed potatoes and turnips…and rolls with jelly. I’m getting to an age where I miss those simpler times. Thanks for the memories.
FABULOUS: How can one beat “Marjorie Mill’s Lobster Pie from the book. My mother gave me the book one Christmas, probably back in 1972. Treasured recipes. Thanks for the ‘walk down memory lane’.
My father and I loved Cape Cod Turkey. My mother, perhaps not so much, but she would make it occasionally to our great delight. Ours was a simple Codfish in a cream sauce served over mashed potatoes with a side of green beans and cranberry sauce. Your article brings back so many fond memories of growing up in southeastern Massachusetts where Cod and cranberries were a staple.
Looking for a dense sweet brown quick bread recipe that was in a cookbook about adaptations to early settlers (pilgrims) recipeYankee magazine gave to subscribers back in about 1980. Can’t find my copy. The cover was pale yellow w/ picture of pilgrims on it. Any ideas in your archives?
…and we knew it as Marblehead Turkey Dinner. No eggs or sauce, just the salt cod, boiled potatoes and onions, beets for color and flavor, and the crunch of finely diced fried salt pork ‘croutons’. That and Finnan Haddie ( smoked haddock) were the only fish I would eat growing up.
I grew up in a large Finnish family on the Cape. We always called it Finnan Haddie. I remember those Wooden boxes which became full of toys and old salvaged nails and screws. We had it with mashed potatoes and turnips…and rolls with jelly. I’m getting to an age where I miss those simpler times. Thanks for the memories.