Food
Cape Cod Turkey
By Yankee Magazine|Dec 10 2015|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine Keenan
By Yankee Magazine|Dec 10 2015|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine Keenan
My grandmother used to mave a slightly different version of this with shallots and no egg, mashed into a potato. A very good version just the same. It takes me back a few years.
I grew up in the 50’s eating something very similar to this recipe. I loved it!! Unfortunately the cost of the cod fish is now through the roof.
This is our families traditional Christmas Day dinner. This recipe is something that we have been making in our family for generations. We don’t use the hard boiled egg, we soak raw onion rings in vinegar and top the dinner with that…and the drippings from the fatback! So unhealthy…That’s why we only have it once a year, but it is SO GOOD! Everyone who has turned their noses up at the sound of it have become true lovers of this recipe once they’ve had it! Try it!!
Cape Cod Turkey came from the whaling ships of New Bedford. The ingredients of potatoes, salted pork, beets were food available on board.
This is how we always served it, fried pork with drippings, boiled potatoes and beets.
I never heard this dish referred to as Cape Cod Turkey but I grew up near New Bedford and remember my mother serving a version of this frequently during “the war” (WWII). I do not remember cream sauce or eggs – just the potatoes with the salt cod crumbled, mixed in and topped with tiny cubes of pork fat fried with the drippings as “gravy.” It was good! I haven’t seen those wooden boxes of salt cod since then. I wonder if they still exist. Another wonderful treat before we were all educated about cholesterol and trans fat was pie crust made with lard. There is no vegetable shortening that can come close to the delicate, flakey texture and wonderful flavor of pie crust made from lard!
The cap code turkey I grew up with was salt cod, potatoes, turnip, salt pork and mayo – all mashed up and mixed together
My husband’s family who came from Revere, Massachusetts to Illinois in 1915 brought this “dish” and made it with beets and without cream sauce and eggs. We generally use bacon instead of salt pork, crumble it and pour grease and all over the cod, potato, and beets and stir together.
In most of the country the winter diet and summer diet used to differ greatly because of availability of fresh garden foods. This definitely was what was available in the winter.
Cape Ann Turkey is the beets, potato and salt cod all mashed together. Cape Cod turkey is the cream sauce and eggs. At least that was what it was in my home growing up. I’m still not much of a fan of either, but prefer the Cape Ann version, beets and all.
what wonderful food memories……on a somewhat related note, my mom used to save those salt cod boxes, (she worked as a cook), as they made perfect “departing vessels” when I had to have “services” for my pet mice and gerbils.
I grew up on this dish in downeast maine… love love it. I’ve never had with the beets, instead my family always used a layered dish of onions finely chopped that sat in the refrigerator atleast 1 hour before serving and then topped with vinager. its a far cry from a poor man’s meal today!!!
My grandmother (from Brockton, MA) made this every Easter, w/o the fish or bacon, as a side dish with ham. She would refrigerate the colored and gathered eggs and use them in the cream sauce with the potatoes. Colorful dish and perfect for the day. She called them Oak Hill Potatoes. My family tradition to this day!
Indian pudding and Cape Cod turkey! I remember the salt cod came in a wooden box.
I also remember the wooden box the salt Cod was packed in. We called it Block Island Turkey and used rendered salt pork gravy instead of cream. Love Indian Pudding!! I am part Yankee from Connecticut.
I was born and raised in SE CT and I am part Yankee. I was raised on Block Island Turkey, except my mother and grandmother did not use cream. They rendered the salt pork and poured the grease over the cod, boiled potatoes and sliced Bermuda Onion. It was delicious and a huge treat! I tried to prepare this dish as an adult, did not remove enough of the salt from the Cod, and was sucking down water for days afterwards! ???? I am happy you have this recipe published as I fear the old Yankee recipes are fading away. And yes!! Indian pudding rules!!
Can one buy salt cod in a box anymore?
Yes, the “cod in the box” is available at Stop & Shop. I have always been fascinated with it, and wondered how to cook with it. Now, I know!
My dad used to make Cape Cod Turkey but the gravy was molasses and no beets. When I was young I wouldn’t eat it but when I got older tried it and loved it. Does anyone have a recipe using molasses?
I don’t remember it being called Cape Cod Turkey, but I do remember my mother making what she called Creamed Cod Fish. She made it with just a white sauce. I loved it, but as I recall, my sister didn’t. My mother would soak the salted cod in water and change the water several times before she made the creamed cod fish.
was this dish also called fin and haddie a family friend made it on a camping trip to fundy national park, never forgot it.
One of my father’s favorite dishes, and he was a life-long seaman. He called it by both names: fin and haddie and Cape Cod Turkey.
Finnan haddie is smoked haddock. No relation to salt cod. My mother made creamed salt cod and it was like eating gauze. She must’ve boiled the fish rather than sinmering it. No accompinaments to help. I don’t even want to try it.
I grew up on Cape Cod, and my grandmother would make this salt cod dinner for special occasions. She didn’t include the eggs, but boiled potatoes, with the salt cod (simmered in water several times), cream sauce and rendered diced
salt pork. She would also have sliced onions that were marinated overnight (or at least several hours) in vinegar with a little sugar. Absolutely delicious and I recreate it any time I can get the salted codfish in the box!
My mother cooked creamed salt codfish for my father once a week, but she never made the kids eat it.
My father’s favorate meal to offer our non-yankee guests. Handed down thru many generations of New Englanders. Made with beets, creamed egg, potato, rendered salt pork and salt cod. The “blood” from the beets freaked out the kids.
My grandfather used to make salt cod cakes with potato, crunchy bacon & diced raw onions. The process was the same with simmering the cod a couple times to temper the saltiness. He mashed the ingredients together & formed it into cakes like crab cakes & fried them or just ate them like that. As a kid I loved those cod cakes & I loved that my grandfather gave my grandmother a day off & cooked cod cakes once a month or so! I sure could go for some right now, Papa!!
I live in Southeastern Connecticut and we call it Block Island Turkey. Instead of a cream sauce, my mother and grandmother would cook down salt pork until it was a pool of grease, and then ladle it upon the cod, boiled pink potatoes and sliced red onion. As disgusting as it sounds it was absolutely wonderful and a big treat when it was prepared. My mother said this was a dish prepared by the whalers when they went out to sea for long periods because the salted cod, salt pork and potatoes did not need refrigeration. I tried to make this dish once and my Polish husband would not touch it. I did not get the salt out properly and I pickled my insides and was chugging water for five days! ????
I plan on making this for my 95 year old neighbor. He gave me the basic ingredients, but I wanted to reference some amounts and directions. I was pleased to see that your link includes beets in the ingredients, which he says is fundamental, but then your recipe has none! What’s up with that?
Also, with regard to the salt pork, aside from your typo (shame on you), which states TRY the pork, there is no info on how that pairs up with the potato.
I will need to search for another source.