What is Boston scrod, anyway? The American Heritage Dictionary calls scrod “a young cod or haddock, especially one split and boned for cooking.” Most of New England disagrees with this definition of scrod, saying that it isn’t a fish at all, though what a scrod is seems to be all over the map. Boston’s Parker House says the term was invented there (along with Parker House rolls and Boston cream pie). Hotel chefs needed a general word for a featured fish that they could put permanently on printed menus (another Parker House innovation). Most of the authorities we surveyed agree: Scrod is a “catch of the day,” usually referring to cod, halibut, haddock, or pollock. Some went so far as to point out an acronym: Scrod means “Select Catch Received on the Day” unless the catch was halibut, and an “H” would be added.
We’ll take ours with a nice cream pie, thanks.
Excerpt from “The New England Sampler,” Yankee Magazine, July 1996.READ MORE: About the Sacred Cod…or Haddock…or Schrod…or?
