Comment
BY DR MARTIN JAFFA
Festive feasts Religion and tradition have a big influence on how we consume fish at Christmas
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HRISTMAS is coming and I have no�ced that my local fishmonger is already displaying some whole carp on his fish counter. Tradi�onally, carp are grown in Europe during the summer months when they benefit from warmer temperatures and faster growth. As winter approaches, they are le� to hibernate or are harvested for the fes�ve season. The tradi�ons vary around Europe, but my involvement with carp farming was through the efforts of a war-�me refugee from Latvia who wanted to grow some of the taste of home in the English countryside. He told me that it was tradi�onal to take the larger scales from the farmed mirror carp and put them in your wallet to ensure con�nued wealth in the coming year. During the 1980s, there was s�ll a large Eastern European popula�on living in the north of England who s�ll wanted to eat fresh carp at Christmas and New Year, especially those from Poland. Carp remains the most popular fish in Poland, yet the only �me it is eaten is at Christmas. The Polish Christmas meal typically consists of 12 dishes in reference to the 12 apostles. Every dish should be at least tried as it brings good luck for the coming 12 months. Most interes�ngly, the meal doesn’t contain any meat except that of cold-blooded fish.
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Comment (Martin Jaffa)v2.indd 24
The focus on fish is certainly connected to the Catholic Church and the observance of fast days, during which the ea�ng of meat was forbidden, but fish was allowed. Christmas Eve was tradi�onally part of the advent fast period, a tradi�on that con�nued long a�er the Reforma�on. Another Catholic tradi�on relates to the Feast of the Seven Fishes, which appears to have originated in Italy but has been adopted widely with the Italian migra�on, especially to the US. As elsewhere, the consump�on of fish is encouraged on Christmas Eve as it is considered an important fast day. The idea of ea�ng seven different fish dishes may come from the seven sacraments, but the true origin is unknown. Today, a fish pie may be the simplest way to eat a variety of fish in one go. Fish on Christmas Eve may also be seen as a way of ea�ng a lighter dish before the big splurge on Christmas Day. In more recent �mes, the widespread availability of salmon from aquaculture has meant Christmas has become a period of high demand, especially for smoked salmon, which is bought either for home consump�on of to give as a gi� to friends and rela�ons. One of the most popular ways to eat smoked salmon is with scrambled eggs on Christmas morning. Some years ago, Kantar conducted a survey of Christmas shopping habits and found that more than two million extra shoppers buy smoked salmon in the run-up to Christmas. However, I suspect that Bri�sh demand for smoked salmon pales into insignificance compared with that of the French. Prior to the pandemic, I used to do a sweep
Above: Smoked salmon at Christmas Left: Carp is a popular fes�ve dish in Europe
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09/12/2021 15:04:14
