Martin Jaffa

BY DR MARTIN JAFFA

Festive feasts

Religion and tradition have a big infl uence on how we consume fi sh at Christmas

CHRISTMAS is coming and I have no� ced that my local fi shmonger is already displaying some whole carp on his fi sh counter. Tradi� onally, carp are grown in Europe during the summer months when they benefi t 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 eff orts 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 fi sh 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 fi sh.

The focus on fi sh is certainly connected to the Catholic Church and the observance of fast days, during which the ea� ng of meat was forbidden, but fi sh 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 fi sh is encouraged on Christmas Eve as it is considered an important fast day. The idea of ea� ng seven diff erent fi sh dishes may come from the seven sacraments, but the true origin is unknown. Today, a fi sh pie may be the simplest way to eat a variety of fi sh 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 insignifi cance 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

around French supermarkets to record their off erings. Extra open-top chillers were brought into stores and lined up along the widest aisles and almost exclusively displayed a massive range of smoked salmon products.

Most packs of smoked salmon in the UK are sized at 100–120g with a 300g pack available at Christmas. In France, packs ranged in size up to 800g with branded and own label off ering a choice of origins including Scotland, Norway, Ireland, the Faroes and Chile. Packs of Label Rouge smoked salmon are also displayed.

How shoppers are able to decide which smoked salmon to buy is baffl ing because the choice is so wide. Although fresh salmon is widely available, the focus at Christmas in France is very much on the smoked salmon variety.

In the UK, the Christmas market for salmon is much more diverse. Alongside fresh and smoked salmon, there is an extensive range of added-value dishes in most retailers. Many of these take the form of hors d’oeuvres or starters such as salmon terrine with prawns, smoked salmon canapes and salmon pate. In addi� on, there are uncooked salmon sides with a range of fl avourings such as clemen� ne and cranberry fl avour.

Christmas is also the � me when whole salmon starts to reappear on fi sh counters in ever large numbers. They are typically on price promo� on, making salmon at Christmas even more a� rac� ve to consumers.

At the � me of wri� ng, at the end of November, Morrisons have just launched this year’s off er on salmon at £5.99/kg. However, it will be interes� ng to see how other retailers promote their salmon off erings. Many supermarket fi sh counters no longer exist as supermarkets respond to changing consumer demand. Christmas is very diff erent with con� nued strong demand as shoppers splash out for the Christmas fes� vi� es. This year, with the pandemic on our minds, perhaps it may be even more so. FF

“How shoppers are able to decide which smoked salmon to buy is baffl ing”