Cod_ A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World - Mark Kurlansky [50]
The British desperately needed not only food but cod-liver oil. They had a history of being great cod-liver oil enthusiasts. For centuries before it was refined for ingestion, a blackish residue from livers left in barrels was used as a balm, as it still is in West Africa. In the 1780s, British medicine decided that cod-liver oil was a remedy for rheumatism, then a catchall diagnosis for aches and pains. During the nineteenth century, it was used to treat tuberculosis, malnutrition, and other poverty-related diseases. Between the wars, cod-liver oil became a major business in Hull and was used both for livestock and humans. During World War II, the British Ministry of Food, concerned about the effect of a tightened food supply on health, provided free cod-liver oil for pregnant and breast-feeding women, children under five, and adults over forty. School nurses forcefully administered spoonfuls of the vile-tasting liquid, while adults were often given it with orange juice. All this oil came from Iceland, where it contributed to a secondary Icelandic trade that remained and prospered after the war. The British government, believing that the oil had produced the healthiest children England had ever seen, despite bombings and rationing, continued the program until 1971. It was finally discontinued because people refused to take the oil. Icelanders, however, still take it, as do many Americans.
During the war, fish prices reached record highs and were paid to Iceland in dollars, which facilitated doing business with the American troops on the island. Icelanders built American housing and military bases and began importing large quantities of American goods.
By the time the war ended, Iceland was a changed country. Not least among the changes, in 1944 it had negotiated full independence from Denmark. Now it was free to negotiate its own relations with the rest of the world. Because of cod, it had moved in one generation from a fifteenth-century colonial society to a modern postwar nation. W. H. Auden, who had spent much time there in the 1930s, returned in 1964 and was astounded by the transformation. He ran into one of his former guides, now a schoolmaster, and asked him what life had been like for Icelanders during the war. “We made money,” replied the schoolmaster.
A NEW DANISH YEAR
Danes will order a whole cod weeks in advance to ensure getting a fresh one for New Year’s Eve. In a Scandinavian winter funk, Ann Bierlich, a television film editor in Copenhagen, wrote that Fresh Cod with Mustard Sauce, a traditional New Year’s dish, “is the only good thing about this country.” She was very specific about the proper way to cook fresh cod. Fish mustard, a strong, grainy mustard, is made fresh and sold in Danish markets.
FRESH COD WITH MUSTARD SAUCE
Allow ½ kilogram per person and cut the cod in approximately 3-centimeter-thick slices. Take the biggest pot you have. Put in enough cold water to cover the fish. Use a lot of salt, a good handful of coarse salt, so salty that you think it is the North Sea. Put the pieces of cod into the cold water, put the stove on low heat, and warm the water so it doesn’t boil, but quivers. Let the pieces of cod stay in the water a few minutes while it is still quivering. Don’t cook it to death! The cod must be firm and white.
Mustard sauce—2 tablespoons of butter are melted, and 2 tablespoons flour added, and then 1 liter of milk. The sauce must be thick. Finally add a generous amount of fish mustard! (A little splash of dill vinegar will give an extra zing.)
The dish is eaten with boiled finger potatoes, chopped hardboiled eggs, chopped boiled red beets, fresh horseradish. What to drink with it? Ice cold beer and schnapps, of course!
—Ann