More Fun With Fannie Farmer

I was pondering what to serve along with the beautiful swordfish I was going to get at Whole Foods Friday, and thought to consult my new Fannie Farmer Cook Book to see what Fannie would have done in 1896, and that consultation sent me into a tailspin of thought.  Sure enough, Fannie had a recipe for grilled swordfish (she was from Boston, after all), with which she recommended serving Cucumber or Horseradish Sauce.  Not wanting to challenge my swordfish with horseradish, I looked up the Cucumber Sauce, and found this straightforward concept.  "Grate two cucumbers, drain, and season with salt, pepper, and vinegar.  Serve with Broiled Fish."  My kind of recipe.  I tried it, and it was great with the fish.  These days one has to be careful to use organic cucumbers from a place like Whole Foods, Sprouts, or Vitamin Cottage, but I started thinking about how at the time she wrote that, everything probably already was local and organic.  Which in turn got me wondering about the history of agriculture in the 20th century, and how we ever "progressed" to the idea of cucumbers grown with chemicals and waxed for shipment thousands of miles away.

Perusing the fish section of the book also started me thinking about how our attitudes towards it have changed and how some fish have become endangered through overfishing.  While we've taken to revering our fish, giving some near cult status and paying a king's ransom for it, fish was clearly not on such a pedestal in 1896.  Among the things Fannie says in her introduction to the fish chapter are "Fish meat, with but few exceptions, is less stimulating and nourishing than meat of other animals...," and "Fish meat is generally considered cheaper than meat of other animals."  But ringing ever true today, "To obtain from fish its greatest value and flavor, it should be eaten fresh, and in season."  We might be willing to pay $25 a pound for a piece of halibut to showcase from Whole Foods, but in Fannie's day, it was a fish that could simply be stuck in boiling water.

This train of thought brought me to how much of this change I've seen in my own lifetime, growing up when it was a "sacrifice" to eat fish on Fridays.  As a kid, that usually meant swordfish or shrimp, both of which were plentiful and cheap.  Which brought me to one further realization, that my lifetime stretches halfway back to when Fannie Farmer published this book in 1896.  Now, that one's a shocker.  Oh gift giver of this book, you are messing with my mind.