Codfish Quotes

“Cod meat has virtually no fat (.3 percent) and is more than 18 percent protein, which is unusually high even for fish. And when cod is dried, the more than 80 percent of its flesh that is water having evaporated, it becomes concentrated protein - almost 80 percent protein.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Nature remains focused on survival.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“You haggle like a crone with a codfish.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

“When the Basque whalers applied to cod the salting techniques they were using on whale, they discovered a particularly good marriage because the cod is virtually without fat, and so if salted and dried well, would rarely spoil. It would outlast whale, which is red meat, and it would outlast herring, a fatty fish that became a popular salted item of the northern countries in the Middle Ages.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“The town of Lunenburg was built on a hill running down to a sheltered harbour. On one of the upper streets stands a Presbyterian church with a huge gilded cod on its weather vane. Along the waterfront, the wooden-shingled houses are brick red, a color that originally came from mixing clay with cod-liver oil to protect the wood against the salt of the waterfront. It is the look of Nova Scotia - brick red wood, dark green pine, charcoal sea.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Nature may have even less patience than politicians.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Newfoundlanders debated over when "the cod was coming back". Few dared ask if. Or what happens to the ocean if they don't come back?”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Nature, the ultimate pragmatist, doggedly searches for something that works. But as the cockroach demonstrates, what works best in nature does not always appeal to us.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“How did the Vikings survive in greenless Greenland and earthless Scotland? How did they have enough provisions to push on to Woodland and Vineland, where they dared not go inland to gather food, and yet they still had enough food to get back? What did these Norsemen eat on the five expeditions to America between 985 and 1011 that have been recorded in Icelandic sagas? There were able to travel to all these distant, barren shores because they had learned to preserve codfish by hanging it in the frosty winter air until it lost four-fifths of its weight and became a durable woodlike plank.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Summary & Study Guide Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

“The medieval church imposed fast days on which sexual intercourse and the eating of flesh were forbidden, but eating "cold" foods was permitted. because fish came from water, it was deemed cold, as were waterfowl and whale, but meat was considered hot food.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Cod became almost a religious icon - a mythological crusader for Christian observance.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Massachusetts had elevated cod from commodity to fetish.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Since the industrial revolution, Great Britain had been developing an ever-increasing market for groundfish - especially cod, haddock, and plaice - because fried fish, later fish-and-chips, became the favorite dish of the urban working class.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Salt cod, morue, had slowly made its way up from peasant food in the south to become an honored French tradition. But not fresh cod.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Politics and nationalism often play far greater roles than conservation in the decision-making process.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“The most highly developed salt cod cuisine in the world is that of the Spanish Basque provinces. Until the nineteenth century, salt cod was exclusively food for the poor, usually broken up in stews.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“People who know fresh cod - from the great restaurants of France, to British working-class fish shops, to the St. John's waterfront - all agree on three things: It should be cooked quickly and gently, it should be prepared simply, and, above all, it must be a thick piece. Only a large piece can be properly cooked.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Where there are Norwegian communities, there are cod clubs.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“Next, 'baccala marechiara,' codfish with a sauce of tomatoes, capers, olives, garlic, and parsley, a lighter version of her puttanesca. She laid out fresh cod in a baking dish, ladled the marechiara sauce over it, and set it in the oven until the cod was cooked through and flaky. She would serve it on a platter over linguine dressed with the good olive oil and cracked black pepper.
As the sun came up, she set out the fresh-baked bread, and its aroma enveloped the room. She'd made platters of salads, melon balls wrapped with prosciutto, a huge antipasto with cuts of cured meats, cheeses, and olives, and a fresh-fruit tray that exploded with color. She pulled the chicken out to rest, sampled the bourguignonne, set the lasagna to bubble and cool on the big table, stirred her soup and turned down the heat on it.”
― Brian O'Reilly, Angelina's Bachelors

“By 1937, every British trawler had a wireless, electricity, and an echometer - the forerunner of sonar. If getting into fishing had required the kind of capital in past centuries that it cost in the twentieth century, cod would never have built a nation of middle-class, self-made entrepreneurs in New England.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

“How much above zero still produces zero is not known.”
― Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World