Scrod

File:Boston’s North Shore Baked Scrod Recipe.jpg

Baked scrod

Scrod or schrod (Template:IPAc-en) is a small cod or haddock, and sometimes other whitefish, used as food. It is usually served as a fillet, though formerly it was often split instead.

In the wholesale fish business, scrod is the smallest weight category of the major whitefish.<ref name="usitc">United States International Trade Commission, "Certain Fresh Atlantic Groundfish from Canada", USITC Publication 1844, May 1986 full text</ref> From smallest to largest, the categories are scrod, market, large, and whale. In the United States, scrod haddock or cusk weighs Template:Convert; scrod cod Template:Cvt; and scrod pollock Template:Cvt.<ref name="dore">Ian Dore, The New Fresh Seafood Buyer's Guide: A manual for Distributors, Restaurants and Retailers, 2013, Template:Isbn, p. 155</ref> The exact weight categories are somewhat different in Canada.<ref name="usitc"/>

Scrod is common in many coastal New England and Atlantic Canadian fish markets and restaurants, although using the name 'scrod' without the species is in principle mislabeling.<ref name="dore"/>

Historically, scrod was simply a small cod or haddock, "too small to swallow a bait" or "too small to be filleted", which was usually prepared by being split and lightly salted ("corned"), and sometimes quickly air-dried. They were generally broiled and served with butter. Starting in the mid-20th century, it came to mean a small haddock or cod that is filleted or split.<ref name='dare'/>

Etymology

The term "scrod" for a method of preparing fish, rather than a type or size of fish, is first attested in 1841. It is from the Anglo-Cornish dialect word scraw:<ref name=MerrWebst2014>Merriam-Webster, 2014, "scrod", Merrian Webster Dictionary, s.v., accessed 22 January 2014.</ref>

Fish are scrawed when they are prepared in a particular way before cooking. This scrawing consists in cutting them flatly open and then slightly powdering them with salt and sometimes with pepper. They are then exposed to the sun or air, that as much as possible of the moisture may be dried up. In this state they are roasted over a clear burning coal or wood fire. Thus prepared and smeared over with a little butter they are said to be 'scrawed'.<ref>English Dialect Dictionary 5 (R–S), 1904, s.v., quoting from Notes and Queries 10 July–December 1854, p. 418, November 25, 1854</ref>

A similar meaning is found in Scots scrae: "fish dried in the sun without being salted", attested in 1806.<ref>English Dialect Dictionary 5 (R–S), 1904, s.v.</ref>

This corresponds to its earliest documented meaning in American English: "a young or small cod fish, split and salted for cooking".<ref name='dare'>Dictionary of American Regional English, s.v.</ref>Template:When

Another theory derives it from the Dutch schrood, from Middle Dutch schrode 'a piece cut off', that is, cut up for drying or cooking.<ref name=Harper2014>Douglas Harper, 2014, Online Etymology Dictionary s.v., accessed 24 November 2017.</ref> There is a rare variant escrod.<ref name=OED2014_var>Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edition (1891), s.v.</ref>

Folklore

The term has been credited to the Parker House Hotel in Boston.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The term has attracted a number of jocular false etymologies.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> One treats it as short for the "Sacred Cod" carving that hangs in the Boston State House."<ref name=Quinzio>Jeri Quinzio, 2014, "Food on the Rails: The Golden Era of Railroad Dining," Rowman & Littlefield, p. 112, see [1], accessed 22 January 2014.</ref> Various acronyms have been suggested, though acronyms were hardly ever used in the past:<ref>Keith M. Denning et al., English Vocabulary Elements, 2007 Template:Isbn, p. 60</ref> "seaman’s catch received on deck,"<ref name=Quinzio/> supposedly any whitefish of the day;Template:Citation needed for "small cod remaining on dock"; "select catch retrieved on [the] day."Template:Citation needed

Scrod was apparently often used to mean simply fresh fish of the day, since menus were made up before the day's catch was brought in.Template:Citation needed

Cuisine

Historically, scrod was as much a method of preparation as a kind of fish. An 1851 recipe calls for the fish to be salted and left overnight, then broiled, skin side down first.<ref>"A housekeeper", The American matron: or Practical and scientific cookery, J. Munroe & Co., 1851, p. 173</ref>

Today, scrod is cooked in a variety of ways, including frying or broiling, after splitting or filleting; for example, "in famous Boston restaurants, scrod is simply a tail piece of filleted haddock or cod dipped in oil, then bread crumbs and broiled [sic] in a moderate oven" (1949).<ref>Chicago Tribune, 25 February 1949, § ii, pp. 4, 6</ref><ref name=OED1911>Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edition, 1911 s.v.</ref>

As of the early years of the new millennium, scrod continues as a staple in many coastal New England and Atlantic Canadian fish markets and restaurants.Template:Citation needed

In literature and history

Seth Peterson, a boatman, fisherman, and friend of Daniel Webster, described the 19th century orator and statesman (per biographer George Curtis) as having greatly enjoyed scrawed cod:Template:Quote

"Scrod" has been used as a facetious past participle of the word "screw," slang for having sexual intercourse, since at least the 1960s, in jokes like "I got scrod in Boston."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Barry Popik, "'Where can I get scrod?' (joke)", The Big Apple, February 25, 2016</ref>

External links

• David L. Gold, 2009, "Whence American English Scrod and Grimsby English Scrob", in Studies in Etymology and Etiology: With Emphasis on Germanic, Jewish, Romance and Slavic Languages, Alicante, Spain:Universidad de Alicante, pp. 555–558, see [2], accessed 22 January 2014.
• Melanie Crowley and Mike Crowley, 2014, Query "From Cosmo Cavicchio [The word scrod means… Can you verify that?]," in Words to the Wise: Your Etymologic Queried Answered, Take our Word For It, Issue 128, p. 2, see [3], accessed 22 January 2014.
• Anon., 2014, "Origin Of Scrod," at Celebrate Boston, see [4], accessed 22 January 2014.