I was reading the current issue of Bon Apetit and in an article about Hannukah meals, a salmon dish is featured. Smoked salmon (lox) with bagels and cream cheese is a traditional (or should I say stereotypical) Jewish breakfast/brunch dish.
I’m curious about how salmon became a part of Jewish cuisine. Is it an American thing or did it come from the old country(ies)? In the U.S., the good stuff comes from the pacific northwest, not a center of Jewish culture. There is Atlantic Salmon, but I was under the impression that it’s habitat was a little further north than New York, up in the Canadian maritime provinces. In Europe, salmon is found in Scotland and Scandinavia, and although the fish goes up rivers to spawn, I don’t think it makes it to the centers of Jewish settlements. Maybe in Russia.
Anyway, does anyone know the scoop on this? Why salmon? It can’t be just because it is easy to prepare Kosher.
Lox as we know it appears to have been invented in America:
Not sure why American Jews in NY seized on salmon in the first place to popularize over other types of fish, but for whatever reason, you don’t see other types of salt-brined fish in anywhere near as much quantity in the US.
Last Friday, I went to a play called ‘Jewtopia’. One of the characters said “We like salmon. Nobody is really sure why.”
OTOH, my sister assures me that fish is considered meat with regards to kosher laws, but the cite provided by GFactor claims it is pareve. It seems to me that I ran into this problem in the thread about whether jello is kosher or not.
I keep kosher. She’s wrong. Fish is neither meat nor dairy- it’s parve.
Eggs aren’t meat according to the kosher laws either, for the record. They’re also parve.
There is a reason why salmon might be part of a Hanukkah menu that does have to do with keeping kosher, though. Latkes are the essential part of a Hanukkah meal (for Ashkenazim, at least), and a lot of people like sour cream with their latkes. That rules out meat or poultry at a Hanukkah dinner if you keep kosher, because you can’t have either of those with sour cream. Salmon is a popular and widely available kosher fish that a lot of people think of as appropriate for a festive meal.
When I was a kid when we got appetizing, we got lox and also sable , plus whitefish. Sable and whitefish seem to be pretty rare outside of New York, but the deli in the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City has a mean whitefish salad. (And good pastrami.) Whitefish is kind of a pain to eat, and I guess smoked salmon has more general appeal. I had some really good smoked salmon in the Netherlands. No bagels though.
BTW, among my crowd Nova lox (made from Atlantic salmon) is much preferred to lox made from Pacific Northwest salmon. I think I can tell the difference, and buy Nova wherever possible.
Both sable and whitefish (not to mention lox) were also quite common in Philly. But pastrami never made the trip (corn beef did).
And I find regular lox much more flavorful than Nova (which, under the name smoked salmon or saumon fume) is the only thing known here in Montreal. When I am in NY, I get real lox, although I probably shouldn’t on account of the salt.
fish is pareve. However, most Sephardic jews do not eat fish with dairy. Therefore, no lox and cream-cheese bagels for Sphardim.
Many Jews also refrain from eating fish with meat.
