Product Code Database
Scrod or schrod () is a small cod or haddock, and sometimes other whitefish, used as food. It is usually served as a fish fillet, though formerly it was often split instead.
In the wholesale fish business, scrod is the smallest weight category of the major whitefish.United States International Trade Commission, "Certain Fresh Atlantic Groundfish from Canada", USITC Publication 1844, May 1986 full text From smallest to largest, the categories are scrod, market, large, and whale. In the United States, scrod haddock or cusk weighs ; scrod cod ; and scrod pollock .Ian Dore, The New Fresh Seafood Buyer's Guide: A manual for Distributors, Restaurants and Retailers, 2013, , p. 155 The exact weight categories are somewhat different in Canada.
Scrod is common in many coastal New England and Atlantic Canada fish markets and restaurants, although using the name 'scrod' without the species is in principle mislabeling.
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.
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'. English Dialect Dictionary 5 (R–S), 1904, s.v., quoting from Notes and Queries 10 July–December 1854, p. 418, November 25, 1854
A similar meaning is found in Scots language scrae: "fish dried in the sun without being salted", attested in 1806. English Dialect Dictionary 5 (R–S), 1904, s.v.
This corresponds to its earliest documented meaning in American English: "a young or small cod fish, split and salted for cooking". Dictionary of American Regional English, s.v.
Another theory derives it from the Dutch schrood, from Middle Dutch schrode 'a piece cut off', that is, cut up for drying or cooking.Douglas Harper, 2014, Online Etymology Dictionary s.v., accessed 24 November 2017. There is a rare variant escrod. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edition (1891), s.v.
The term has attracted a number of jocular false etymologies. One treats it as short for the "Sacred Cod" carving that hangs in the Boston State House."Jeri Quinzio, 2014, "Food on the Rails: The Golden Era of Railroad Dining," Rowman & Littlefield, p. 112, see [9], accessed 22 January 2014. Various have been suggested, though acronyms were hardly ever used in the past:Keith M. Denning et al., English Vocabulary Elements, 2007 , p. 60 "seaman’s catch received on deck," supposedly any whitefish of the day; for "small cod remaining on dock"; "select catch retrieved on the day."
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.
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). Chicago Tribune, 25 February 1949, § ii, pp. 4, 6 Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edition, 1911 s.v.
As of the early years of the new millennium, scrod continues as a staple in many coastal New England and Atlantic Canada fish markets and restaurants.
"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."
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."A housekeeper", The American matron: or Practical and scientific cookery, J. Munroe & Co., 1851, p. 173
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:
(2025). 9781599210964, Lyons Press. ISBN 9781599210964Barry Popik, "'Where can I get scrod?' (joke)", The Big Apple, February 25, 2016
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