The Emergence of National Food

The Dynamics of Food and Nationalism

Atsuko Ichijo, Venetia Johannes, Ronald Ranta, Atsuko Ichijo, Venetia Johannes, Ronald Ranta

• Editorial: Bloomsbury Academic
• Año: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781350074156
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Politique et relations internationales
• Categoría: Politique publique en matière d'agriculture

What do deep fried mars bars, cod, and Bulgarian yoghurt have in common? Each have become symbolic foods with specific connotations, located to a very specific place and country. This book explores the role of food in society as a means of interrogating the concept of the nation-state and its sub-units, and reveals how the nation-state in its various disguises has been and is changing in response to accelerated globalisation. The chapters investigate various stages of national food: its birth, emergence, and decline, and why sometimes no national food emerges. By collecting and analysing a wide range of case studies from countries including Portugal, Mexico, the USA, Bulgaria, Scotland, and Israel, the book illustrates ways in which various social forces work together to shape social and political realities concerning food. The contributors, hailing from anthropology, history, sociology and political science, investigate the significance of specific food cultures, cuisines, dishes, and ingredients, and their association with national identity. In so doing, it becomes clearer how these two things interact, and demonstrates the scope and direction of the current study of food and nationalism.

Part One

The “Template”: The “Orthodox” Emergence and Development of National Food

1

Salt Cod and the Making of a Portuguese National Cuisine

José M. Sobral

Introduction

Salt cod—bacalhau in Portuguese—is a major foodstuff in present-day Portugal. The Portuguese are its foremost consumers worldwide with more than 6 kg per capita, a situation that has been going on for a very long time (Cardoso, 2016). The most recent information on the Portuguese food balance for the 2012 to 2016 period shows a relative increase in its importance (INE, 2017). These data point to a sustained, long-term consumption of the salted and dried fish even when refrigeration and freezing enable a supply of fish in places where this has not happened in the past.

Even when compared with other large consumers of salt cod, like the Spaniards, the Italians, or the French, the Portuguese occupy a prominent place (Parlato, 2007). Before the Second World War, the general consumption in Portugal was 7 kg per capita, but this amount would eventually grow up to almost 9 kg per capita from 1946 to 1967. Spaniards, also important consumers of salt cod, consumed 3 kg per capita at the beginning of the 1930s but only 1 kg in the 1950s. The French consumed less than 1 kg per capita in 1954 (Garrido, 2004: 307). A clear indication of its importance lies in the fact that at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, salt cod represented the second most imported foodstuff in Portugal, following cereals, the basis of that staple food, bread (Garrido, 2004). This consumption was anchored in the long run. Many writings show the importance of salt cod in Portugal since the sixteenth century (Castelo-Branco, n.d.). A description of the port of Lisbon in the first half of the eighteenth century gives it as a destination of more than 35,000 tons of cod (Freire, 1739), while half a century later, a document regarding Porto, refers to the many thousands of tons entering the city (Costa, 1789).

But as significant as the quantities consumed is the fact that the number of cod recipes referred to in cookbooks is larger than that of any other food, in addition to the books specifically devoted to it. Cod is obligatory for most Portuguese people at the Christmas Eve supper, the most important meal in their Catholic country. Called the “faithful friend,” cod became a marker of the Portuguese national identity. In this essay I will present a brief analysis of the historical processes in the longue durée that led cod to play such a relevant role in Portuguese food and culture, showing how this history relates with that of the construction of a Portuguese national cuisine. In tackling this subject, we tried to combine a bottom-up approach centered on the unique importance of salt cod in Portuguese food and cuisine, with a top-down approach that focuses on the role of the state and the politico-cultural elite in fostering culinary nationalism.

Christianity and fish consumption

The reasons for the consumption of cod in Portugal are ultimately derived from the fact that the Portuguese are Roman Catholics. Christianity breaks with the dietary traditions of Judaism from which it emerges, although it maintains the Jewish association between fasting and abstinence as ways of purification and a sign of obedience to God (Albala, 2011; Notaker, 2017). Christian patterns were also influenced by other, Greco-Roman traditions, which insisted on the need to curb food consumption and drink to preserve health and maintain self-control (Albala, 2011; Laudan, 2013). As a fish, cod is associated with Christianity in many ways. Christ was compared to a fisherman and symbolically to a fish from the beginning of Christianity. As Toussaint-Samat (1994: 311–13) pointed out, “The ideogram of the fish (Greek iktus) was the emblem of the early Church, its five letters being the initials of the five Greek words describing the Savior: Iesus Khristos Theou Uios Soter (Jesus the Anointed, Son of God, Redeemer).”

The monastic tradition, so influential in the early centuries of Christianity, underlines the need for fasting and abstinence from meat and fatty foods. These were considered hot foods, inducing excitement and lust, while fish, due to living in water, were considered cold, sober and pure (Toussaint-Samat, 1994). In addition, gluttony was condemned as one of the seven deadly sins (Laudan, 2013).

Abstinence from consumption of meat and other animal products occurred for long periods of the year, particularly during the forty-day period of Lent and the thirty days of the Advent before Christmas, or every Friday in memory of the crucifixion (Kiple, 2007). The Protestant Reformation did not put a complete end to those requirements, which stayed in place in the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church. Among Catholics, there has been a recent relaxation of the rules, which now only require that during Lent, the faithful should abstain from meat only on Fridays and on Ash Wednesday (Jensen, 1972; Notaker, 2017).

Cod consumption in Portugal: A brief overview

Cod (Gadus morhua) is found in the North Atlantic, from Norway to the East Coast of the United States. It is not found near Portugal or in Mediterranean countries where it enjoys great popularity. Fresh fish would not reach the interior of Portugal in any meaningful quantities until the twentieth century. It was expensive and freshwater fish was not plentiful enough to ensure supply. Salted sardines, or herring—a very common staple for days of abstinence in northern Europe during the Middle Ages—could be preserved for some time, but the oily flesh did not keep as well as cod, which is very low in fat. Cod, air-dried as “stockfish,” or dried and salted as salt cod, had an unmatched resistance to spoilage. Its abundance, making it a relatively accessible food that justified capture and trade over long distances, long storage life, and the fact that it was available to consumers in places far from fisheries, were all factors that strongly contributed to its popularity (Jensen, 1972). Cod was already the subject of considerable fishing and trade at the close of the Middle Ages and the dawn of the modern era (fifteenth to sixteenth century), and it has been argued that its fishing and trading played a relevant role in the development of the world’s capitalist economy (Braudel, 1979). It was so cheap that it was part of the diet of slaves in sugar plantations in the Cari bbean islands.

Along the centuries the supply was ensured by imports and Portuguese-led fishing in the North Atlantic, during some periods. It is known that the Portuguese already fished cod on the English coast in the fourteenth century, with the permission of King Edward III (Saramago, 2004). Then, arguably, at least from the beginning of the sixteenth century, they are found fishing it in the North Atlantic, in Newfoundland, and along the east coast of North America (Oliveira-Martins, 1994; Godinho, 1956). This activity was very intense until the end of the sixteenth century, when the dynastic union between the crowns of Portugal and Spain made the Portuguese boats prey to English corsairs during the reign of Elizabeth I, leading to the abandonment of fishing. The interest in capital investment in Brazilian sugar also contributed to the lack of interest in fishing in the Atlantic Northwest (Godinho, 1956).

Only in the nineteenth century, especially in its last decades, was cod fishing by the Portuguese once more resumed (Moutinho, 1985), increasing especially due to protectionist policies pursued during the dictatorial nationalist regime of the Estado Novo (New State) (1933–1974). The aim was to replace imports, at least partially, by alleviating weight in the Portuguese trade deficit, as its consumption remained high across the centuries. This policy was in line with the prevailing economic nationalism in the interwar period, which was bent on achieving self-sufficiency and autarky (Notaker, 2017). It was also accompanied by a narrative establishing continuity between contemporary fisheries in the Northwest Atlantic and the great voyages of the so-called “Discoveries” of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Golden Age of Portuguese nationalism. As stated at the time by official discourse, Portuguese cod fishing was viewed as “feeding the people, bringing to the homeland the bread of the seas” (Garrido, 2008: 112).

Because of the protectionist policy of this fishery, in 1958 Portugal became the world’s premier producer of salt cod, with 59,826 tons. Nevertheless, it was necessary to import 25,370 tons. Ten years later, in 1967, the production would raise to up 85,858 tons (Garrido, 2004: 297, 299). But this protectionism would be abandoned in favor of a liberal policy in 1967, and after the demise of the Estado Novo in 1974, Portuguese fishery entered a period of collapse, further accelerated by the closing of the Grand Banks by the Canadian government in 1992, with the few remaining ships reduced to fishing in the Arctic (Garrido, 2011).

As the historian Toussaint-Samat (1994) states, “The poorer countries of Europe, America, the Antilles, and Africa eat it as a food of the basic diet, especially in Portugal, where bacalaó (sic) is the national dish” (p. 319). How was this achieved? In our opinion, first we have to consider its availability, that its consumption was widespread across society, and that it was comparatively cheap. Places like the West Indies were outlets for “rejects,” or “refuse cod,” that is, cheaper salt cod rejected in other, more affluent markets (Jensen, 1972: 98; Kurlasnky, 1999; Higman, 2008). In Portugal, we think, in all probability, similar reasons applied: the fact that it was cheaper than most fresh fish, even half the price of bacon (Teles, 1904). Also, it is very likely that most of the cod being consumed was not of good quality. Salt cod was called in Portugal the “remedy of the poor” (Castelo-Branco, 1969: 170)—as in Italy it was called “the beef of the poor” (Parlato, 2007: 64, 69). And in nineteenth-century Lisbon it is stated that fresh fish, which was more expensive, was preferred among the more affluent on abstinence days, while cod was consumed by the popular classes (Cruz, 1843). This repeated association of cod to the poor and rustic persists but needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. The various historical sources regarding its consumption attest to it being widespread. We can evaluate its importance by its high frequency in the diets of the army, navy, hospitals, prisons, asylums, schools, convents, and also among the peasant and urban population (Sobral and Rodrigues, 2013). Cod was so important in the diet of the Portuguese that in 1811 their British ally donated some 290 tons to help the Portuguese cope with the disruptive consequences of the Napoleonic invasions that devastated the country (Ofício do Intendente Geral da Polícia, 1811).

As in other countries (Jensen, 1972: 17–18), cod appears as a character in Portuguese folk literature. And in a “chapbook” of the late eighteenth century (a type of printed popular literature, very cheap and common in early modern Europe), the association of cod with the humbler classes is brought forth in a facetious conversation between the cod and the sardine—Aventuras, ou Lograções, de D. Bacalhau Quaresma e D. Sardinha d’Espixa (The Adventures, or Ruses, of D. Cod Lent and D. Sardine of Row). The imaginary dialogue is represented as taking place in Lisbon, a seaport. According to the text, while cod would be cooked and served there in various and sophisticated ways—a thousand ways—by the somewhat more elegant classes, the latter was consumed in much simpler dishes by the common people (Anonymous, 1790).

In the middle of the nineteenth century—although the practice could go back earlier—salt cod boiled with potatoes and cabbage was already the main course of Consoada (Christmas Eve supper) in Northern Portugal (Ferraz Júnior, 1866). This is the most important ritual meal of the year in Portugal, celebrating at the same time Christianity and the family, which assembles for the occasion. The presence of cod reflects the religious prescriptions, as the meal is served before midnight, a time of abstinence, the ingestion of meat only being allowed on Christmas Day. In Italy, salt cod is also served during this occasion (Parlato, 2007). As Modesto, Calvet, and Praça (1999, I) have pointed out, this habit originally came from the North of Portugal, and became dominant in the rest of the country for this throughout the twentieth century. In the South (Alentejo), as the Christmas meal traditionally took place after midnight Mass (and thus at the end of religious abstinence), the consumption of meat wa s the norm. As most Portuguese people come from the North, the most populated area of the country, their food customs encroached on Southern habits. This is a clear sign of the popularity of cod, which not only continued to be associated with everyday eating, but also with this unique moment of commensality. As in other places, Christmas in Portugal is a time for both the celebration of the family and the nation (Lupton, 1996). Through its ritual consumption on this occasion, cod becomes enshrined in the Portuguese calendar—with many Portuguese in the country or in the Diaspora consuming it in a synchronic way—which further contributed to its “nationalization.”

The popularization and “nationalization” of cod

The popularity of cod is revealed to us by a plurality of expressions. One of these rests on the uses of the word in the Portuguese language. It appears as a surname, it designates the handshake—“bacalhau”—and the female sex. It even serves to qualify unfinished processes: things that stayed in “cod waters.” These kinds of uses are not exclusive to Portugal and attest the widespread popularity of the fish in some countries (Jensen, 1972). Cod also figures in the humorous criticism of the Portuguese dictator Oliveira Salazar, well known for his austerity policies and represented as stingy, through the recipe of “Bacalhau à Salazar” (Salazar Cod). This would consist of cod boiled with potatoes, but without the usual flavoring with olive oil—if the fish was fat it did not need it, and if it was lean it was not worth it (Consiglieri and Abel, 1999).

An eloquent testimony of the role of cod among the Portuguese is found in popular culture in mocking rituals known as the “burials of cod” (almost gone, nowadays, but very widespread in the past), and in humorous trials of the fish printed in “chapbooks.” The burials of cod, mimicking those of humans, occurred mainly on Holy Saturday, marking the end of the abstinence of meat that characterizes Lent (Cardoso, 1982–1983). The burial was preceded by the trial of the cod. A chapbook relating a “trial” published in 1818—O Suplício do bacalhau e degredo do Judas em Sábado de Aleluia (The Punishment of Cod and Defeat of Judas on Holy Saturday)—is enlightening. Accused of several crimes, ranging from the ruin of fresh fish sellers to the deficit in Portugal’s foreign trade due to the weight of imports, cod defends itself, invoking its usefulness, claiming to be consumed by all classes, rich and poor. It claims to be the “faithful friend,” a designation...