A Wild Summer Feast: Fresh Salmon, New Potatoes and Green Peas
Fresh, farm-raised Atlantic salmon coupled with baby/new potatoes and green peas can be had any time of year nowadays. But this traditional New England meal, which has been celebrated since the 1700s, at one time was only feasible on or near the Fourth of July.
A large population of wild Atlantic salmon used to migrate every summer from the ocean to New England rivers—about the same time New Englanders celebrated Independence Day. Today there are so few wild salmon in existence that only farm-raised salmon are sold to consumers. But for at least two centuries, until the wild populations were depleted, wild salmon was the traditional July fare.
Another reason salmon went so well with new potatoes and new peas was that both these vegetables were not available until late June or early July. New Englanders had to wait until the plants sown that spring were producing sweet, new peas and one or two-inch potatoes.
Stores did not readily stock baby potatoes in mesh bags, year round, as they do today. And peas newly shelled from their pods are still not available every month, but frozen petite peas taste similar to young, fresh peas and are a good substitute.
Dumping seed potatoes into a two-row planter in northern Maine, 1970s.
In northern Maine in the 1960s and 70s, wild salmon, new peas, and new potatoes were still the much anticipated July 4th meal planned by my parents on our farm.
In May, the two-row potato planter would make “click-click” sounds from morning ‘til night as it was hauled by a tractor up and down the newly turned fields, planting up to 100 acres of Superior, Katahdin, and Kennebec seed potatoes in the rush to get them in early.
At some point early in May, my father would sneak into a small, secluded garden patch in back of the farmhouse and hand-plant an old heirloom Irish potato variety called the Cobbler. He’d carefully place each seed piece in the soil as soon as possible—long before the machine-planted spuds were planted in the commercial fields.
Irish Cobblers
No one knows where or when the Cobbler variety was first produced. It has been in existence in northeastern United States since at least the mid-1800s. Legend has it that an Irish shoemaker, also called a cobbler, had some nice-looking white potatoes growing in his garden. Soon his neighbors bought his seed potatoes to grow in their own gardens, and thus the name: Irish Cobbler.
Known for its early maturing and good flavor that lasts until the following spring, the Cobbler became so popular that in the 1930s it was the most grown variety in many areas. Its downfall was having very deep “eyes” and irregular shapes.
Picking early, new potatoes by hand.
Dad didn’t need to grow Cobblers for his seed potato customers. They wanted more recently developed varieties that looked better and produced larger crops. He grew Cobblers as a hobby and as a race to have new potatoes on the table by July 4th. Cobblers, he told me, produced edible tubers earlier than any other variety.
Meanwhile, Mom tried to hold up her end of the bargain. As the supervisor of the rest of the vegetable garden, she planted green pea seed as soon as she dared. Planting anything in northern Maine is always a gamble due to unpredictable late frosts that could damage young plants.
Not every year would be successful for enough potatoes or peas for everyone at the table by the Fourth, but the effort was made and Dad would almost jump for joy when it happened.
In preparation for the meal, Dad ordered a freshly-caught wild Atlantic salmon directly from a Native American friend who acquired his catch on a river in eastern Canada. Mom would either fry the salmon steaks, rolled in corn meal and salt, or broil them with butter.
Another recipe, from the 1800s in Massachusetts, instructed cooks to wrap “a good piece of fish” in cheesecloth and boil it in water with added peppercorns, a bay leaf, and salt. When tender, the fish was covered with a sauce of melted butter and “hot dog” mustard.
The morning of the Fourth, Mom would go out to her pea patch and pray that she’d find enough pods full of new peas to shell and boil up for the noon or 1 p.m. feast. Dad would trudge out to the Cobbler patch, pull up a few potato plants, and carefully hand dig in the soil below to find new potato nuggets. He’d place his “babies” into quart strawberry boxes to cart up to the house and washed before cooking. The potato skins were so tender and almost non-existent, so no peeling was required.
You can just imagine the joy of feasting on fresh peas and little spuds—after a long winter of older, larger potatoes that just didn’t taste that great—and the sweet flavor of new salmon. Having all three foods available by July 4th when family and friends celebrated with a big meal was “icing on the cake.”
And it still can be.
New Potatoes and Peas in Cream
My mother and grandmother mixed cooked, small spuds and new peas with heavy cream. Yum! Here’s how Mom prepared the vegetables on the stove, followed by instructions for a faster, pressure cooker method:
On the stove: Place 24 ounces (or more) of 1 to 2-inch pieces of whole or, if larger, halved new/baby potatoes in a sauce pan. Add 1 teaspoon salt and cover with cold water. Bring to a medium boil and cook, in the uncovered pot, until the spuds are soft when pierced with a fork (about 15-20 minutes). Add 2 cups (or more, depending on the amount of potatoes) of new or petite frozen peas and cook together for 4-5 minutes. Drain and add 2 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 to 1/3 cup heavy cream. Stir slightly. Adjust seasonings and serve warm.
In an electric pressure cooker: Add the salt and potatoes (pierce skins if left whole to prevent bursting) to 1-2 cups water in the pot. Cook on high pressure for 6-8 minutes. Release the pressure, add the peas, and saute in the pot for several minutes. Drain and add the rest of the ingredients.