Thursday, March 1, 2012

Shanty Fish Loaf

A long time ago, a summertime friend at South Harpswell gave us this recipe for a fish loaf. 'Guaranteed to make anyone a fish eater,' she stated. She is absolutely right, too. Served with a butter sauce or a frozen shrimp soup sauce it makes a very special dinner. 


                                                                          Marjorie Standish





A special meal it may be... any thoughts before I share mine? 



It was an easy recipe to pull together, not many ingredients involved in this one. However, in my opinion it may not be one of the finer loaves to come out the book of Marjorie Standish. Before starting to cook my way through this cookbook I had never heard of any loaf except a meat loaf. Now I'm quite familiar with Egg Loaves, Halibut Loaf, Salmon Loaf, and now Shanty Fish Loaf. 

The end result of the aforementioned salmon loaf and halibut loaf was very similar to that of a meat loaf.  At least it looked like a meat loaf and it rose and cut into slices. The shanty fish loaf on the other hand did not rise like the others and I'm not sure will cut into slices. 

Shanty fish loaf does have a familiar fish in it, haddock. Along with onion celery, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. After it's baked, Marjorie tells you to top it with a sauce of your choice. She does recommend frozen shrimp soup, this is what I chose. 

Honestly, this one confuses me, as it is supposed to be a "special dinner" but  it doesn't look all that appealing to me. Though I suppose I should remember that "back in the day" special probably meant something completely different than it does today and special is different to everyone. 

Would you make this for a special meal? Would it turn you into a fish eater?



Blue Elephant Cafe
12 Pepperell Square 
Saco, Maine 04072
207-281-3070


1 comment:

  1. Green pepper was kind of a specialty gourmet ingredient from away. You couldn't always find it at the supermarket in Maine even up through the seventies. So that would be one thing to make it special. I think most home cooks would have served the sauce separately in a gravy boat, or just applied a little sparingly to the top. It sounds interesting! Will have to give it a try.

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