Short of Cod, Massachusetts Chefs Suggest a Dish of Blood Cockle
Friday, July 5, 2013 at 3:21PM June 30, 2013 -- A local clam that is typically banished from New England menus because, true to its name, it is filled with blood-red goop, the cockle was coated with a spicy rub and served as part of a "Trash Fish" dinner hosted earlier this year by Boston chefs.
The event is one of many ways the local culinary community is promoting cooking with so-called underutilized species because of deep cuts in catch limits that took effect May 1 in New England for fish including haddock, flounder and, most painfully, cod, the official state fish of Massachusetts.
To get themselves off the hook, Massachusetts chefs and fishing communities are also looking to dogfish, tautog and sea robin—species often unappreciated or discarded by fishermen. Because the availability of cod, haddock and flounder has been sinking, the federal government imposed sharp new limits on certain stocks of them for the current fishing year. The allowable catch for Gulf of Maine cod, for instance, is down 77% from last year.