TIMES RECORD • May 13, 2021
Some of the best Maine seafood was once considered trash fish. Lobster, for example, was fed to indentured servants in the 1800s because it was a cheap source of protein. They got so tired of eating it that they took their masters to court and a law was passed limiting lobster meals to three times a week. The dislike of lobster most likely had as much to do with its preparation as it did its frequency. Before the advent of ice, much seafood was preserved by smoking or salting and lobster doesn’t take well to either of these, nor does it do well when cooked after it is already dead, as it was most often back then. Now, it is a prized delicacy in the seafood world and a lobster meal is considered a treat. Many other types of seafood also didn’t take well to the preservation methods of the 1800s. One of these is the somewhat majestic, but also oddly cross-eyed-looking Atlantic halibut. ~ Susan Olcott