The Holly Bough Podcast: The foods of Christmas Eve in Cork

The giddy excitement of Christmas Eve was matched and accentuated by the long list of jobs that had to be done.

The turkey or goose had to be cleaned out, the good ware, glasses and cutlery had to be washed, the presents had to be wrapped, the baby Jesus had to be located to be put in the crib and importantly the youngest in the house had to light the Christmas candle.

There was a hubbub of never-ending chores, of manic tidying and preparing, while simultaneously entertaining visiting aunts and uncles and neighbours who dropped in.

The ham and spiced beef had to be boiled, the marrowfat peas with their white tablet had to be steeped, the jelly for the sherry trifle had to be made and puddings had to be boiled and water topped up for hours on end.

With the house full of such culinary activity and in anticipation of the great feast of Christmas Day with its mountains of food, Christmas Eve was a traditional day of fast.

For a great many, this non-meat day was observed by eating a simple dish of salted stockfish which in Cork is known as ‘Battleboard’.

Battleboard is the Cork term for the salted cod known variously as Bachalau in Portugal, Bacalao in Spain and Bakaliáros in Greece.

In Cork, the long slender member of the cod family, Ling, is the fish specific to battleboard.

In addition to the fast days of Lent, this was the dish of choice for Christmas Eve and the fishmongers of the old English Market used to sell huge quantities coming up to Christmas Eve.

In Cork, given our relatively moist and cool climate, when salted, the ling remained relatively soft compared to its Mediterranean counterparts that were dried in the baking sun.

Further north, the stiffness of klippfisk, the equivalent Scandinavian stockfish, came from the natural air-drying of their freezing climate.

The tender Cork battleboard simply required being soaked in hot water overnight.

It was placed in a shallow basin, skin side down, and the salty water replaced two or three times before its white flesh became full and plump.

To serve it, it was simply reheated in milk, flavoured with onions and white pepper and the milk thickened with flour.

In keeping with the all-white appearance of the dish, white turnip was the favourite accompaniment.

The Christmas Eve battleboard of the Aran Islands is known as ballach buí, yellow wrasse/rockfish.

I spoke with Mairéad Ní Fhátharta from Inis Meáin who spoke with her mother Máire and brother Pat who gave a detailed of their preparation and tradition.

In the past, these colourful fish were caught with long lines off the cliffs, while in more recent times they have been fished with trammel nets in the summer and autumn months.

They were caught in great quantities, along with the other plentiful fish staples, mackerel and pollock, which were also salted and dried to make ronnachí buí and mangach tirim respectively.

The wrasse were gutted and placed in a barrel of salt to pickle for at least a week and when fully salted they were taken out to dry.

In the distant past, it was a common sight to see the ballach buí laid out in neat lines, two or three rows high on the soft thatched roofs of rye, to dry in the sunshine.

More recently, they were placed on the limestone walls to dry. The latent heat of the Inis Meáin stone walls, along with the wind and intermittent sunshine, allow the distinctive yellow and green coloured fish to dry out and become firm. They are then paired off and fish of equal size are put belly to belly, one open-split side against the other open-split side with the colourful skin on the outside.

In the past, some people used to wrap raithneach (fronds of fern), around them to absorb any extra moisture and these would dry and decay over time but left the fish with an extra sweet and salty taste and these were especially relished as a treat.

The ballach buí were also hung from little hooks on a line across the hearth where they absorbed the distinctive flavour from the turf smoke and whether smoked or not, they were cooked by simply boiling them in a pot with water.

Some people would add two or three potatoes in an effort to absorb the excess salt and young and old enjoyed this fish, learning to mind the bones.

Many had a preference for the head of the fish with others specifying the eyes as a delicacy.

This unassuming preparation is the unique, vernacular, distinguishing dish of the Aran Islands: it is their taste of home, a taste that is full of sentiment and therefore one which is inextricably linked with their origins and identity that is always the focus of the Christmas period.

For the islanders, it is not Christmas without their fish dish and in the weeks before Christmas, the ballach buí are still sent off with those travelling to the mainland or dispatched in jiffy bags to the four corners of the globe where the islands’ diaspora have settled.

Whether in Cork or on the Aran Islands or throughout the country, the dish of salted stockfish was an important observation that marked the eve of the great feast.

In the countryside, one of the most memorable joys of Christmas was the marvel of all the lighted candles in all the windows as people walked to midnight mass.

This spectacle was enjoyed by multitudes as they headed into the village or town to avail of confession at 8 o’clock before mass.

The traditional observance of the penitential repast of salty fish had one inevitable consequence, giving all who partook an unslakable thirst.

Thankfully the remedy was near at hand and the pubs were filled with men downing pints of porter to combat their desiccated plight.

In Cork, the full flow of Beamish, Murphys and Guinness resulted not only from the Christmas cheer but from the consumption of the salty battleboard, while on Inis Meáin, they used to bring a tin can with them to the pub, and ‘tin can porter’ on Christmas Eve was the order of the night.

The Holly Bough Podcast: The foods of Christmas Eve in Cork

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