Lobster bait. Trash fish. Seagull food. Such is often the life of alewives, the river herring that are famous for their annual sojourn from the ocean to spawn in the rivers of Maine and much of New England. Among most seafood enthusiasts, alewives aren’t considered on the level of a halibut steak or tuna. However, in recent years, a number of chefs in the Midcoast have begun to find an audience with a taste for the fish.
Sam Richman is the chef-owner of Sammy’s Deluxe, a no-frills space in downtown Rockland that was recently named one of the 50 best restaurants in America by the New York Times. He is one of the most ardent endorsers of alewives as an ingredient.
“They’re delicious,” Richman said, matter-of-factly. “When it’s fresh, this is the best thing to eat at the moment. They’re quite versatile. You can roast them, you can grill them. Curing them is great, just like cured herring. Smoking them is incredible. I think that’s the one that people are most familiar with.”
Richman’s favorite preparation in the kitchen for alewives is via a pickling process, with just a little bit of salt and vinegar, similar to the way a kohada (gizzard shad) is pickled in Japan.
“(Kohada) is one of the most important and sought-after sushi fish in all of Japan, which is a pretty high mark for a fish-loving country. They’re unsurprisingly quite delicious,” Richman said.
He believes that in another culture, alewives would be an important part of the local diet and seen more often in home kitchens and on restaurant menus.
“In other fish-loving countries, a big plate of grilled anchovies or sardines, that’s delectable,” Richman said. “And so, it’s a cultural difference. What one country says is good, another country uses for lobster bait. For me, delicious is delicious.”
John McNeil, co-owner of the aptly named Odd Alewives, a beer garden and pizza kitchen in Waldoboro, agreed with Richman’s assertion.
“They have an intense flavor and are quite oily,” McNeil said. ”I think the American palate is dominated by chicken and beef from large farms.”
In 2020, John and his wife and co-owner, Sarah, were testing recipes for their new kitchen adjacent to what was then their tasting room, and which is now the indoor dining area. In keeping with the unique flavors and names of their beers, they began experimenting with alewives for their menu.
“One day, we were talking about going to the Damariscotta fish ladder and that it’s actually quite moving to see in operation,” McNeil said. “I had never heard of anyone using them in a restaurant setting, but there were a lot of folks around here smoking them in small batches. I came up with the idea to try them in a cream sauce, which you see a lot in Norwegian cuisine. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out and put it on a pizza.”
The pizza, which pairs the alewife sauce with pickled red onions and fresh kale grown on site, was a bit startling to visitors who were not familiar with the fish.
“Once people saw it on social media it was like, ‘OK, now I need to try it.’ You know, kind of like a dare,” McNeil said. “Once they tried it, they realized it’s actually something we put some thought into, and some of them really look forward to it each year.”
The pizza frequently sells out on late spring weekends, when it is in rotation on the Odd Alewives menu. While it has made for a good bit of promotion for the restaurant, John sees it as more than just a quirky addition to their lineup. The business’s name is two-fold: a nod to the regionality of the fish—the word “medomak” is Abenaki for “place of many alewives”, and the Medomak River goes right through the heart of Waldoboro. Secondly, it’s a tribute to the women throughout history who were called alewives, and who ran taverns and brewed beer.
“These fish bring attention to climate change and also to the local culture, and those are two things that are very important to us,” McNeil said. “There are a lot of people here working hard to harvest and smoke these fish, and it was our chance to highlight that for people who come to the farm.”
While the McNeils have found a way to connect their guests to the alewives, environment, and midcoast culture, another area chef sees great potential in the fish as a backbone for many of his recipes. August DeLisle, along with his wife, Torie, owns Woodhaus Farm and Butchery in Waldoboro. He grew up in the midcoast and has worked in a number of restaurants nearby. And, he has experimented with alewives in a number of ways.
“I’ve dabbled with a lox-type flavor profile in my sausage, using smoked alewives and pickled red onion,” DeLisle said. He, like Richman, is reminded of the ways cooks throughout Asia use similar fish. “I’ve wanted to make a Garum fish sauce with the alewives, and have always thought about trying them in a ramen broth.”
DeLisle feels that the fish do not yield enough meat to make it worth his time to try and feature them as a main ingredient, but he is glad to see them showing up more and more on the culinary scene.
“They are pretty cheap, local, and about as sustainable as any seafood can be,” he said. “And they have historical roots in the area. Maybe it’s the story. It feels like successful menu items are all about a good story.”
While many chefs face an upstream battle trying to help their diners assimilate to the alewife’s unique flavor and texture, Richman sees that the tide is slowly turning in favor of alewives as a culinary staple.
“The thing that’s exciting for me every year is that more people seem to want to eat them. I don’t plan too far ahead. It’s more intuitive—what I’m interested in at the moment and what else is around. I don’t have firm plans for how they’ll be used on the menu this spring, but I’m sure they will in a few different ways.”
Here in New England, the rivers provide us each year with an opportunity to try out a truly unique fish. Maybe we should find out why all the lobsters around here find alewives to be such good eating.
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Occasional contributing author Sean Graves is the office manager at Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors. He lives in Northport, Maine, with his wife, daughter, and two hounds.
A Spring Fish Dish
When alewife harvest season comes this spring, try Sam Richman’s very simple recipe for grilled alewives.
Ingredients:
- Fresh alewives (scaled or unscaled; the scales will be crispy and delicious according to Richman but can also be easily removed after grilling).
- Salt & pepper
- Lemon
Preparation:
- Put the alewives whole (or cleaned) on a grill and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Take them off the grill and squeeze lemon over the top.
- Use your hands to pull apart the fish and eat as much as you can.
Tip:
- Using your hands, rather than utensils, is a great way to work around the tiny bones and get the most meat out of the fish as possible. Many of the alewives will be full of roe, similar to that of shad roe, which is highly desirable and fairly expensive, so this is an added bonus.
Richman compares dining on alewives to eating ribs: “Literally picking the meat off the rack of bones. That to me is really enjoyable,” he said.
