FISHBONE - LINGUISTICS AND SUPERSTITIONS

LINGUISTICS 

A fish bone is a bone is a bone, depending on what language is being spoken. Unlike English, many other languages from Europe to South India have one word for a fish bone and another for animal and bird bones. In France, when I referred to fish bones as les os, I was politely corrected. French fish bones are les arêtes.
Yet languages are complicated and littered with linguistic booby traps for the unsuspecting. When I was serving the Roast Monkfish to my French friend François, I was careful to refer to the fish’s grande arête. Immediately he corrected me. “Ce n’est pas une arête, c’est un os.” It seems that the monkfish is not only an exception when categorizing fish, its bones, at least in France, are an exception too. English has its fish bone quirks too. Whalebone, the flexible, elastic material that forms the upper jawbone of baleen whales, is really a type of horn. Whales use it to filter their food, but for many of us it is linked to underwear. Since Elizabethan times, whalebone has been used to stiffen dresses, collars, and, most notably, corsets. It is extremely flexible along its length, as well as from side to side, which is why it was so popular in the manufacture of corsets and umbrellas.
By the early twentieth century, however, the price of whalebone had become so prohibitive that it was often recycled from discarded corsets and old umbrellas. Eventually whalebone was replaced by the cheaper alternatives of flexible steel and heavy-duty plastic. Corsets made today for the fashion, costume, and fetish markets no longer contain whalebone, although the term boning is still used to describe their shaping. The flexibility of whalebone made it popular with medieval knights, but they weren’t wearing corsets. The plumes on their tournament helmets were not always feather, but instead whalebone crafted to resemble plumes. The flexibility and strength of these bone plumes helped deflect their opponent’s blows. Whalebone may not be true bone, but fish scales are. Fish use them as armor. Scales cover the fish in an overlapping flexible shield.
Most of these protective scales are transparent, but some are tiny mirrors, which reflect the light. It is these scales that attract our attention in the fish market, but they perform exactly the opposite role when the fish is alive. Their reflective qualities render the fish difficult to see, effectively camouflaging it against any predators.

SUPERSTITIONS 

Fish scales serve their owners well but are messy and annoying for the rest of us. However, some people believe that they are a portent of money. Each New Year’s Eve, we continue my husband’s family tradition of placing a few (well washed, of course) fish scales in our wallets. I can’t promise this works, but I’m yet to be reduced to singing for my supper. The scales, however, probably bring me more embarrassment than cash. I usually forget about them and then in mid-January, I have to explain why my paper money has fish scales stuck to it. Many fishermen are superstitious about where and when to catch fish. Before the technology of sonar detectors, those whose livelihood depended on fish followed many complicated rituals and taboos. Some thought the way you ate your fish was crucial to the success of your future catch, and that you must always begin eating the fish from the tail, working your way toward the head.
If you attacked the head of the fish first, you risked turning the school of fish away from the shore and there would be no catch. Even more disastrous was to turn your fish over while eating it: that symbolized the capsizing of the fishing boat. This fear is still held by fisherman from China to Central Europe, who, when eating fish, carefully lift the bone out rather than flipping the fish.

Excerpts from the book "Bones Recipes, History, and Lore" by Jennifer McLagan, Harper-Collins, 2005. Compiled, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.