When the explorer Bartholomew Gosnold arrived at the Cape of St. James in 1602, he was so taken by the abundance of the fish there that he renamed it Cape Cod. Within years, New England soon cemented itself as a global leader within the fish trade, and some four centuries later Boston still owns its reputation as a seafood town. There’s something about the chilly, high-salinity North Atlantic waters that just produces excellent fish—and any local would admit that no visit here is complete without getting a lobster roll, chowder, or at the very least some fried clams.
That being said, local food experts know that seafood, much like produce, also has a degree of seasonality. Certain fish are more readily available—and in some instances, taste better—at certain times of year.
“Don’t get me wrong, lobster rolls and fried clams pay the rent,” said chef Jeremy Sewell, owner of the seafood-focused restaurant Row34, which has locations in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood, Cambridge, and now the nearby suburbs of Burlington, Massachusetts and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. “But what people don’t always understand is that, just like a farmstand in the summer when you expect to see corn and tomatoes, with seafood there are certain times of year when you’re more focused on certain things.”
The first factor contributing to seafood’s seasonality is, surprisingly, a human one. Winter is prime season for shellfish and ground fish, in part because those species don’t require fishermen to venture too far from shore in New England’s unpredictable winter weather. In the warmer, more pleasant months, you’ll see fishermen venture many miles off-shore, sometimes even overnight; in the colder months, they tend to go out-and-back in a single day. For that reason, it’s more common to see hake, monkfish, flounder, haddock, and shellfish in winter, whereas fish found further offshore (tuna, black bass, tilefish, striped bass) are more available in the summer months.
“People don’t go to the grocery store and think about the seasonality of pork, chicken, or steak. When you walk up to a seafood counter, it’s different. Depending on the time of year, the cod might be from here, or it might be from Iceland,” said Sewell.
The second factor contributing to seasonality is that those extra-cold winter waters have an “invigorating effect” on the catch, according to local fisherman Larry Trowbridge, owner of Snappy Lobster in Scituate, Massachusetts. Many fish from New England tend to spawn in the winter, so this time of year is when they’re at their most, ahem, invigorated. “The catch also doesn’t need to be iced down like it does during the summer,” said Trowbridge—meaning that the cold weather causes less breakdown in the fish as it makes its way from the dock to your plate.
All of this isn’t to say that lobster rolls and fried clams aren’t still worth your while in winter. Much like traffic on Storrow Drive, or it raining on a summer weekend, certain things in Boston are dependedable. But if you’re here in the colder months, we invite you to sample some of the food scene’s more inventive seafood dishes—ones that really capture the seasonality and local flavor of our region’s winter bounty.
