Pollack

Forget Jackson Pollock. Forget Neal Pollack. Pollachius pollachius is where it's at. Pollack — the fish.

If you've ever had Van De Kamp's Tenders or Fish Sticks or Crispy Battered Fish Fillets, then you've eaten pollack, also spelled pollock. Gorton's Batter Dipped Fish Portions, Grilled Fillets with Garlic Butter, Au Gratin Baked Fillets — all pollack. Fisher Boy Qwik Bake Crunchy Fish Portions? Mmm, mmm, pollack. Even Big Y, a regional grocery store chain in New England, puts pollack in its seafood salad, an acne-laden teenager with a price gun told me on a snowy February afternoon.

Pollack, or "sea salmon," as it is affectionately known, is the most prolifically fished fish in the world. You can find it in almost any body of salt water in the Northern Hemisphere, from the Stellwagen Bank off the coast of Massachusetts to the Sea of Japan. Pollack is not a delicacy — it's a workhorse. Not good enough for sushi, it's perfect for fish paste products like Kamaboko, a rubbery heat-pasteurized Japanese style fish cake.

Of course, there's always fish pudding, an example of which is the Norwegian mixture of pureed pollack, heavy cream, breadcrumbs, salt and cornstarch (if thick, fishy-tasting slop does not seem all that appetizing, add blueberries).

While pollack is an excellent source of protein, vitamin B12 and selenium, it is even more useful as a source of words for Scrabble. The pollack is a pelagic gadoid, meaning it is an ocean-dwelling member of the cod family. So the next time your mother cooks up fish sticks on a cookie sheet, make sure to say, "You know what, mom? You make some damn good pelagic gadoid."

Perhaps one of the most interesting stories about pollack is a myth about an Eskimo out fishing in the Bering Sea. She pulled a pollack from the depths, and when she cut it open to fillet it, she found a Life-Saver-shaped jade in its stomach. When she returned to the mainland, she made the stone into a necklace. Thereafter, whenever she returned to the Bering Sea, she only had to lean over the side of her boat, dangle the jade necklace above the water, and pollack would leap from the ocean like salmon over a dam.

Other than that, there's not much more interesting to say about pollack. So I made up a limerick.

I once knew a girl who fished pollack
To cure her baby of colic.
She fed him fillets
And fixed his malaise,
Then out of his crib he did frolic.

— Ben Welch (bwelch@english.umass.edu)