A Place of Magic
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. became the first African American to serve in the U. S. Congress (1945 to 1971) representing the 22nd congressional district, which included Harlem. Powell also served as pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, perhaps the most politically powerful African American congregation in New York City. Both of Powell’s parents were born and raised in Virginia. “I was born more than a half century ago, when [a] black stove was a place of magic where the coal fire always glowed and from which good things came,” writes Powell. Often his mother would make codfish cakes served with “baked beans cooked all night long on the back of the stove with plenty of black molasses on top and hunks of salt pork inside.”
Codfish Cakes Recipe
Ingredients
3 medium-sized potatoes
Salt and pepper
2 cups shredded codfish
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons butter
Strips of bacon
Instructions
The fish cakes are best when mixed the night before and allowed to
stand until time to fry them for breakfast. Boil the potatoes until soft.
Moisten codfish in cold water. Drain well and pick out all bones. Add
butter, salt and pepper to taste, then the egg, and beat all together until
very light and fluffy. This mixture should stand overnight, covered.
Pan-broil bacon strips for each person to be served. When crisp, remove
bacon and keep the fat hot. Mold the fish mixture very lightly into
round flat cakes and fry on both sides in this hot fat.
Crosby Gaige, New York World’s Fair Cook Book (New York: Double Day, Doran and Company, 1939)
