Break those mythological cooking rules! Cheese and seafood DO go together, even on pizza.

Last week, I unleashed upon you a white pizza with clams and bacon. The response has been all kinds of enthusiastic.
 
I had a different response from Peter Reinhart, whose recipe I’d adapted by adding bacon. (He offered a hearty endorsement of the added pork product, by the way. Should you wish to see the original blog post, it is here.)
 
In his reply to my post, Peter said, “I don't know where the aversion to cheese and seafood started.”
 
As often happens (since I’m a contrarian), I’d already been thinking about that fish and dairy “prohibition” for some time.
 
And it suddenly seemed like the right time to blast that seafood and cheese nonsense out of the water.

Above: the clam and bacon pizza that started all this

The history of no-cheese and seafood is seasoned with all kinds of historical ridiculousness and apocrypha along with a few tidbits of actual sense.
 
(None of it comes from a Scott Conant diatribe on the Chopped judging panel. And we’re saving Mr. Conant’s raw-onion aversion for another conversation.)
 
 
A pox upon a world without cheese and seafood together!
 
Just imagine!
 
That would be a world without New England Clam Chowder, tuna melt, lobster mac & cheese, or anchovy pizza. The Frank Pepe New Haven white clam pizza is world famous and has been around for close to a century. 
 
Though I admit, on the chowder front these days, I’m exercising a preference for the Rhode Island version. That’s a “clear” chowder with no dairy involved.
 
And a sidebar: I feel like the fun-size state’s Portuguese inhabitants, who were likely responsible for that dairy-free chowder, had a good idea. But they really stir the pot when they sometimes add tomato. The red chowder is a heresy for Yankees. Heresy! It’s easily a more vehement disgust than anyone harbors for pineapple on pizza.
 
But I digress.
 
 
You may have heard that Italians do not mix fish and dairy.
 
The common wisdom is they believe most fish is too delicate and the flavors clash or are overwhelmed.
 
But they make an exception for anchovies, which they pair with hard-aged cheese.
 
And the Ligurians grate Parmesan on spaghetti alle vongole, or spaghetti with clams. (Why do I so love clams?)
 
Of course, involtini di pesce spada flies in the face of all that anti fish & cheese sentiment: thinly sliced swordfish is rolled around a mixture of breadcrumbs, capers, caciocavallo cheese, pine nuts and raisins.
 
(I know people who would become violent over the raisins.)
 
But all this brouhaha is nothing new.
 
 
A philosophical aversion to fish and cheese was voiced by the 4th-century BC Greek-Sicilian poet, Archestratus.
 
Archestratus was known both as a cook and a comedian. (And apparently, a comic chef was a common figure in certain plays of the time.)
 
But in the first-ever cookbook, inspired by Archestratus and written in Greek by the Sicilian Mithaecus, there are instructions to prepare the ribbony bandfish known in Italy as cepola (tania in Greece) by discarding the head, rinsing it, slicing, and adding olive oil and [GASP] cheese!
 
Digging through his work, I’ve found places where Mithaceus recommends that, “Sauces of cheese or herb pickles are added to inferior fish,” or how a particular fish one should “anoint with plenty of cheese and oil.”
 
But one should be presenting the best fish with “No cheese, no fancy nonsense.”
 
Such a fine decree: No fancy nonsense!
 
And it seems Plato considered Mithaecus a foodie and, as such, thought him a waste of time and a distraction. Plato apparently spits upon Mithaecus in his dialogue, Gorgias. (I’ve glanced at the text, but have been unable to find the mention. There’s probably only so much one can accomplish when one’s only research library is Project Gutenberg. I’ll take “Free Greek Translations In E-Book” for 100, Alex!”)
 
 
Elsewhere in the world, there are time-honored and unexplained wives tales about fish and milk being a toxic combination.
 
Seriously. I’d never heard this. But search for even a few minutes, and you get evidence of wives-tale wisdom that milk and fish is poison.
 
These beliefs are even further entrenched in the Sanskrit medical philosophies of Ayurveda.
 
Fish and milk are incompatible because they have opposite effects on the body.
 
Fish is animal flesh and milk is a vegetarian animal product.
 
Milk has a cooling effect on the body and fish has a heating effect.
 
The combination creates an imbalance leads to bodily chemical changes.
 
And at the end of the day, there’s zero modern science behind all this.
 
And really, who doesn’t just love Pepperidge Farm cheddar goldfish?
 
 
And without dairy-rich New England clam chowder, we would not have you, dear chowderhead.
 
Chowderhead!
 
Generally considered an antiquated insult meaning “idiot,” the word “chowderhead” is just fun.
 
But from whence doth it arise?
 
Many years ago, in wintertime, Cape Codders would make a big pot of chowder. They would then place it in the unheated pantry adjacent to the kitchen. They’d place the end of a length of rope in the pot, and close the door.
 
Overnight, the chowder would freeze. In the morning, you’d pull the chowder lump out of the pot by the rope, and hang it from a beam in the pantry.
 
As you needed chowder, you’d go into the pantry with a saucepan and chip off frozen chunks of chowder into the pan to heat.
 
Over time, the chipped-at mass of frozen chowder began to resemble a human head.
 
Hello, chowderhead!
 
Impossible without milk and seafood.
 
Not that I have an opinion.
 
Bottom line: anything is possible.
 
Just respect the ingredients, try to make good choices, and don’t have a prejudiced palate.
 
And if you want that recipe for white clam pizza with bacon from last week, it’s at Food.com. All you have to do is follow Peter’s recipe, and add par-cooked bacon to the pizza before launching it in the oven.
 
The rest is a salty, savory, herby delight of cheese and seafood.
 
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