Masgouf: Iraqi Fish

The famous fish dish eaten along the Tigris.

By Claudia Roden for MyJewishLearning
Reprinted with permission from The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, published by Knopf.
When Jewish families in Baghdad had big parties like weddings, which usually took place in the gardens of houses, they hired specialists to come and prepare masgouf. The specialists were the boatmen (ballamchi) on the river Tigris who brought in the fish every evening and cooked it on the riverbank in Baghdad. When the boats came in at around 9:30 in the evening, the boatmen went up to people sitting in the riverside cafes to take orders and proceeded to clean and cook the fish on the bank. By the time they were ready, the men in the cafes were drunk on arak and beer. In the summer, the riverside was dotted with the flames of brushwood fires against which were silhouetted the fish roasted upright.

Among the happiest memories of Baghdad Jews are the picnic parties on the river Tigris. On hot summer nights, parties set out in the high‑prowed ballam (boats) with a supply of bread, fruit, and cold drinks, singing and playing the oud and tambourine.

The boatmen towed their catch behind by strings through the gills. They stopped upriver and started brushwood fires while they prepared the fish. They would cut the fish down the back, clean it, and rub it with salt. They hung each fish upright on four pointed stakes planted in the ground, cut side towards the fire, 14 inches (36 cm) from the fire, so that they cooked slowly while the topping of chopped onions and tomatoes was prepared with condiments and spices. When the fire burned down, the fish were put directly on the embers and covered by the juicy topping. For wedding parties in private gardens, the boatmen were hired to cook the fish in exactly the same way as they did on the riverbank.

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