Though the word (phrase, really) and the definition would lead one to think of it as a result of the traditional Catholic prohibition against eating meat on Fridays, it’s more prosaic. Just a surfeit of the item in question in a particular place. Though I do like the idea that beef is far preferable to fish that is implied by the nickname.
Albany beef n.
Etymology: < Albany, the name of the capital city of New York State + BEEF n., in reference to the abundance of the fish in the waters of the Hudson River near Albany
U.S. Now hist.
The flesh of the sturgeon, used as food.
Neh 