A Review of the Literature
If asked to name the national dish of Britain, the average person is likely to say, “fish and chips,” but he or she might be wrong. It would all depend on the criteria used to determine the national dish. If popularity is the yardstick, then fish and chips would miss the mark, since each year in the UK it is outsold by hamburgers, fried chicken, pizza, and Indian and Chinese food (Alexander, 2009, n.p.). But if cultural identity and national pride are the measure, then fish and chips is likely to win hands down (Zaino, 2013, n.p.).
Surprises of this sort are one of the main fascinations of studying gastronomy. Its practice involves an interplay among those who source and prepare food, and those who consume it. While famous chefs and food writers can start a trend, it is the love of the public that ultimately determines a national dish, and love does not live by sales alone. Public preferences and perceptions are influenced by a host of issues and those tend to change over time. In the case of fish and chips, there are five main factors that have influenced the dish’s popularity and preparation throughout its history. The first four are the economy, convenience, technology, and cultural identity. These factors do not work in isolation. Each overlaps and interacts with the others, and underlying all is one, critical driver of food preferences and dietary changes— the most important factor, human migration. The history of fish and chips starts there.
Human Migration
There is no clear line by which we can trace the beginning of fish and chips as a dish in England, but there is some agreement regarding the first few places where commercial sales of fish and chips started. Sometime in the 17th century, it is thought that Jewish refugees fleeing oppression in Portugal and Spain brought with them the idea of frying fish. By 1839, when Charles Dickens referred to a “fried fish warehouse” in his novel, Oliver Twist, the food was generally served with a starch, either bread or potatoes. The idea of frying the potatoes probably came from the France-Belgium region. Alexander (2009, n.p.) notes that chips may have been invented as a substitute for fish, which were hard to obtain in winter, when the rivers froze. As an alternative, it may be that housewives cut potatoes into fish shapes and fried them.
Around 1860 a Jewish immigrant named Joseph Malin had opened a fish and chips shop in East London. It is a matter of debate as to whether he opened the first ‘chippy’ (English slang for a fish and chips shop) or whether a fellow named John Lees beat him to it. One way or another, it is reasonably certain that by 1863 Lees was selling fish and chips from a shack located in Lancashire, at a place called Mossley market (Castelow, 2013, n.p.).
Another group that got in on the act was Italian immigrants. One story goes that as they passed through towns in Britain and Ireland they noticed crowds clustered around the chip shops. Sensing an opportunity, they began to put down roots and open their own chippies. Another version goes further, claiming that Italians from Venice actually invented fish and chips and brought the dish with them when they emigrated (Philipson, 2015, n.p.). This assertion came to international attention when the city council of Rome replaced Italian pasta dishes with fish and chips in the lunchrooms of local school children as part of an “EU menu upgrade.” Naturally, this sparked lively debate, including in Ireland, where people of Italian ancestry still comprise a major part of the fish and chips industry. They even have organized representation through a business guild called the Irish Traditional Italian Chippers Association (2017, n.p.).
As the British built their empire through the 18th and 19th centuries, they also built a global market for fish and chips. By this time the dish was firmly established in the homeland, so it was natural that British seamen, explorers, and entrepreneurs took the dish with them to their colonies. Once it gained a foothold in a foreign land, it was usual for fish and chips to be adapted to local customs and cuisines, diversifying the ways that fish and chips is prepared and creating distinctive versions of the dish.
Today, if you order fish and chips in Ireland, your fish is likely to be fried in a batter that contains a good shot of Guinness (Irish Central 2016, n.p.), but if you’re in Yorkshire, only a local brew is acceptable for “real” fish and chips (Tartt 2015, n.p.). Beer batter is big in the U.S. too, but so is a range of gastronomic practices that might appall those who value what they think of as “traditional” fish and chips. For instance, the New York Times recently featured a recipe for, of all things, baked fish and chips (Clark 2016, p. D2). To make matters worse, the Times recommended horseradish sauce as an accompaniment, rather than the malt vinegar (or sometimes ketchup) that is traditional in Britain.
The availability of fish stocks also plays a role in the adaptations of fish and chips recipes. Wherever the British once ruled, one is likely to find a distinctive way of preparing and/or serving the classic, along with variations in the type of fish used. Order fish and chips in Australia and you will probably be eating shark, rather than one of the more traditional white fishes from the Atlantic Ocean (Evans, M. 2014, n.p.). While this might give pause to the Brits, as well as to Americans and Canadians, Aussies argue that their version of fish and chips surpasses anything one might find in the UK, Ireland, or anywhere else (Edwards 2015, n.p.). Referred to as ‘flake’ in Australian gastronomy, experts and food critics down under claim that shark is superior to the cod or haddock that for centuries dominated cuisine along the Atlantic. In England, cod still does dominate, comprising just under 62 percent of all fish and chips sold (Seafish.org, n.p.). Levin (2016, n.p.) quotes a wholesale fish seller in Melbourne, John Christopoulos, who put it plainly: “Fish is the most important component [of fish and chips] so put your local [chippy] to the test and ask where the product is from. The minute you suspect it might not be ANZ (Australia/New Zealand) seafood, run. Just run.”
Economy and Convenience
Christopoulous also points out that the high price of Australian seafood today is a main reason that some chippers in his country hide substandard, processed and frozen product
This wasn’t always so. In fact. one of the main reasons for the popularity of fish and chips throughout the centuries was its low cost and easy availability. In the 18th and 19th centuries, fried fish and potatoes were sold along the docks and in industrial areas, where working men had only a short time for their noon meal, and also had a short supply of money (Lee 2014, n.p.). Fish and chips supplied a good portion of protein in a tasty, convenient package.
That package was usually made of old newspapers, shaped into a cone for easy carrying. This was a cheap and ingenious way of selling fast food well before McDonalds and other multi-nationals popularized the term. Men would perch on a piling alongside the quay to talk while they ate, then just toss the paper away. This newspaper wrapping became a tradition, which persisted up until the 1980s, when policymakers began to worry that consumers were being poisoned by the ink that was running off the paper into the grease on the food (Big 2009, n.p. and Anon. 2007, n.p.). Consumers still complain about losing the newspaper, as evidenced by several food blogs, such as one that appears on the reputable food site, Chowhound (Grey, 2010, n.p.). Of particular interest on this topic is a rather long article in the Daily Mail sardonically entitled, “For Cod’s Sake: British Tradition of Eating Fish and Chips from Paper Using Fingers Facing Ban by Council Killjoys” (Evans, S.J. 2014, n.p.).
However it is packaged today, the fish and chips industry has a problem that is way beyond old news, and that is the reality that the once-great schools of cod, haddock, and other white fish are no more. Nations are fighting over the stock that remains, to the point that treaties are being drawn up to apportion fishing rights in certain areas (Freud 2004, n.p. and Vasilogambros 2016, n.p.). Today, an essential part of the economic equation is sustainability, and while the fish shortage might be partially ameliorated through clever applications of technology, it will likely take decades of international cooperation and smart management before stocks bounce back, if indeed they ever do.
Nevertheless, fish and chips continues to offer an economic ladder for those who are industrious and eager to work their way up. This is evidenced by an article in The Star (Khuzwayo 2013, n.p.), a South African newspaper whose headline proclaims, “Black Entrepreneurs Net Big Rewards with Fish & Chip Co.”
Technology
Technology may or may not prove key in saving fish and chips in its traditional form, but it most definitely played an important role in the initial spread of the meal. First, there was the technology of fishing itself. which reached industrial proportions in the 19th century to become a mainstay of the economies of most nations on the North Atlantic. Today, fish from the North Sea comprise important sources of income for the Scandinavian nations and of course Britain, particularly Scotland (Brocklebank 2015, n.p.).
However, the industrial scale of fishing has moved from being a blessing in the 19th and early 20th centuries to something of a curse here in the 21st. Commercial trawlers and other floating factories are responsible for decimating fish species such as herring and have made a considerable dent in all other fish populations. While fish farming has boomed to fill in some of the income lost by fishing in the wild, the taste of farmed fish is different, and by most expert accounts, a good deal less satisfactory, than many people are used to (Weight 2015, n.p.).
The methods of food preservation have advanced over time as well. Salting, for instance, was a major way of preserving fish, including for travelers. Levy (2014, n.p.) notes that the invention of a reasonably priced commercial fryer made it possible for small, mom and pop chippies to proliferate, creating a thriving small business category.
Improved, faster methods of human transportation also abetted the growth of the fish and chips industry, making it ever easier for people not simply to emigrate, but to return home for visits. This was supplemented by faster, more reliable forms of communication, as well. So today an undergraduate student in, say, New York can easily stay in touch with her family in Shanghai via broadband and telephone connections.
Cultural Identity
Being the social animals we are, people share recipes, spices, and local gastronomy practices with family and friends, who disperse them further by using the latest technology to post their preferences online. Entire websites, television channels, food blogs, books, and videos have created a global preoccupation with food, resulting in a competitive, impassioned contest among ethnic groups, nations, chefs, and cooking schools, over the best techniques for growing and preparing our food. This is certainly true of fish and chips. All of the various ideas, and the cultural exchange that results, create a type of national or cultural pride in one’s cuisine and cooking traditions. Nostalgia and a feeling of ownership play a role in this as well, which is one reason we see complaints when, for instance, the American Martha Stewart (2013, n.p.) presumes to declare that her recipe for “Irish” fish and chips is perfect to serve on St. Patrick’s Day.
At the global level, there is considerable variation over which country is most identified with fish and chips. The top two contenders seem to be England and Ireland, but Australia and some regions of the United States are also in contention (Wongkaew 2016, n.p.). Scotland stakes a plausible claim to owning fish and chips as well (Brocklebank 2015, n.p.). In the U.S., the dish is sometimes referred to as a “fish fry,” rather than the name used most often in other parts of the world. Some places in Briton still call the dish a “fish supper,” although that term seems to be applied far less frequently these days than it was in the past (Anon. 2013, n.p.).
The Irish connection may have originated in Northern Ireland, as many of the news stories on “the best” fish and chips tout chippies in, for example, Belfast, yet identify the restaurant’s location only as “Ireland.” So it may be more correct to consider fish and chips made in Northern Ireland to be English, as opposed to Irish, however that might arouse political ire in some.
One factor that may partially account for the popularity of fish and chips in Ireland and Northern Ireland is religion. Nearly 85 percent of Ireland is Roman Catholic and up until 1984 the religion required adherents to abstain from eating meat on Fridays (Baibieri 2011, n.p.). Exceptionally devout Catholics also abstained from meat on Wednesdays. The natural alternative to meat was fish, which was plentiful and relatively inexpensive. Even today, decades after the Church relaxed its Friday prohibition, people across Ireland and the UK—Catholics and many Protestants alike—continue the practice of eating fish on Fridays. Once a habit is ingrained, people tend to follow it, whether or not it is a religious requirement (Baibieri 2011, n.p.).
In recent years, as immigrants from Pakistan and the Middle East continue to settle in the UK, gastronomic practices around fish and chips may need to be modified to accommodate the requirements of Islam. Braverman (2014, n.p.) recounts an incident where a man poised to order dinner in a Scottish chip shop asked if the batter contained beer. “Yes, of course. This is Scotland,” the proprietor is reported as replying. The man then left the shop without making a purchase because, he said, Islam prohibits the consumption of alcohol. Prior to writing the story, Braverman consulted with a local imam, asking if the fact that the alcohol burned off the fish during cooking would make the food acceptable. The imam thought not, which would seem to portend changes in the batter recipe if a chippy hopes to count Muslims among its customers.
Yet another impact that migrants have had on the fish and chips dish is found in the increasing fondness among Britons for Indian and Chinese food. As noted previously, fast food entrees from these two cuisines now outsell fish and chips by a considerable margin. Also of interest is that some of the traditional ways of preparing fish and chips have expanded to accommodate the hot and spicy flavors introduced by Asian immigrants. In addition to, or as a replacement for, the malt vinegar and tartar sauce served in the past, one now finds hot sauce offered as the table seasoning of choice, particularly in ethnic Asian neighborhoods.
Although fish and chips is clearly an international dish, not necessarily native to the British Isles (West 2006, n.p.), many Britons feels quite proprietary toward it. The same is true for Australians, Canadians, Irish, Americans, Italians, South Africans, and probably many other ethnic groups and nationalities the world over, each of which prefers their version of the dish. Everyone has his or her particular preference—flake or flounder, cod or skate, beer batter or cracker crumbs, baked or fried, and on and on.
And that’s just the fish. Something similar holds true for chips, right down to what we call them. Jack (2010, n.p.) is miffed that these days some English children refer to chips as “french fries” and blames this apostasy on the influence of McDonalds. Bell (1999, n.p.) isn’t troubled by the terminology, but then again she writes about the food scene in Paris, where foodies tend to think that every tasty dish is inherently “French.”
McNaughton (n.d., n.p.) and Malone (2014, n.p.) assert that chips must be cut in a certain way, thick and chunky, then fried in hot lard. Woolever (2013, n.p.) disagrees about the lard and she might know best, coming from Ireland, the home of the potato. She suggests frying chips in a combination of duck and pork fat to yield a super crispy chip that is like puffed air on the inside.
These mostly friendly arguments extend to the way that fish and chips is served as well. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Davidson (2012, n.p.) offers a tongue-in-cheek account of a member of Parliament (MP) who complained about the way his fish and chips were served in the members’ dining room. It seems that the chef had taken to serving the dish in a metal bucket, which the MP believes make the chips soggy by retaining steam. Once the steam condenses into droplets of water, it soaks through the chips, making them soft and decidedly unappetizing. The MP complained to the management, requesting that it return to the previous practice of serving fish and chips in a constructed tower, one assumes somewhat like in the game, Jenga. The tower allows air to circulate among the chips so that the steam dissipates and the potatoes stay crisp.
So what does it all mean? That whether it is currently the biggest selling dish or not, fish and chips will probably be around for a good deal longer, providing a savory, crunchy treat for anyone who is looking for something relatively wholesome that can be eaten on the go. The dish has held people’s attention and aroused our passions for centuries, and it gives no indication of releasing its hold on us any too soon.
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