fish and chips

fish and chips, classic dish of the British Isles, consisting of battered and deep-fried fish, usually cod or haddock, and french fries.

Fish and chips, the latter the British term for french fries, is a meal ubiquitous throughout Britain and Ireland, with local variations not so much of the main ingredients but of their accompaniments. In England the typical condiments used on the fish are salt and malt vinegar, while in Scotland the call is often for “salt and sauce,” that being malt or white vinegar mixed with a sweet savory brown sauce that resembles Worcestershire sauce and is used to season bacon sandwiches and fried breakfasts. Tartar sauce is more commonly found in England than in Scotland or Ireland. In Ireland the typical accompaniments are lemon wedges for the fish and ketchup for the chips. Everywhere, a favourite accompaniment to fish and chips is the dish called mushy peas, marrowfat peas that have been boiled to a near paste.

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However, all these local variations are provisional, as every fish-and-chip shop will more likely than not offer all these ingredients along with curry sauce and brown gravy. Those shops are abundant. According to a national trade association, there are more than 10,000 of them in the United Kingdom, with many more outlets in pub kitchens, and nearly a quarter of Britons eat a meal of fish and chips at least once a week.

This is an understandable source of despair for nutritionists: fish and chips may contain an abundance of vitamins and minerals, but both main ingredients are also deep-fried in oil that often contains unhealthy saturated fats. For all its traditional popularity, however, according to a 2016 study by the U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, fish and chips consumption has lost significant market share in recent years to other takeaway items such as pizza and kebabs.

Fish and chips has long been considered a working-class food, and its origin coincides with the apogee of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s. It is believed that the fried fish component draws on a culinary style introduced by Sephardic Jews who arrived in England after being expelled from Iberia in the late 1400s and early 1500s; the tradition of battered fried fish was long established among them, possibly because the fish could be cooked before the Friday Sabbath and leftovers consumed cold the next day without violating religious strictures. In whatever case, fish cooked “in the Jewish manner” was a popular street food in London.

It is wildly believed that Joseph Malin, a Jewish immigrant from Belgium—where fried potatoes were and are popular—was the first to pair the two foods, opening a shop in East London in 1863 after selling them on the street for a time. There are contending stories that dispute the Malin origin, including one that attributes the dish to a vendor near Manchester, but all date the origin of fish and chips to that era, after which taste for the dish quickly spread. One fish-and-chip shop in Yeadon, near Leeds and Bradford, was open from 1865 to 2016 and billed itself as the oldest in the world. Today fish-and-chip shops can be found not just in Britain but around the world, particularly in English-speaking countries.

Apart from being a fast-food favourite, fish and chips is also typically served as a Friday meal, in schools for lunch and at home for dinner. The dish was among the few foods that was not subject to rationing during World War II, since Prime Minister Winston Churchill held that fish and chips was good for the nation’s morale and even a contributing factor in defeating Nazi Germany.